Savage Hulk: Orion - Nebula - Betelgeuse

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Hellorc
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:44 am

Savage Hulk: Orion - Nebula - Betelgeuse

Post by Hellorc »

Hi Alan!
last week was a very good one for me! First of all, I managed to take a few days off from my slave-pen - ehm - my office table. That granted me the possibility to take a few trips around the country near the city I live in (which by the way is Marseille, southern France) enjoying the company of my lovely wife, my little boy and even my elderly mum showed up, for a few days.

Ah, the family! ...family is important.

The OTHER reason for it being a great week? I had just received the paperback editions of Captain America ( the Madbomb story arc by Brubaker and ...well...you) and Savage Hulk (containing your run on the series plus X-men #66). And had NEVER read them before....oh JOY! A double-dose of Alan Davis' books.
That's just the part of the family that I wasn't expecting to show up...but boy, was I glad they did!

Ok, so I really liked Captain America. The art, the characters, the story.
...but Savage Hulk....Savage Hulk was AWESOME!
The Hulk, the silver age X-men, the Abominion, the Leader...just reading THESE guys together in a story is the stuff of legends.
Then I got to the part where Marvel Girl "hulks out"! :) ...Honestly, I thought I had seen them all!...Well done, Master Davis, well done!
Oh, just one more thing: the "old" couple that invites Banner to dinner (and their part in the following events). That is so important! I really want to stress that: that scene comprises the whole reason why a "superhero" comic book works and another doesn't. In my opinion it's actually the CORE of superheroics.

I don't read as many Marvel comics as I did back in the day but now and then I take a risk and read some. What I find in these is often a bunch of costumed people - usually with a bleak look on their faces - confronting a -usually bleak and apocalyptic- situation that I as a reader don't care much about. They usually end up resolving the situation at hand (I usually don't care about that part neither) and then they part ways / go home sporting a somewhat bleaker look on their faces.
By the end I have a bleak look on my face too, and I find myself wondering what happened to the excitement and the glory and the crazy mad deeds of the heroes, and monsters, and villains of my youth.

That NEVER happens when I read a comic book created by you, Mr.Davis!

Now for the questions.

In Savage Hulk #1 we see Hulk in the desert. He stares at the stars in amazement. He then reaches out with his hand for the Orion constellation, almost caressing it. He has a feeling of "coming home". He starts reverting to Banner form. A few words "come" to his mind: "Orion. Nebula. Betelgeuse".

That's a very beautiful (and somewhat obscure) scene. Very poetic. mmmmm...makes me wonder, though...

Ok, then, in issue #3, when Xavier is transported inside Banner's "mindscape" (quite a nice choice of words, too) we see banner titanically keeping at bay various incarnations of the Hulk. Oh, wait: what's the golden one in the background? He sure has an "alien" look. Or a totem-like look. And he keeps his hands in such a fashion... almost like a puppet-master. And not just in a single panel. I admit that my knowledge of the Hulk stories of the Silver Age is not very thorough. It IS possible that I simply don't know who or what that figure is. But could it be that you have threaded another layer of reading within the threads of this story? It wouldn't be the first time.
I reckon the "citadel" of the Ancients in both "Fantastic Four: the End" and in the FF Annual a couple of years ago. (And of THAT we already spoke a bit about in another topic..)

Could this scene be tied to the one I described before?

And my last question (the REALLY important one):
I know you have a miniseries coming out later this year (Ultron Forever) and, if I understand correctly, another one maybe? (Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders). Of course I will look forward to read them. But mainly for your art and your graphic storytelling.
Do you have plans for more books completely created by you?

Thanks for your time. AND for the comics you create.
Alan Davis
Creator
Posts: 472
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:13 pm

Re: Savage Hulk: Orion - Nebula - Betelgeuse

Post by Alan Davis »

Glad you enjoyed the story. The opportunity to write and draw the Hulk story was an unexpected gift. It’s no secret that I have a passion for nostalgia, not just for the characters and costumes but also the morality and values of what is often termed ‘a more innocent time’.
I thought the scenes with the old couple were important to the story but possibly also harking back to Stan Lee’s philosophy of establishing a credible reality for any story. The desert scene began with the notion of ‘seeing’ the transformation through the Hulk’s Gamma enhanced ‘super vision’ into Banner’s feeble eyed POV. The notion that an innocent appreciation of wonder is lost with knowledge and names was incidental.
The unidentified alien in the mindscape battle is the Devil Hulk. Not an incarnation of the character I’m familiar with myself but as an established facet of Banner’s fractured alter ego important and fun to include.
No plans to create or even write in the immediate future. But I had said the trio of ClanDestine related annuals would be my last writing until I was offered the Savage Hulk story so anything is possible.
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