Comic Pitch #2 The Incredible Hulk
This one was not as hard as I wanted to try to make it at first. My biggest hangup was the fact that the one story I have always wanted to do with the Hulk, was pretty much the same idea as World War Hulk. Hulk getting so sick and tired of being hunted and treated like crap that he finally just goes on the offensive against the whole Marvel Universe. Oh well, you cannot recycle that one anytime soon.
You all know who the Hulk is, Doctor Bruce Banner got belted by Gamma Rays and turns into the Hulk when he gets pissed off.
My initial idea would probably work better as a miniseries or side series than a regular book, but I am pitching this as a continuation of the title. My version needs something to change whatever is the status quo on the Hulk book right now to give me a clean slate. So in the lead up to my main storyline, I am going to have to do some housecleaning. First we relegate most of the Red Hulk stuff to the "Hulk" title, it is still popular enough they won't want to get rid of that character yet. We might use Red Hulk in the climax to my cleanup issues, but not in a way that disturbs the continuity of that title.
The cleanup/clean slate run will have Banner basically finding THE CURE to the Hulk after all these years. Test after test shows this will work. He will finally be free of the changes. There is some problem with this cure. It's side effect will trigger a change into the Hulk. During this final change the Hulk will finally burn out all the Gamma Radiation. Banner's only real cure will turn him into a human Gamma Bomb. The only way it can work is if his Hulk persona is confined and controlled during the final transformation and if the radiation can be contained.
Using prepaid phones and anonymous emails to transfer information proving the cure will work, Bruce convinces Doc Samson to help him once again. Samson reluctantly uses his professional connections with the Thunderbolts in order to provide a secret and secure location to hold the Hulk and use the powers of the Radioactive Man to contain the Gamma explosion that will result. Banner accepts the offer considering it a win/win situation even if he is captured by government agents, so long as the Hulk has been erradicated.
Of course you know it all goes wrong. Moonstone of the Thunderbolts attempts to murder Banner on orders from Norman Osborn (Green Goblin for the laypersons) by altering the cure to be lethal to Banner. Banner's metabolism fires up a Hulk transformation to fight off the lethal injection. The cure itself kicks in and makes the Hulk unstable and leaking deadly amounts of Gamma radiation. After a huge fight with Samson and Radioactive Man, The Hulk escapes the Thunderbolts HQ. We spend the next two issues throwing everyone at the Hulk to try to contain him and/or direct him away from a major population center. Depending on the storyline for the present Hulk book, the climax should probably feature a battle between the Red Hulk and the Incredible Hulk on the original grounds of the Gamma testing site that spawned the Incredible Hulk in the first place. Explodey. Ka-Boom! The Red Hulk is left barely alive in the HUGE crater from the explosion and all that is left of Banner is some stretched and ripped purple pant material.
That was just the lead up to the regular story! Four issues max to tie off any connections the classic Hulk has to what is going on in the general Marvel Universe. When the next issue ships, we get reintroduced to the persona of the Hulk known as Joe Fixit. In a return to the late 80's run of Hulk, the Hulk is now Grey again (due to having released most of his radiation), he once again transforms at night (or can halt his transformation back into Banner by avoiding sunlight), and is a superpowered enforcer for a casino in Las Vegas (thanks to Joe Fixit's rep still being powerful in town). The series will become very cinematic in scope, trying to invoke thoughts of various Vegas movies and television shows. In fact my plans for the first storyline would involve a high action caper in which Joe Fixit will have to stop a "heist film" style plot involving several z-list Marvel villains trying to knock over the casino Fixit works for. There would be quite a few peeks into Marvel's underworld and how it interacts with "super-villians". I don't want a total rehash of Peter David's run so we are going to try to balance more "true crime" and mob movie style into the mix. Perhaps even do a fill in issue or two that do a satire on the CSI and procedural TV shows and certainly one stand alone story done as a homage/parody of Frank Miller's Sin City. The central focus will be a smarter, smart assed, Grey Hulk who is being morally ambiguous in a very glamorous city that the normal Marvel Universe never uses. Marvel seems to let the characters curse more, we might take some advantage of that without being overtly vulgar.
I'd probably go with a rotation of artist on each storyline (I want someone to get Eric Powell committed to a few issues!) as the mood of an arc would change the style of art we would want to use. While an overall continuity would be established over the run through some slight sub-plots, it won't be bound by it, that way we might be able to attract new readers every 3-4 issues with new arcs and artists as we try to establish the Incredible Hulk as a sinfully fun guilty reading pleasure.
Thanks to philippos42 for the suggestion. The first pitch in this series can be seen here. The list of all the pitches that have been suggested are here.
Come Back Next Time True Believers! When thekamisama Presents: TEEN TITANS!
You all know who the Hulk is, Doctor Bruce Banner got belted by Gamma Rays and turns into the Hulk when he gets pissed off.
My initial idea would probably work better as a miniseries or side series than a regular book, but I am pitching this as a continuation of the title. My version needs something to change whatever is the status quo on the Hulk book right now to give me a clean slate. So in the lead up to my main storyline, I am going to have to do some housecleaning. First we relegate most of the Red Hulk stuff to the "Hulk" title, it is still popular enough they won't want to get rid of that character yet. We might use Red Hulk in the climax to my cleanup issues, but not in a way that disturbs the continuity of that title.
The cleanup/clean slate run will have Banner basically finding THE CURE to the Hulk after all these years. Test after test shows this will work. He will finally be free of the changes. There is some problem with this cure. It's side effect will trigger a change into the Hulk. During this final change the Hulk will finally burn out all the Gamma Radiation. Banner's only real cure will turn him into a human Gamma Bomb. The only way it can work is if his Hulk persona is confined and controlled during the final transformation and if the radiation can be contained.
Using prepaid phones and anonymous emails to transfer information proving the cure will work, Bruce convinces Doc Samson to help him once again. Samson reluctantly uses his professional connections with the Thunderbolts in order to provide a secret and secure location to hold the Hulk and use the powers of the Radioactive Man to contain the Gamma explosion that will result. Banner accepts the offer considering it a win/win situation even if he is captured by government agents, so long as the Hulk has been erradicated.
Of course you know it all goes wrong. Moonstone of the Thunderbolts attempts to murder Banner on orders from Norman Osborn (Green Goblin for the laypersons) by altering the cure to be lethal to Banner. Banner's metabolism fires up a Hulk transformation to fight off the lethal injection. The cure itself kicks in and makes the Hulk unstable and leaking deadly amounts of Gamma radiation. After a huge fight with Samson and Radioactive Man, The Hulk escapes the Thunderbolts HQ. We spend the next two issues throwing everyone at the Hulk to try to contain him and/or direct him away from a major population center. Depending on the storyline for the present Hulk book, the climax should probably feature a battle between the Red Hulk and the Incredible Hulk on the original grounds of the Gamma testing site that spawned the Incredible Hulk in the first place. Explodey. Ka-Boom! The Red Hulk is left barely alive in the HUGE crater from the explosion and all that is left of Banner is some stretched and ripped purple pant material.
That was just the lead up to the regular story! Four issues max to tie off any connections the classic Hulk has to what is going on in the general Marvel Universe. When the next issue ships, we get reintroduced to the persona of the Hulk known as Joe Fixit. In a return to the late 80's run of Hulk, the Hulk is now Grey again (due to having released most of his radiation), he once again transforms at night (or can halt his transformation back into Banner by avoiding sunlight), and is a superpowered enforcer for a casino in Las Vegas (thanks to Joe Fixit's rep still being powerful in town). The series will become very cinematic in scope, trying to invoke thoughts of various Vegas movies and television shows. In fact my plans for the first storyline would involve a high action caper in which Joe Fixit will have to stop a "heist film" style plot involving several z-list Marvel villains trying to knock over the casino Fixit works for. There would be quite a few peeks into Marvel's underworld and how it interacts with "super-villians". I don't want a total rehash of Peter David's run so we are going to try to balance more "true crime" and mob movie style into the mix. Perhaps even do a fill in issue or two that do a satire on the CSI and procedural TV shows and certainly one stand alone story done as a homage/parody of Frank Miller's Sin City. The central focus will be a smarter, smart assed, Grey Hulk who is being morally ambiguous in a very glamorous city that the normal Marvel Universe never uses. Marvel seems to let the characters curse more, we might take some advantage of that without being overtly vulgar.
I'd probably go with a rotation of artist on each storyline (I want someone to get Eric Powell committed to a few issues!) as the mood of an arc would change the style of art we would want to use. While an overall continuity would be established over the run through some slight sub-plots, it won't be bound by it, that way we might be able to attract new readers every 3-4 issues with new arcs and artists as we try to establish the Incredible Hulk as a sinfully fun guilty reading pleasure.
Thanks to philippos42 for the suggestion. The first pitch in this series can be seen here. The list of all the pitches that have been suggested are here.
Come Back Next Time True Believers! When thekamisama Presents: TEEN TITANS!