You Don't Mess with the HULK!!!

[Dominus Digg]

Article

[Nicole]

I loved this movie. I'm really enjoying the building of an actual Marvel universe, rather than one off movies and trilogies.

[Ron]

Total agreement, Nic.

The Incredible Hulk was really sweet. I enjoyed its rollicking "fanboy + mainstream = fanstream" actiony goodness and so did my fam. Of course, if I hear one more person say, "It wasn't as good as Iron Man, but I liked it," I'm gonna kvetch in my mushugona. Talk about victim of your own success. Speaking of which ....

Marvel is really on to something here. The synegesis of technology, vision, and cajones to translate one of the Big Two comics universes from print to the silver (and green - doubly so in The Incredible Hulk's case) screen has been a long time coming, and Marvel is being richly rewarded. Everybody gets that these movies are pretty good and making money at the box office, but there is so much more to it than that.

Marvel's stock is trading at $36 right now - the highest level in the company's history. For an organization that declared bankruptcy in the last decade (check my memory, please - I don't feel like going Wiki right now), not too shabby. Unlike Kmart, they're doing it with a sustainable business model. Not only is the model sustainable, it is enviable. Marvel's old property licensing game (still in effect in some cases - this will result in Wolverine and Punisher: War Journal in the next 18 months) was novel, but I bet those jokers (pun intended) at DC and parent company Warner Bros. were snickering under their collective breath. I mean, what could be more powerful than their own throbbing, massive entertainment vertical, right?

Wrong. Try Blade, which looks like Richard III compared to Superman Returns and Spider-Man, which proved that if you give a man a cape, he'll fly for a weekend, but if you give him a script, some credible actors, and the guy who made Evil Dead 2, you'll make a billion dollars. With the licensing seed, though, they've finally gotten around to rollin' their own, shuffling off the distribution chores to studios and keeping the filmmaking (and phat cash) for themselves.

Smart move. These films are revolutionizing what comic films are bringing to the screen. What, you mean Tony Stark can not only be performed as though he were an actual person, but he also KNOWS ABOUT THE HULK? That's sweeter than sweet. Not only can you make the fanboy's dreams come true, but you can convert the masses at the same time. If they think they're making money at the box office, wait until DVD. And then the sequels. And then, most of all, the crossovers. For every person who has ever salivated at the prospect of Superman vs. Batman or whatever that flick would be, for anyone who's ever speculated on casting for a JLA movie - heck, for anyone who has ever wanted to see a major comic storyline brought to the big screen faithfully, then get your shekels together for Avengers, because that film will guide the course of major comic adaptations for decades to come.

Now, that's fan service.

[Aaron]

Yes. This Hulk Smash! Using a sonic clap to put out a soon to be raging gas fire? Fantastic!! Who was that unbelievably beautiful Brazilian chick from the beginning of the film though?

[Dominus Digg]

Débora Nascimento
Candidate for handmaiden of the Dominion

[Aaron]

Thank you Diggus. You are a god among men, if not a superhero:)

[Hunin]

The informational power of the Intertubes continues to amaze.