TV & Movies

Hulk vs. is a collection of two new animated stories: Hulk vs. Thor and Hulk vs. Wolverine written by longtime Marvel writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost.

The two stories are separate and do not need to be watched in a particular order. I chose to watch the Hulk vs. Thor first. At first I was disappointed. The animation and art of the Thor story isn't really any better than what one would expect to see on Saturday morning TV. They did win me over with the story, though. I love the Norse mythology. The general plot is that it is the Odin-sleep and Loki sees an opportunity to defeat Thor. He has Amora bring Bruce Banner to Asgard, and strip Banner's soul from Hulk so that he, Loki, can control Hulk to fight Thor. The adventure takes us all over Asgard, even into Hell, itself. It was a lot of fun, I only wish the look had been better.

Hulk vs. Wolverine is a different beast altogether. It has a look and style that is very attractive and seems to borrow more from Japanese film than Saturday morning cartoon, with character designs by Jeff Matsuda. It is also substantially bloodier than Hulk vs. Thor. The general plot is that Wolverine (pre-X-men and working for the Canadian government) is sent into the forest to capture Hulk, after Hulk goes on a rampage, destroying a small town. While Hulk and Wolverine are fighting, they are both captured by Weapon X. This is where the real treat begins as for the first time ever, I believe, we get to see an animated Deadpool. The look, characterization, and voice of Deadpool are all spot-on. I was quite impressed with this story.

I purchased the Blu-ray version. I think the contents are the same as the 2-Disc DVD. The extra features include making of documentaries for both films, a tribute to Jack Kirby's Thor, a first look at the next DTV Thor Son of Asgard, various trailers, and footage from the SDCC premiere and Q&A of the film. The documentaries were both good. It was quite interesting to watch the voice actors do their work.