Welcome to Green Days!

I've had more blogs than I'd like to admit, but this one's different. It's my first blog dedicated solely to all things Hulk. This is nothing more than a space for me to shoot the shee-ite about all the Hulk-centric thoughts in my head. Sometimes I'll write reviews of Hulk floppies or GNs, and sometimes I'll just get long-windy about such stirring subjects as "Doc Samson: Why the rifle?" and "Betty: Did she come back to life after coming back to life and then dying, did she just come back to life after the first dying, or is she still dead and just likes to swim?"

I'm not one for looking around for previews and news because I just don't have the time. A great place for that, though, is Hulk News. Nate occasionally gets some preview pics, including covers (in fact there's one of The Incredible Hulk #98 there right now), that either haven't been distributed to other news sites yet or haven't been posted at those other sites. Good stuff.

If I notice that kind of news, and it excites me enough, I'll post it if I have the time. If I read on Newsarama that Dale Keown has agreed to pencil Hulk for 5 years, I'll post it (after I change my underwear). On the other hand, if I find out that Taco Bell is giving away plastic figurines of the Hulk in a tractor, well, okay, yeah I'd probably post that too just for the funny (after I change my underwear). Seriously, most of the time, I don't know about that kind of stuff until everyone else does. I just found out today that the third volume of Hulk Visionaries: Peter David had been released. I'm so out of the loop, and never get scoops, what I'm in doesn't even end with oop (except right before I change my underwear). I don't surf much. I have a few sites I like to go to, and I stick to those for the most part.

One of the main reasons I'm starting a blog dedicated to Hulks, She-Hulks, Hulklings, and doctors with rifles, is, surprisingly enough, financial. While Hulk has always been my favorite comic book character, I've broadened my horizons quite a bit over the years. The problem is that I just don't have the dough to buy single issues anymore. I wait until the paperback or hardcover collections come out, and even then I usually only buy about one a month. I kept blogging after going reprint-only, but it just felt useless. Other bloggers were batting critcisms back and forth about the latest issues of Infinite Crisis or the new Push Man collection, and I was talking about a ten-year-old Thor tpb that had been made redundant anyway when all the issues it reprinted, and then some, were collected again in a Visionaries trade.

My savior was this year's Free Comic Book Day. My girlfriend and I attended our first FCBD in 2004 at my local shop, Earthworld, and vowed to attend every year. I had to break the promise this year, because I'm a full-time student and had the first draft of a 15-20 page paper due the next day, along with two other papers due during the coming week. Because she's the best girlfriend in the world - even better than Jarella and I've already warned her about walls and gravity - Nicole went to FCBD anyway and brought me home a present: The Incredible Hulk #92-#94, the first three installments of "Planet Hulk." As I weeped as only a loyal Hulkling can, I said, "You realize, of course, you've opened Pandora's Box. I have to get ALL the 'Planet Hulk' single issues now." She agreed that getting one issue a month, for the duration of "Planet Hulk," wouldn't break the bank. She doesn't realize yet that this will likely continue until after "Planet Hulk," but since she has an Internet connection and I gave her the url for this site, she will realize soon enough. She tends to skim, so there is hope.

You will no doubt notice that I've already got a couple of reviews up. These were both originally posted on different sites. The Young Avengers review is from my other blog, Superheroes, etc., while the Hulk Visionaries review (slightly altered from the original), was first posted at Comic Book Galaxy. In the next few days, I'm hoping to have at least three new reviews up. Right out of the gate will be reviews of The Ultimates, Vol. 1 HC, House of M: The Incredible Hulk, and The Incredible Hulk: Prelude to Planet Hulk. Shortly after, maybe a review of Defenders: Indefensible. And since this is a blog for Hulkiness, the new reviews for books like Ultimates and Defenders (which, for some reason, include other characters) will be reviewed with an eye specifically on the Hulkorificiousness.

After that, I want to take a look at "Planet Hulk" so far, a look back at Mantlo's "Crossroads Saga" (as it's come to be known) and - since so many fans were quick to name "Planet Hulk" a clone of "Crossroads" - maybe do a little comparison/contrast of the two. I'd also like to take a look at John Byrne's first run on Hulk and maybe talk about a few random guest appearances and single issues.

Hope you'll come along.

I'm still wearing the same underwear.