X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Year 2, Day 170 - 6/19/10 - Movie #537

BEFORE: Another big superhero movie that I've been trying to get to for a while - let's see how they trash Marvel Comics continuity in this one...

THE PLOT: Logan sets out to avenge the death of his girlfriend by undergoing the mutant Weapon X program and becoming Wolverine.

AFTER: What a great opening sequence, true to the comic titled "Wolverine: The Origin" from a few years ago, depicting him as a young boy named James Howlett in the 1800's, who pops his (bone) claws for the first time after a family tragedy. This is followed by a credit sequence showing him and his half-brother, Victor, fighting in the Civil War, World Wars 1 + 2, Korea, Vietnam...hey, there are at least three more good movie ideas in there somewhere!

When Wolverine showed up in "X-Men", with no memory of his past - well, this is the past that he forgot, or was made to forget. He was part of a black-ops team along with Victor Creed, John Wraith, Agent Zero, Blob, Bolt, and Col. Stryker (who later turns up in X-Men 2). Wolverine quits the war business and works as a lumberjack (I guess a healing factor helps with those pesky chainsaw accidents), but of course he ends up getting pulled back into the game.

This film takes some of the best pieces from Wolverine's comic-book appearances, like the "Weapon X" storyline from Marvel Comics Presents, the Silver Fox story from Wolverine Vol. 1, #50, and the various "Team X" flashbacks seen over the years, and tries to stitch them all together, and mostly it succeeds. Complaint #1: the film is structured almost exactly like a video-game, with Wolvie facing heavier and heavier "level bosses" as he progresses - Blob, Gambit, Sabretooth. Complaint #2: Wolverine's origin gets intertwined with that of Cyclops, Deadpool, White Queen, etc.

However, the action sequences are completely, completely SICK. In the good way. Seeing superheroes take down helicopters, tanks, etc. - it's every fanboy's dream, the comics come to life (or close enough, anyway). Great fight choreography and stunt sequences.

And this really exemplifies the point I was making the other day about superheroes. The dichotomy of Wolverine is that he's an animalistic killer, but he kills only the bad people - so what does that make him? Does might make right? It's OK to kill killers, but he becomes a killer himself in doing so. Comic-book irony...

The only thing missing is the part of Wolverine's origin where he goes to Japan and fights ninjas and samurais, but it looks like that will all be in the sequel to this prequel. And if THAT does well, can an Alpha Flight/Dept. H movie be far behind? Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Starring Hugh Jackman (who keeps getting older as Wolverine gets younger), Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed, Danny Huston (last seen by me in "30 Days of Night"), Dominic Monaghan, Ryan Reynolds (as Wade Wilson/Deadpool), and Will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas)

RATING: 9 out of 10 pick-up trucks (near-perfect - but see complaints #1+2 above)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Year 2, Day 169 - 6/18/10 - Movie #536

BEFORE: I've tried to link to this movie half a dozen times, the initial plan was always to start my superhero chain with this film. I could have linked to it from alien movies, disaster movies, astronaut films and films about explorers - but my plans never worked out that way, fortunately the list is very fluid. There's apparently some confusion over the title - IMDB calls it "4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" - and I guess "4:2" was too confusing.

THE PLOT: The Fantastic Four learn that they aren't the only super-powered beings in the universe when they square off against the powerful Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus.

AFTER: My history with the Fantastic Four goes back to the John Byrne era, the first issue I owned was #241 - and the next issue was #242, which started a storyline where the Fantastic Four faced off against Terrax (he was Galactus' herald after the Silver Surfer quit), and then against Galactus himself. But like this film, that storyline was a reference to the introduction of Galactus and the Surfer, in FF #48-50. Mixed of course, with the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman in FF Annual #3. Yes, my geek cred is strong.

Factor in the return of Dr. Doom, and you've got yourself a slam-bang movie. As an extra bonus, the Fantastic Four accidentally develop the ability to switch powers, which leads to circumstances both tragic and comic. I've got no problem with the casting of Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom, except for one thing - he's got no accent. Dr. Doom is supposed to be from an Eastern European country, but here he just sounds like he comes from California. How can they get the Thing's voice so right and Dr. Doom's voice so very, very wrong?

And Galactus only appears as a giant cosmic cloud, not the purple-helmeted giant from the original comics. But I think this is a nod to the new Marvel Ultimate Universe, where Nick Fury is black and Spider-Man is still a teenager.

But I have to say I really enjoyed this one. It's good to see my favorite heroes in movie form, with lots of action, and pretty decent special effects. Seeing the Human Torch chase the Surfer around New York was a particular highlight.

And I love it when my movie-watching links to the outside world - right after watching Reed and Sue get married, my parents and I drove down to Cape Cod for my cousin Tom's wedding...

Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans (recently cast as Capt. America, but I don't see it...), Michael Chiklis, Andre Braugher, with Laurence Fishburne as the voice of the Silver Surfer, and cameos from Brian Posehn and Stan Lee (as himself, a wedding guest)

RATING: 7 out of 10 tachyon pulses (I bet some people would rate this an apropos 4, but I have a soft spot for the FF)

The Meteor Man

Year 2, Day 168 - 6/17/10 - Movie #535

BEFORE: Had dinner over at my sister's place, spent some time with my niece + nephew, and learned that "Cookie Starts With C" (and that's good enough for me, apparently) and that one has to "Put Down the Ducky" if one wants to play the saxophone. Then I went out bowling so I was out in a sports-oriented crowd when the Celtics lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Tonight it's another movie about an urban superhero combating crime at the street level.

THE PLOT: One night Jefferson Reed gets hit in the chest by a souped-up chunk of meteor. Now his friends and family want him to protect their community from the dreaded Golden Lords.

AFTER: In terms of tone, this one mostly plays it straight. Not much camp, unless you count Meteor Man's ridiculous costume, or the strange superpower of being able to read an entire book just by touching it - it just seems like a way to give Meteor Man any superpower the writers want, just by getting him to touch a particular book.

Jefferson Reed (Robert Townsend) sets out to protect his neighborhood in Washington DC (or is it Baltimore? Philly?) from a drug gang called the Golden Lords, who all have blond hair and indoctrinate children like they're the Hitler Youth or something. I know it's a movie, but I doubt that in real life that organized crime is this....well, organized. I just don't think that every criminal happens to know every OTHER criminal as part of some international conglomerate.

This movie does expose a strange dichotomy of superheroes - who preach a message of truth and justice, but mostly end up resorting to more violence to take down criminals. Usually it's the hero with the strongest fists that wins, which doesn't seem to jibe very well with a message of fair play and non-violence. This ties in with the strange ending of this film, in which Meteor Man is saved from one gang by two gangs he helped before, with more guns. So...guns are good? Gangs are helpful? Police are ineffectual? It's a strange message for the kids. I understand him getting help from the downtrodden citizens and the dogs, but getting help from gangs seems a bit off-message.

Also starring Eddie Griffin, Robert Guillaume, James Earl Jones, Marla Gibbs, Don Cheadle (as a gang leader), Sinbad, Frank Gorshin, Luther Vandross (as another gang leader!), Tiny Lister, John Witherspoon, Wallace Shawn and Bill Cosby.

RATING: 5 out of 10 bad hairpieces

Blankman

Year 2, Day 167 - 6/16/10 - Movie #534

BEFORE: Day 2 in Massachusetts - I bought comic books at The Outer Limits in Waltham, since I'm away from my regular haunt (Cosmic Comics in Manhattan), followed by pizza next door with Andy + Dave, where we debated various superhero films, and the validity of my numerical ratings system.

Well, the Spirit was a mystery man fighting crime in an urban environment, so that leads me to this film.

THE PLOT: A simpleton inventor becomes a superhero with a bulletproof costume and a low budget.

AFTER: Well, this was difficult for me to slog through - a true test of my endurance. I'm not usually into the comedy of the Wayans Brothers, and again I've got a problem with the tone. Once again, it's a superhero movie that doesn't know whether to play it straight, or go for the laughs. You just can't do both successfully, you've got to pick one or the other.

Damon Wayans plays Darryl Walker, who's even geekier than Clark Kent - he doesn't even have superpowers, just homemade gadgets and a bulletproof costume made of a fabric he accidentally invented. After his grandmother gets killed by mobsters while volunteering for a mayoral candidate, he puts the suit and the gadgets together, and adopts his new identity as the crime-fighting Blankman.

I get where they were going with this - what if Superman or Batman grew up in the Chicago slums? Or...every man has the ability within him to stand up for what's right, blah blah blah. But throw in too much bathroom humor, and too many dick jokes, and your message can sort of get lost.

I also found that one too many times, whenever there was a tight situation, Blankman had already invented the perfect mechanical solution to a problem that he never could have anticipated. I get the references to Batman's utility belt, but come on...

Also starring David Alan Grier, Robin Givens (as the Lois Lane-type reporter/love interest), Christopher Lawford (son of Peter), Jason Alexander (as a wheelchair-bound tabloid TV producer), Lynne Thigpen, with cameos from Jon Polito (Hollywood's go-to character actor for funny mobsters), Arsenio Hall, Greg Kinnear and John Moschitta Jr. (the guy who used to talk really fast in those FedEx commercials in the 80's).

RATING: 3 out of 10 stinkbombs

The Spirit

Year 2, Day 166 - 6/15/10 - Movie #533

BEFORE: I rode the Amtrak Acela up to my parent's house in suburban Mass. - I've got a couple of events coming up this weekend, so I figured I'd head up a few days early to get some R&R. Fortunately my DVDs are very portable, and I can stay current while NOT recording movies at home, which helps reduce the size of my list. I found some beers that I left here at Christmastime - it's like a gift from my past self - so I put together a Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout with some coffee ice-cream from Mom & Dad's freezer, making a nice beer float...I must remember to thank myself for that.

Speaking of the past, last night's film featured Nick Fury, a character who's a throwback to the WW2 era - so let's follow that with another retro character, based on Will Eisner's famous newspaper strip "The Spirit", which I admit I'm not very familiar with.

THE PLOT: Rookie cop Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City.

AFTER: In another nifty coincidence, the new Nick Fury is played by Samuel L. Jackson, who also appears as the main villain, the Octopus, in this film.

The recurring question is, should a comic-book superhero movie play it straight (like "Superman" or "The Dark Knight") or go for crazy schtick (like "Superman IV" or "Batman and Robin")? This film ends up trying to be serious, but somehow, inevitably, the camp factor got dialed up to 11.

The Spirit is a revived cop who also has emormous charisma with the ladies - but he doesn't have any idea where he got his healing powers - sort of like the Wolverine of the 1940's. But wait, what year is this film supposed to take place? The fashions and cars look like they're from the 1930's or 1940's, but there's modern technology like cell-phone cameras. So, which is it? Or did the filmmakers think that the audience wouldn't be interested in a story set in the past?

The Spirit is such a non-entity, though, that Samuel L. Jackson essentially steals the show as the more dynamic Octopus - but Scarlett Johansson as his cohort, Silken Floss, seems like she would rather be anywhere else. And the REAL eye candy is Eva Mendes as the Spirit's teen girlfriend, who grew up to be an international jewel thief and seductress. Damn, she's got it goin' on. But her character's name is Sand Saref - a little joke for all the comic-book letterers in the audience, which they punch up about 12,000 times. People simply don't walk around referring to everyone by their first and last names - it's like that character named "Barbara Dahl" in "Spy Hard" - all right, we get it already! Another female character, named "Plaster of Paris" is almost as poorly named...

The whole film is mostly monochromatic black and white, with the occasional splash of red, any time blood gets shed, or the Spirit wears a red tie - much like the color scheme of another comic-book film, "Sin City". This film ends up feeling like a combination of "Sin City", "Watchmen" and "Pulp Fiction" - right down to the mysterious glowing box...

Also starring Gabriel Macht (who?) as The Spirit, Dan Lauria (the father from "The Wonder Years"), Louis Lombardi (the large FBI agent from "The Sopranos"), Eric Balfour (from "Six Feet Under") and character actor Richard Portnow (Howard Stern's dad in "Private Parts")

RATING: 6 out of 10 sewer grates

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Year 2, Day 165 - 6/14/10 - Movie #532

BEFORE: Something a little patriotic for Flag Day - since I don't have a copy of that awful Captain America movie they made back in the 90's, but this is probably just as campy as that though. As any Marvel Comics fan knows, SHIELD is an acronym, just like the Patriot Act (look it up...) or any good defense agency. In the comic books, it originally stood for "Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division". But in more recent comics, it stands for "Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate". However, in the recent Marvel movies (like yesterday's "Hulk" film), it stands for "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division". Either way, it's a cool acronym.

THE PLOT: Nick Fury is brought back to fight the menace of Hydra after exiling himself in the Yukon since the end of the Cold War. The children of the former Hydra head, Baron Von Stucker, have taken charge of the terrorist organization.

AFTER: A nice coincidence - this morning's film "Planet Hulk" featured Death's Head soldiers, and this film features something called the Death's Head virus.

Starring as Nick Fury - David Hasselhoff? It seems like an odd choice at first, but he actually plays Fury as kind of old and weather-beaten, not like his roles on "Knight Rider" or "Baywatch" - however, this movie ends up being just as campy as those shows, just in a different way. Clearly this was filmed as a TV movie (or a pilot that didn't get picked up), since the spots for commercial breaks are evident - but the Encore WAM! Channel ran this without ads, almost like a real movie.

Since he's not on this season of "America's Got Talent", I have been missing the Hoff - sort of - it's weird that there's a character named Agent Pierce in this film - so when he addresses him, it's almost like he's talking to Piers Morgan on that talent show's panel.

As a comic-book fan, I was a bit confused since Baron Von Strucker's daughter goes by the name of Viper here - in the comic books she and her brother were collectively known as Fenris, and Viper is a completely different female villain. Also, she died in the comic books and her brother survived (most recently known as Swordsman in the Thunderbolts comic), but here her brother bites it, and she lives on.

I wish I could say this was fun to watch, but it wasn't really - and it wasn't even that close to camp or parody. Unfortunately, they played it straight, and it wasn't exciting or action-packed enough to survive with that tone. Like "The Mask" and "The Shadow", this film appeared just before the "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" movies caught on big-time - so it suffers for being just a bit ahead of the curve.

Hmmm...this was written by David S. Goyer, who also wrote the screenplays for the "Blade" films and "The Dark Knight". Interesting...

The role of Nick Fury is now being played in the Marvel movies by Samuel L. Jackson, who's set to assemble the "Avengers" into a team in time for a 2012 release. Fury has been in need of an update, since his history began in World War II comics, leading the Howling Commandos. Even if you assume that he was a Sergeant in WW2 at the age of 25, that would still make him 78 years old in a 1998 movie, and 90 years old now. In the comic books, he's kept young by something called the Infinity Formula, but it's starting to stretch the bounds of believability.

Also starring Lisa Rinna, and no one else I recognized or ever heard of.

RATING: 4 out of 10 refrigerated trucks

Planet Hulk

Year 2, Day 165 - 6/14/10 - Movie #531

BEFORE: I started reading Marvel comics full-force with the crossover called "Secret Wars" back in 1983, which took all of the main Marvel heroes and villains off to a distant planet, where a cosmic entity called the Beyonder made them fight. It was sort of like an all-star concert, but with comic-book characters - the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Hulk vs. Dr. Doom, Galactus and a bunch of other villains - after that, I was hooked. Soon after that, I bought my first Hulk comic, issue #300, which featured a mindless Hulk against (wait for it) the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man - and the only way the Hulk could be defeated was by sending him off to a dimensional crossroads, where he could hopefully find a place to live, and never threaten humanity again - however, eventually, he returned to Earth. Years later, in 2006, Marvel ran a similar storyline, called "Planet Hulk", where the Illuminati of the Marvel heroes (Mr. Fantastic, Professor X, Iron Man, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Black Bolt and Dr. Strange) tricked the Hulk into boarding a rocket headed to a distant planet...

THE PLOT: The Hulk crashes on the planet Sakaar, is forced to compete in gladiatorial contests, then unites with a group of rebel Sakaarians to overthrow the Red King.

AFTER: Well, it's more or less faithful to the storyline from the "Hulk" comics from 2 years ago, which is generally regarded as one of the better Hulk sagas. Although Earth's heroes intended to send Hulk to a nearly-deserted planet where he could never hurt anyone, something goes wrong and instead he lands on a populated planet with a war-like society. Who's to say, maybe that's the best environment for him after all, because he's really handy in their gladiatorial matches, and teamed with a ragtag group of "Warbound", he ends up becoming the warrior mentioned in their prophecies.

The deviations from the comic book include the absence of a Brood character (an X-Men villain race, sort of like the hive queen from "Alien") from Hulk's band of allies, and the replacement of Silver Surfer in the arena with Beta Ray Bill, an alien who's sort of like a Thor wanna-be. But the essence of the story is the same. No Bruce Banner in this film, though - it took place at a time in the comics where Hulk couldn't (or wouldn't) turn back into Banner. However, Hulk seems to get somewhat smarter over the course of this film, I'm not sure if there was something in the planet's environment that made him smarter, or maybe it was the brain-nanites that helped him understand the alien languages.

There are a lot of story elements here, in fact there's almost too much story to fit into an 80-minute animated film, I have a feeling that some of it had to be left out. And although Hulk finds success in the arena, and eventually love with a warrior girl, the comic books didn't let him enjoy this paradise for very long. Shortly after the events in this film, the planet was almost completely destroyed, and Hulk blamed the heroes of Earth - so he loaded his Warbound into a rocket and went back to Earth for revenge. That storyline was called "World War Hulk", but I guess Hulk beating up on the other Marvel heroes wouldn't really make a great film for the kiddies...

RATING: 5 out of 10 broken swords

The Incredible Hulk

Year 2, Day 164 - 6/13/10 - Movie #530

BEFORE: NOW we're getting somewhere. This is the Hulk sequel from just 2 years ago, with Ed Norton replacing Eric Bana as Bruce Banner. Why they didn't sign the stars of the first "Hulk" movie to 2 or 3-picture deals is beyond me.

THE PLOT: Dr. Bruce Banner, thanks to a gamma ray experiment gone wrong, transforms into a giant green-skinned hulk whenever his pulse rate gets too high. Meanwhile, a soldier uses the same technology to become an evil version of the original.

AFTER: Not exactly a direct sequel to the earlier film, especially with new people taking over in every single role - Liv Tyler takes over for Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross, and William Hurt takes over for Sam Elliott as General "Thunderbolt" Ross. But the action sort of picks up from where the last film left off, with Bruce Banner hiding out in Brazil. He's now working as a laborer/repairman in a factory that makes guarana soda (nice green color...) while searching the Amazon rain forests for some flower or chemical that can cure his gamma-radiation poisoning. He's also studying martial arts, and learning techniques to control his anger (why didn't Banner ever think of that before?) The U.S. Army hasn't given up the search for Banner, though, and they even bring in a specialist to help take him down...

The good thing about being a comic-book fan like me is, I know so much about the characters - so when a character named Emil Blonsky is introduced, I have a good idea where the storyline is going. But this can also be a negative, since I've got high expectations for the story, and I can tell exactly where the movie deviates. Emil Blonsky is supposed to be a Russian agent (in the comics written during the Cold War), but here he's a British soldier (with a Russian name) on loan to the U.S. Army. So why does he wear an American uniform?

Anyway, he jumps at the chance to test a super-soldier serum (possible reference to the origin of Captain America) so he can fight the Hulk. Gee, I can't imagine how that could go wrong at all...

This film starts out pretty slow, since Banner is trying very hard to NOT turn into the Hulk - but come on, you know it's gotta happen, since the film is NAMED after him. Once he turns into the Hulk, some pretty cool action sequences follow - Hulk vs. the Army, Hulk vs. Blonsky, and eventually Hulk vs. the "abomination" that Blonsky becomes.

Lots of in-jokes and references for the long-time fans, from the original "sad, walking away" music that was heard in the old 1970's TV show, to the obligatory cameos by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno (and even Bill Bixby, seen on TV in an old episode of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father")

We've been told that all of the Marvel movie threads are going to converge, with the success of "Iron Man", "Hulk", and the upcoming "Thor" and "Captain America" movies all leading into a super-team movie version of "The Avengers". Throw in Black Widow, Giant-Man, Wasp and Hawkeye and I'll be first in line at the theater - maybe by then I'll be caught up on my list and ready to go out to the movies.

My wife joined me as a guest reviewer tonight, but her comments are mostly questions about why the Hulk always wears giant purple pants, where he buys them, and where they go when he turns back into Banner. They touched on a little bit of this in the film, but clearly it's not enough of an explanation for her. This is just like when we watched "Spider-Man", and she couldn't believe that a bite from a radioactive spider would eliminate Peter Parker's need for eyeglasses. She was fine with the super-strength, the webbing and the ability to stick to walls, but she got hung up on his vision getting improved...

Also starring Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky, Tim Blake Nelson (as another long-term Hulk character) and Ty Burrell in a bit part.

RATING: 6 out of 10 crashing helicopters

Hulk Vs.

Year 2, Day 164 - 6/13/10 - Movie #529

BEFORE: No, that's not an incomplete title - this is a direct-to-DVD animated film that I picked up, and since it's on my shelf, it counts as a movie and it goes on my list. The connection to last night's film is animated green superheroes - and the mention of Loki in "The Mask" turns into a nice little accident.

THE PLOT: Two stories featuring Marvel's anti-hero The Incredible Hulk and his encounters with the X-Man Wolverine and the god known as Thor.

AFTER: After watching this, I'd wager that the idea to merge the two stories into one DVD release came after realizing that neither story was strong enough to release on its own. Both shorts continue the annoying comic-book practice of dropping the viewer/reader into the middle of the story (the "splash-page" effect), then back-tracking to explain how we got there. You know what? People are usually willing to allow for a story build-up, you comic writers don't need to trick us into reading further into the book...

I once had an interview at Marvel Comics - I can't really call it a job interview, since there was no position I was applying for - but a friend wrangled interviews for himself and me, and I ended up in a meeting with Tom DeFalco, who was editor-in-chief at the time, and also the (hack) writer of two Marvel comics, Fantastic Four and Thor. This was a blatant conflict of interest, since as editor-in-chief he was the boss of his own editor, who therefore couldn't properly critique his stories - so they were crap.

I remember him saying something about how "action equals story", and months later I realized this was the point in the interview where I should have corrected him. Obviously there should be more to a story than just action - character development, motivations, story arcs, turning points - but who can blame me, since this guy's comics were ALL action. I think he really believed that if you just include a couple killer fight scenes, you've got yourself a comic book. Technically yes, but it's only part of what you could be doing in the medium.

I bring this up because the first story here, "Hulk vs. Wolverine", is all action and no story. Yes, it's a fanboy's dream to see Hulk battling Wolverine, but do they have to BOTH be mindless berzerkers? The story is loosely based on the storyline of Incredible Hulk #181, the first meeting of the two characters. Most people don't know that Wolverine started out as a minor villain in the Hulk's comic - since the Hulk is sort of an anti-hero, it was easy to turn Wolverine into a hero when he proved to be popular. But after the requisite fight scene, both heroes united to fight the evil Wendigo - who doesn't appear in this film, since cannibalism is a tough sell for a kid's film...

Instead we see the remnants of the Weapon X program, namely Sabretooth, Deadpool and Omega Red, who've never worked together in the comics, to my knowledge. There are also flashbacks to Wolverine's creation in the Weapon X labs, similar to the scenes in Marvel Comics Presents #73-84, the first peek at his origin tale. But there are so many flashbacks here, it's hard to assemble any kind of narrative timeline - another problem common in today's comics. It seems that no one can tell a story in proper sequence any more, or else that's seen as too boring somehow.

I'm assuming this was intended a loose tie-in with "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", which I'm planning to watch next week. My father-in-law was watching that movie tonight while we were visiting, but I tried my best to tune it out, so I wouldn't see the ending of that film before I see the beginning...

The second story here, "Hulk vs. Thor" has a bit more weight to it, as Loki, Thor's evil step-brother, brings the Hulk to Asgard at the time of the Odinsleep, when Thor's father takes a week-long nap to rejuvenate his power, and the realm is momentarily vulnerable to trolls and frost giants. But again, we're dropped into the middle of the story instead of the beginning. (Doesn't anybody here know how to play this game?)

Loki's compatriot, the Enchantress, separates Bruce Banner from the Hulk, and Loki tries to control the mindless beast in order to defeat Thor and thus attack Asgard. But the Hulk, minus Banner, turns out to be more than even a god can control, and Thor and Loki have to find a way to re-unite the man and the monster, and back to Midgard (Earth to you non-Norse people)

More Hulk to follow later today - I'm doubling up by dropping these shorter animated films in as extras in the countdown, because I want to get ahead in the count - since I'll be away for 5 days in July at Comic-Con.

RATING: 5 out of 10 flagons of mead