Anatomy of a Hulk



The Hulk from The Avengers, played by Mark Ruffalo

The Hulk from Hulk (left) and The Incredible Hulk (right)

Last month The Los Angeles Times spoke to Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios on what the Hulk will look like when he appears in "The Avengers" next year. In this movie, Mark Ruffalo will be taking over the role of Bruce Banner/Hulk from Eric Bana (Hulk in 2003) and Edward Norton (The Incredible Hulk in 2008). Below is an excerpt from the interview:  

He'll be about the same size he was in "The Incredible Hulk" [which was about 9 feet tall] or maybe a little bit smaller. His muscles won't be quite as cut. We figure he's been the Hulk now for a few years and [his physique is changing]. He's not as cut or as ripped as he was in "The Incredible Hulk." The most important thing is that face. As you can already see in that concept painting, it is — more than any Hulk that's ever been done in live action — a Hulk that let's you see the actor in there. You will be able to see Ruffalo in there. That was a big revelation for us. It's just a concept painting, but in that you can see the [influence of Marvel Comics pioneer and original Hulk artist Jack] Kirby, as people have already pointed out, but also, and equally important in this case, Ruffalo's eyes and his cheek structure. It is him.The full article can be found here. After reading that Mr Feige says this will be a Hulk where you can "see the actor in there", I began to wonder if he had even watched the previous two Hulk movies? I remember in the 2003 movie, the jolly green giant looked pretty much like Eric Bana to me. As for Norton's Hulk, I didn't quite see the resemblance, but let's see shall we? At the same time I'll also look at the other differences between Bana and Norton's Hulk.


Visage

 

Eric Bana (as Bruce Banner and the Hulk)

Yup, I can definitely see the actor in the Hulk's face. Bana's eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips and face structure can be seen in the CGI Hulk's face. Heck to me the Hulk looks exactly like Bana with a broader face. Now let's take a look at Norton's version.



Edward Norton (as Bruce Banner and the Hulk)

Well what do you know, Norton's Hulk looks like him too! Similar to Bana, I can see the eyebrows, nose and thinner lips of Norton in this Hulk too. Although I gotta say the face of this Hulk doesn't look real to me. It looked to me like something out of a computer game. Perhaps its the texture of the skin or the lighting.

Anyway to sum it up, I'm not sure why Mr Feige is saying that Ruffalo's face can be seen in the Hulk like its such an amazing or new thing. Its already been done before!

Colour

Mr Green & Mr Green-er

Since we're looking at the Hulks, lets take a look at some of the other differences. Bana's Hulk is clearly a much lighter and brighter green than Norton's. Furthermore Norton's Hulk seems to have a mixture of two kinds of green, one lighter and one darker. Although the green for Bana's Hulk makes him look more like the one in the comics, I think the green for Norton's Hulk comes across as looking less cartoon-like. From "The Avenger's Hulk poster released by Marvel, it looks like the colour of the new Hulk will be similar to the Norton version.


Physique



Bana's stockier Hulk (left) compare to Norton's leaner one (right)

Bana's Hulk is stockier and stouter than Norton's. You can see that he has a wider torso, and looks more compact than Norton's. It's not mentioned which one Ruffalo's version will look like, but I'm betting it will be closer to Norton's.

Musculature



Lean, green and mean fighting machines

For Norton's Hulk, they really went for the body-builder look. This version had really lean muscles and you could see his veins popping out. Because of this "sinewy-muscle" look, I found that this Hulk looked rather fake, when compared to Bana's Hulk. Again, I have to say that the skin texture for this Hulk really looks weird. It just doesn't look quite as organic as Bana's Hulk.

However, since Feige mentioned that the new Hulk will not be quite as "cut or ripped as he was in The Incredible Hulk", I believe that they may have realised that the previous Hulk didn't look quite too good. "The Avengers" Hulk will be probably have musculature that is somewhere between the Bana and Norton's version. And hopefully the Hulk's skin will look better in the new movie too.


Size



Hulks meeting their Betty Rosses (somehow it's always at night)

Now this is something that really bothered me in the original Hulk movie. Hulk would grow bigger and stronger as he got angrier. To the point that he actually reached a height that was twice that of a human! I know the pictures are quite dark but I wanted to get pictures that showed him next to Betty Ross (played by Jennifer Connelly in Hulk and Liv Tyler in The Incredible Hulk), and somehow the scenes were always set at night...



Bana's Hulk towering over Jennifer Connelly's Betty Ross in the picture to the left

This is the same picture but I've outlined the figures so you can see the differences in height. On the left you can see that Hulk towers over Betty! Norton's Hulk has a more respectable height, about 2 heads taller than Betty. Feige even mentions that Ruffalo's Hulk might be even shorter than Norton's, so we shall see.

Final Thoughts

We've looked at both Hulks, and I have to say that each of them have their own good and bad points. As for Marvel, having 2 Hulk movies under their belt, I think they're also learning what works and what doesn't on screen, and hopefully by the time "The Avengers" comes out, the Hulk will look absolutely great in it!