EDITOR’S NOTE: Here on ComicMix, our lists of must-read Iron Man stories and recommended reading for The Dark Knight were so popular that we decided to put together the following list for Friday’s release of The Incredible Hulk in theaters. Enjoy! -RM]

He’s been in comics for decades. His cameos in series other than his own have always meant blockbuster action. He’s had a live-action television series, TV-movies, cartoons, videogames and now a new major motion picture coming out this Friday.

He is the Hulk.

Yet he is also Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, and long ago, he created the gamma bomb — the next step in nuclear warheads. But when he saw a kid named Rick Jones in the test area, Bruce condemned himself by saving the boy’s life and getting caught in the bomb blast. Bathed in gamma rays, he was mutated so that he would now transform into a gray-skinned, monstrous version of himself at night.

As time went on, Banner’s mutation shifted and he would turn into a green-skinned, savage, child-like creature whenever he was angered, which became the most famous take on the character. Later still, he struck a balance by becoming a gestalt, merging his different alter egos. In recent years, he has reverted to his "classic" status, the scientist who is terrified to lose his temper lest he become a destructive emerald beast.

Perhaps it’s this isolation, and his desperation to change his situation in life, that causes so many people to relate to him — both in the fictional world he occupies and the real world of his readers.

Here, then, are some of the most important, must-read stories involving the Hulk from the character’s long history, and a good place to start if this week’s release of The Incredible Hulk piques your interest in Marvel’s famous green-skinned goliath. (more…)

With any luck, this morning the heat wave that has gripped New York since last weekend will have finally broken.

I’ve never cared for extremes of temperature, but all in all I’m much better equipped to deal with winter than with summer. Winter has its hazards — for instance, our apartment is situated among a row of houses recessed from the main street with a long U-shaped gravel driveway between our stairs and the street itself, and when it ices over there’s never a clear pathway to walk to the street, so unless I drive I’m pretty much trapped in the house. But that generally happens for only a few days, and most of the time I’m more concerned with layering. Which seems to be a lot easier for a person like me with, shall we say, natural padding.

Summer’s a whole different ballgame, though. It’s pretty easy to layer on clothing when you’re cold; it’s a lot harder to strip it off when you’re warm. Leaving aside societal proprieties and whether or not it’s fair or just for topless men to be acceptable but topless women to be verboten (my opinion: as long as women taking off their tops elicits a reaction of "look, boobies!" from the minds of most onlookers, I continue to agree with the status quo here), the fact remains that most of us can’t strip past our skin, y’know? And it’s more and more dangerous to leave skin exposed for long periods of time. SPF one thousand, anyone?

By the way, you do know that once you get past SPF 30 your additional so-called protection from UV rays is negligible at best? And that there are tons of assertions that sunscreen is actually bad for you and even carcinogenic? (Oh, the fun things you find out about when you set out to write about heat waves! That’s at least two articles I now wish I’d never read!) (more…)

With the release of The Incredible Hulk looming, there have been a few items of note hitting the ‘Net that might be worth, well… noting. While I could probably re-write that sentence to make it read a little better, I think it fits in well with the overall Hulk vibe, which seems to go something like this:

HULK SMASH YOUR PUNY GRAMMAR!

Over at Marvel.com, The Incredible Hulk Smash game is a free, online game in which you play as the Hulk and try to smash everything in sight — which consists of buildings, taxis and military vehicles. Apparently, Hulk really hates taxis. While I understand the whole "power-up" and "super smash" abilities, I’m not quite sure I understand why Hulk is also able to freeze time in this game. But anyways…

Did anyone catch the "Hulk Up" episode of American Gladiators last night? I missed it, but I’d love to hear how that cross-promotion turned out. It was a nice idea, so I’m curious about viewer reaction. At least one reviewer wasn’t impressed. Anyone else have an opinion? Is anyone who reads ComicMix watching American Gladiators?

Feeling a bit nostalgic for the old Hulk television series? SciFi Channel is currently running a marathon of the series, with 10 episodes airing each day until Friday’s film release.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated-to-the-movie but Hulk-related all the same, I wonder if the Elias Hulk album "Unchained" is feeling the effects of all the Hulk mania. Just check out that excellent, semi-NSFW album cover!

Be sure to keep an eye on ComicMix this week for our special ComicMix TV video interviews with the people behind The Incredible Hulk, as well as our review of the film later this week.

In today’s brand-new episode of White Viper, by Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin and Erin Holroyd, the monk, Ta Moa, awakes to find himself without one eye — but with a new, adopted daughter.

They saved each others’ lives. Will they need to again?

Credits: Erin Holroyd (Writer), Dick Giordano (Penciller), Frank McLaughlin (Inker), Lovern Kindzierski (Colorist), John Workman (Letterer), Mike Gold (Editor)

More: White Viper

Todd McFarlane recently announced that he’s returning to Spawn, the comic that helped build his empire. In a few months he, along with Image co-founder Whilce Portacio, return to the series and we’ve got the details, plus:

— Viper brings back The Killer Tomatoes

— Patsy Walker gets her soot in the Marvel Universe

— This week’s stellar list of new comics and DVDs

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