So, the Hulk is dead. For now.
I tried very much to be the silent, mature, stoic comic book reader rather than the angry fanboy. Circumstance conspired against me.
I will say, I was relatively chill about the whole thing. Considering. Made one little angry post about Brian Michael Bendis that he'll likely never see and certainly never care about. That's it. I considered doing much more. I considered burning all my comics; all my single issues and all my trade paperbacks. Then, when I calmed down enough to see the undeniable Stupid of that scenario, I considered burning all the comics I owned written by Brian Michael Bendis (the first tpb for Powers and the first two trades for his run on Uncanny X-Men) as well as my Hawkeye trades. Oh yeah, that's right I forgot. I considered burning all the Hawkeye cards in my Legendary deck-building game.
In the end, the most drastic action I took was selling my three-star Hawkeye fighter off my Marvel Contest of Champions app.
That's right. I am Mick. Hear me roar.
The biggest reason was not one of the nerdier, fanboyish reasons you would understandably expect. It wasn't just because they'd killed Bruce Banner. It wasn't because they'd killed him so abruptly, with no glory; no futile but powerful last stand like Human Torch, no politically charged assassination like Captain America, no mutual fisticuffs of destruction like Superman and Doomsday. Shot in the face. With an arrow. It wasn't because I thought he would be dead forever, because I know he'll be back eventually. It wasn't because I knew that with the presence of the "Totally Awesome" Hulk and the impending return of the Red Hulk in this horribly named and likely short lived U.S.Avengers along, now, with Hulk's cousin taking over his name for her own series, that while he was assured to return, that all of this would just delay that return.
It was mainly because his "death" came a week before I was going in for surgery to have cancerous tumors removed from my kidney.
And no, the fictional death of a fictional character had nothing to do with the surgery to correct my very real medical condition.
But, and I somehow doubt my experience is unique here, cancer made death huge in my life. In spite of the fact that every doctor, every medical professional, every person with a right to know anything about the subject was telling me that there was almost no chance that either the cancer or the surgery to uninstall it would kill me, death was huge in my life. I mean, it's cancer. A word most people are afraid to even whisper. Like effing "Voldemort." I am still surprised some times, now that the surgery is over, that I saw the other side of it. And when that's where your mind is, it is difficult for the abrupt and violent death of a beloved character, a character who has meant so much to you he has practically become a totem, to seem like anything but an omen. "You're going to die, Mick." That's what the universe was telling me. That's what I thought.
Well, no, that's what I thought. That's what I felt. I knew it was BS, but there's knowing and then there's knowing, and it was tough for me to get to the latter.
But the worst didn't happen. I'm still here.
So the Hulk is dead. The Hulk is ridiculous. The Hulk is practically naked. Many people will tell you the Hulk is no fun. Just a few weeks ago a colleague at the group blog where I contribute, Trouble With Comics, wrote about how he never understood the Hulk's appeal and I don't blame him for that. I totally get why a lot of people don't enjoy his comics.
The truth is the quality, or lack thereof, of the Hulk's comics mean very little to me. I want his comics to be good. I want his appearances in other media to be good. But nothing changes what he means to me, what he meant to me as a child, or the ways in which my connection with the character have evolved. Laugh at me all you want, but the experiences I've gathered in my 42 years find me in a place where the figure of the Hulk is just as relevant to me as he ever was, if not moreso.
So let Hulkbuster Iron Man sucker punch his way to victory in Avengers: Age of Ultron (as I am fully expecting Thor to do in Thor: Ragnarok since it's his movie), or kill him, or put him on a ridiculous cartoon with the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and yeah, you'll get a passive aggressive text or two from me, but in the end.
The Hulk is dead. Just means the title of this blog is more accurate than it ever was.
