Morning Ramble 341: Blade Runner Meets Hulk
Blade Runner 2049
As far as I know, I’ve never actively watched a Ryan Gosling movie so I suppose this will be my first. I have heard all the gushing and fawning over him for his role in The Notebook though, and I guess I did see him in a couple of Drunk History episodes, but all I can say is…He better not screw up Blade Runner.
It’ll be over 30 years since the first movie became a SciFi classic and I fear that similar to other SciFi sequels (Terminator 2 and Aliens became action films), this one may forgo it’s science fiction credentials to cater to a current day audience. There has to be more to a movie than some gritty, rainy scenes with a hologram or large pyramid to make it a good and credible torch-bearer for Philip K. Dick style story telling. While the trailer looks nice, I just have my reservations. Let’s hope I’m just being skeptical and not prophetic.
Incredible Hulk #4 Part 2: The Gladiator from Outer Space
The second part of issue 4 starts up shortly after Dr. Banner demonstrated his control of the Hulk transformation in part 1. In The Gladiator from Outer Space, the alien Mongu lands in the park and challenges the mightiest human to one-on-one combat and the Hulk accepts the challenge. Sadly, rather than seeing a knock down, drag out fight, we learn that Mongu is just a costume worn by Boris Monguski, an evil Commie (aliens AND commies all in one story). This is the 2nd time the Hulk has faced off against the Commies and this time, they’ve got some new tricks. Along with the Mongu costume, they’ve got a camouflaged mig, a sonic sound gun, and a platoon of soldiers in the Grand Canyon to try to capture Hulk. They of course fail, but we learn a few new things about Hulk: 1) he can catch a grenade and withstand it’s explosion in his hand – pretty cool; 2) he can burrow quickly underground; 3) he can jump creating a tremendous thunderclap upon landing – awesome; 4) his ability to retain his Banner intellect is here to stay and makes him more of a superhero than the monster he started out as in the first couple of issues. Still, Thunderbolt Ross is after him and will do anything to discredit the positive things he does.
I’m not really sure where Marvel is going with Hulk anymore though. At first he seemed to be an extension of the monster stories that were common at the time with the day/night transformation cycles and Thunderbolt Ross wanting to destroy him. But then we see him start helping people out as he saves school buses and people trapped in burning buildings. The monster is at one point controlled by Rick telepathically, but then Banner finds a way to retain his intellect by using a new machine. They just seem to be bouncing around with how they want to portray Hulk and while it seems they like him as a character there’s uncertainty where he fits in. Is he an uncontrollable monster or a brutish hero?
In any case, I liked this portion of the issue much better than the first part and hope that they’ll figure out what direction they want to go with Hulk so there can be some better consistency in the stories. I give this a B- but am still looking for better.