Found that image over at ENewsInternational the other day and I thought that it looked awful familiar. I dug out my The Incredible Hulk TV Series DVDs and looked through the intro real quick and turned up these two images.

Kudos go out to Occasional Superheroine for beating me to the punch on posting the relation to the old TV show. I guess they’re really playing the movie as an homage to the TV show, especially since they’re including the “Walking Man” theme. Now, if they’d only include the Disco Version of the Hulk Walking Man theme, there would be no reason not to see the movie.

Evidently there’s an amazing showing happening in Los Angeles at Gallery 1988. Running through February 1st, “Under the Influence: A Tribute to Stan Lee” features artwork inspired by the Marvel Comics creations of Stan Lee. Check out Collider.com for a nice set of photos from the show.

If you like what you see, it might be worth keeping your eyes on the Gallery 1988 store and the G1988 Crazy4Cult site, as they’ve got tons of great art for sale and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the Marvel stuff eventually shows up there.

UPDATED:Here’s a blog that has great, large, and clear photos of most of the work that’s in the exhibit. Stan Lee Tribute Artwork.

Wizard Entertainment’s website wizarduniverse.com has a nice interview with director Louis Leterrier. He reveals a few details about the 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk” starring Edward Norton, Tim Roth and Liv Tyler but the best revelation is near the end of the interview.

Is there any way you can get that sad “walking away” music from the end of each episode into the film?
LETERRIER: Actually, yeah. We got the rights so that’ll be in the movie. The composer is Joe Harnell. “Dah dah dah…” Let me play it for you. Hold on, I’ve got it. Listen. [Plays sad Hulk music] That’s the one! [Laughs]

There you go. The “Lonely Man” Theme by composer Joe Harnell will be in the 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk.” How cool is that?

Here, you can see that Carter and I were attempting to recreate the cover to the MARVEL MONSTERS: DEVIL DINOSAUR special that Marvel Comics put out a few years ago. I think we did pretty good, especially that Hulk.

Here’s the original.

The Incredible Hulk has always been a favorite of mine. I remember watching the live show with Bill Bixby when I was a kid. The 1980′s animated series that aired with Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was also pretty cool. My parents even got me a subscription (one of many) to the comic for a few years. It was around issue 300 and Dr. Strange had exiled the Hulk to the “Crossroads.” It was a mystic realm where the Hulk could finally be at peace, but of course that didn’t last.

The Hulk at peace. That’s all he ever wants and that’s why I knew he wouldn’t get it in Grek Pak’s run on the Hulk last years, entitled Planet Hulk. Several of Earth’s heroes sent the Hulk to an uninhabited planet, but his ship went off course and he landed on a planet ruled by an evil tyrant and was forced into gladiator style combat. Not to ruin it, but things went well and then fell apart, leaving the Hulk madder than ever before and on a return trip to Earth to settle with the Heroes(?) that sent him away.

That led to World War Hulk. It was a 5 issue mini-series that had the Hulk attacking those he thought responsible for his recent misery (Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, Black Bolt). The final issue came out yesterday (Nov. 14) and in standard event fashion, it reeked of “nothing will be the same ever again.”

The images at the top show a red Hulk, now appearing in a title by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Ed McGuiness. The track record of those two leads me to believe that we’ll see maybe four issues of that series next year, rather than the regular 12. Also, why take Pak off the series. Unless he wanted off, he was doing some of the best writing the Hulk has seen in years and maybe the best since Peter David finished his run. Finally, the red Hulk…Seriously. The gray version was cool, because it tied to his origin. Adding another color to the Hulk seems like a cheap gimmick to me.

The last issue of the Hulk series will be issue #112. The red Hulk will appear in a new series simply titled Hulk and start over with #1. Picking up at #113, the Incredible Herc (or just Hercules) will likely pick up on lingering plots points from the last several issues of the Hulk and feature the Greek demi-god Hercules. He’s a fun character but not one that’s ever successfully carried a series. Look for that to last 12 issues or less.

Finally, big spoiler here. There will be a third Hulk related title added to the mix. Skaar, Son of the Hulk looks like a continuation of the Planet Hulk story. I’ve not seen any confirmation yet, but I guess this is where Greg Pak will end up, seeing these characters were his creations.

The idea of the Hulk having a son is an ok one, but the way they left that plot at the end of the Planet Hulk story leaves a lot of explanation forthcoming in the new series. It almost seems like a cheat. Everything the Hulk was mad about turned out to be false. To convenient for me.

With the new Hulk movie coming out in 2008, I expect we’ll see more and more Hulk related comics and tie-ins coming up.

A big thanks to Matt for leaving a comment on my previous post about Confessions of a Superhero. Somehow I missed the website for the film (therealsuperhero.com). Besides being incredibly well done, it’s got a good bit of content. Just enough that you want to read it all, but not so much that it puts you off. Check out a few extra video clips and photos. Definitely worth a visit if you were at all interested in the movie.

So here’s another post hoping that the film winds up playing sometime in the Nashville area.

Do I need this? Not at all. But do I want one? Definitely a yes. Truthfully, you would never see it because I’m a “shirt out” kind of guy, but it’s still cool. Pick yours up at Amazon.

Hulk Disco Theme

Maybe not, after reading an article at DarkHorizons. Ang Lee says he will likely change the entire script and concept. Will it still be The Hulk, probably not? The problem with film adaptations of comics is that the source is not respected. It is changed too much beyond what needs to be changed.

The reason the X-Men worked so well is because director Bryan Singer respected the source material and changed only what made sense. Only time will tell. Hopefully it will be for the better, but I just don’t know. After the X-Men, everyone is gung-ho (old GI Joe character) to make the next big comic book film.