hulk smash expectations.

Wow, 3 entries down and two of them focus on the Hulk.

To celebrate Father's Day yesterday, I took my dad to go see "The Incredible Hulk." We were both thoroughly impressed with director Louis Leterrier's interpretation of Marvel's not-so-jolly green giant. Being the total comic book nerd that I am, I geeked out willfully at the numerous easter eggs and in-jokes. My pops enjoyed the special effects, the action and the talents of Liv Tyler as Betty Ross. He also compared General Thunderbolt Ross to J. Jonah Jameson of Spider-Man fame, saying that they were both meglomanical pricks, or something along those lines. There may be some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution if you haven't seen the film.


You can count me among the few who will admit to enjoying Ang Lee's 2003 "Hulk" film. I didn't mind waiting so long to see the strongest one there is, the origin was done well and once the action kicked in, things were pretty intense. The film had it's problems, it nearly fizzled at it's conclusion with the father/son showdown, but overall it wasn't as god-awful and most made it out to be. The CGI Hulk looked great, as pictured above, and Bana's portrayal of Bruce Banner was solid. Plus, it had an absolutely amazing cast with Sam Elliot as General Ross and Jennifer Connolly as his beautiful daughter and the apple of Bruce Banner's eye. I would have rather seen those folks reprise their roles. William Hurt and Liv Tyler were good but not as effective as their predecesors. Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner this time around and knocks it out of the park. Not to knock on Eric Bana, who did a fine job in the last film, but Norton really embraced the role and it showed.

As ignored as the 2003 film was in this new take, at least they still picked up pretty closely to where Lee's flick ended off. Though this is not really a sequel in the traditional sense of the word, "The Incredible Hulk" only touches on the origin of it's title character and picks up with Banner on the run in Brazil, desperately trying to hold the beast within him at bay.


He fails, obviously, and the Hulk is back and looking better than ever. I think the CGI Hulk looks even better this time around, as technology has only advanced in the 5years since the last film. The plot revolves around Banner running from the U.S. government and General Ross, who is determined to harness whatever is inside of Bruce and use it as a military weapon. Norton does a great job of showing us just how difficult it is for Banner to remain on the run while desperately searching for a way to cure himself of the Hulk. To make matters worse, Thunderbolt uses an experimental super-soldier serum that has been "on ice" since World War II on a Russian born, English bred soldier named Emil Blonsky.

Tim Roth, who just so happens to be one of my favorite actors, nails Blonsky. His character is driven to always improve, no matter what the cost. His determination to be a great soldier eventually turns him into The Abomination. Of course, Blonsky can't become this massive beast all by himself. He ends up gaining the aid of a biologist by the name of Samuel Sterns, who had been trying to help Banner with his Hulk problem. I found all of this to be very cool considering that Sterns eventually becomes one of the Hulk's deadliest foes, The Leader, in the comics. We only see the beginnings of this in the silver screen version "The Incredible Hulk," leaving plenty of room for yet another Hulk flick.


A lot of people complained about how the Abomination looked in the photos and trailers prior to the movie's release. I felt sketchy about it myself, but after watching the movie I must admit being impressed with the new-look monster. His appearance wasn't a huge change and he certainly lived up to his name. And again, the character was built-up incredibly well by Roth which only made the eventual transformation that much more satisfying.

It's a bummer that the end of this movie was more or less shown in the commercials. General Ross drowns his sorrows at a bar when who else but Tony Stark shows up and tells him that "we are putting together a team." As totally amazing as that is, the fact that it was shown all over the advertising for this film took away from the scene's impact. Regardless, this collective Marvel movie-verse is showing tons of potential thusfar as we build towards "The Avengers" movie. I can only hope that we see a group of Avengers trying to stop a rampaging Hulk on the big screen.

Was it as good as Iron Man? I'm not sure it was. But fear not true believers, it was still a smashing good time at the movies.

numero uno.

Welcome to the very first post here at Cyborg Midnight. I'll give you a dollar if you can figure out what that title references. So, seeing as this is my very first entry to this blog, I might as well get the introductory stuff out of the way. My name is Ken, I'm 26-years-old and I'm a nerd.

There ya go. You may find yourself asking, well Ken, what is this thing all about? Cyborg Midnight is simply a place for me to ramble on about my interests. So if you're not into comic books, punk rock and/or horror movies, chances are this isn't the place for you. With that being said, I hope whoever happens to stumble upon this dark little corner of the Internet enjoys what they find here. Chances are, you're going to find reviews on comics, movies and music. You'll probably also find some ramblings about those very same subjects. Who knows what else?



I got my hands on a copy of the King Size Hulk special earlier this week. My copy has the Frank Cho cover, pictured above, but I opened it up to reveal to Art Adams variant behind it. I thought I had a misprinted copy with both covers, and no lie, I geeked out a little bit at having this neat little collectible. I hopped online to figure out if this was a mistake or not. Turns out that Marvel did this with every copy of the book. If the Cho cover was the first one, you would get the Adams one when you opened it and vise versa. Yeah, I felt totally let down.

The story, on the other hand, didn't really let me down. I've only read the Red Hulk half of the book so far, the reprints are up next and I'm pretty stoked that one of the included issues is Wolverine's first appearance. Somehow, I've never read that comic and I can't wait to. But anyways, the first half of the book was fun stuff.

Three stories, all written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Art Adams, Frank Cho and Herb Trimpe. The Adams illustrated story opens this beast off, showing the Red Hulk taking down the Wendigo. Cho does his best to outshine Adam's excellence with a story about She-Hulk's encounter with the Red Hulk. Trimpe drills it home with a tale of the Abomination and his demise at the hands of the big, mean, red killing machine. None of the stories are particulary essential to the reader's understanding of what is happening in the monthly Hulk book, but they were still well drawn, fun reads that helped to enhance the storyline.



I don't get why so many folks bash on Loeb's Red Hulk story. We're only a few issues in and people are calling it the worst thing to happen to the Hulk since Peter David left the book. Everyone is so up in arms that it ruined everything Greg Pak was building with Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, but I say give it a chance. Like I said, we're only a few issues into the story that Loeb has planned. Future issues include the upcoming Red Hulk vs. Green Hulk slugfest and then Thor gets in on the action. How does that not sound fun? Add some great artwork by Ed McGuinness and you've sold me. Sure, it's not a smart as Pak's Hulk and it reads like a Michael Bay summer blockbuster at times but god damn it, it's the Hulk smashing stuff. In the end, that works for me.


As this first post comes to an end, so does the album "Upstairs/Downstairs" by The Ergs! These guys are absolutely great and they are easily one of my favorite current bands. What is not to love about three unabashadley nerdy guys playing pop-punk songs about girls and whatnot? I got a chance to catch them live for the first time about a month ago and it was one of the finest live performances I had seen in a long while. I celebrate their entire catalog, much like Bob Slydell once so eloquently stated about Michael Bolton.

That's it for this time. I plan on doing this a few times a week, so check back sometime soon. Next time I plan on reviewing DC Comics "Salvation Run" mini-series and who knows what else.