New Hulk Show Smashes onto Disney

I’ve discussed both here and in the podcast the various Marvel and DC cartoons I watch with my kids. I’ve also discussed my distaste for some choices – specifically be DC – to keep their animation blocks narrow. It seems that Marvel has shown willingness to widen their block a bit. This weekend they will be introducing a third cartoon to their Disney XD animation set in the form of Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.

Tomorrow morning at 11 AM ET they will be premiering the first two episodes as a two-part introduction to the series. Luckily I have a cable provider that is able to post the first half to their OnDemand library a bit early, so I’ve given it a watch just for you guys.

The Hulk in this show seems similar to the version already depicted in both the Ultimate Spider-man and Avengers Assemble cartoons that run in the Marvel Universe lineup. And the basic premise of this show is that Rick Jones (voiced by none other than Seth Green), one of the Hulk’s and Bruce Banner’s oldest and closest friends (particularly because Rick was the person that Bruce was protecting from gamma radiation exposure when the accident occurred that turned him into the Hulk), is hanging out with the Hulk in his secret desert hideout pushing an idea to improve his public image through a web series showing him doing good. This premise seems to be an excuse for the characters to break the fourth wall similarly to other modern shows like The Office or Parks & Recreation. Ultimate Spider-man does it as well, but in that case it is simply Spidey ‘knowingly’ breaking the fourth wall for asides and depictions of inner monologues and thought processes.

What I found intriguing about the show prior to watching it was how they planned to introduce and explain some of the characters in it. The ultimate lineup in this show is to be Hulk (clearly), A-Bomb, Red Hulk, She-hulk, and Skaar. While Hulk and She-hulk have been around long enough that their story can just be considered long-standing canon, the rest were only introduced in the comics within the past decade and in most cases have complex back stories.

Red Hulk is the easiest as he was introduced in a short arc where it was revealed at the end that he was General “Thunderbolt” Ross who, after years of failure capturing the Hulk decided to level the playing field. And the show establishes him in much the same manner (skipping straight to him being around and not really all that adversarial to the Hulk anymore).

A-bomb is not much harder as he came about around the same sequence of events that introduced Red Hulk – in the comics he is in fact Rick Jones after doing the same as Ross in order to be able to help the Hulk take him down. In this show, they take a small turn in that by the end of the first half hour Rick’s been exposed to a gamma blast that Hulk tried to protect him from but couldn’t completely.

Skaar is the tricky one. Skaar as a character was the product of a complex storyline in the comics known as “Planet Hulk” where Hulk was banished from Earth prior to the passage of the metahuman registration act which precipitated the Civil War event in the comic universe. Hulk had been exiled by a group of heroes & leaders in an effort to give him peace while keeping him from being a wild card should the registration act go through. Unfortunately the ship he was sent away on malfunctioned and landed him on an embattled planet where he fought formidable aliens gladiator-style until he rose to overthrow the fascist governing race and because king of this world and brought peace to it. He also found love there and fathered a son, but when the ship he was sent on exploded, his pregnant wife was killed. So he gathered a posse and headed home for revenge. But apparently his son survived the explosion and grew up with the combine strength of his parents and eventually came looking for Hulk on Earth (like I said – tricky).

After watching the first half of the premier, it seems they are foregoing all of that to have Skaar simply be an alien with these strengths and is an enslaved henchman of Annihilus. In the pilot, Annihilus is attempting to break out of the negative zone in order to take over Earth, and happens to find a path via the town where Hulk lives due to the residual gamma energy. The first half sees him send Skaar to fight off the Hulk and find a gamma ray to open the passage for him and his swarm of minions. Due to the efforts of Hulk & Red Hulk, this fails, but not before Skaar escapes back to Annihilus with Red Hulk as a prisoner and leaves Hulk to tend to an irradiated and injured Rick Jones.

I presume the second half will start with some gawky adjustments by Rick to becoming A-bomb before the two of them attempt to chase down Annihilus to free Red Hulk and somehow realize Skaar is under mind control, free him, and all escape back to Earth to bunk up and fight gamma crime (and maybe find a way to pull She-hulk in – perhaps as a SHIELD liaison to either help them break into the negative zone or to start keeping tabs on them in the aftermath). But I guess I’ll find out for sure tomorrow like everyone else.

It is a bit early to say how good this show will be. But it seems like it is being give the same degree of writing and creative attention that Marvel’s other animated properties are getting, so it seems promising. It at least adds another dimension to the animated universe they are building to give kids either more to enjoy or a different flavor to savor. I’m sure my kids and I will watch all three. And if Marvel decides to add a few more to the block – say an X-men series that ties in or maybe a Fantastic Four show – we’ll likely be right there too. And hopefully DC/Warner Bros./Cartoon Network are paying attention and get the hint.