I think if you put enough work into it (get a good writer to revitalize the character) then you can make any character work. Look at what Brubaker did with Bucky. He took a laughable teen sidekick even more ridiculous than Robin (I mean they were sending a 14 year old to fight Nazi super villains!) and turned him into Captain America. It took time and a complete overhaul of his origin by making him a 16 year old assassin who would scout ahead enemy lines and kill anyone so that Cap was free to lead the Invaders in. Brubaker took a character whose defining attribute was being dead and turned him into a Russian spy turned greatest antihero ever and made him the only one worthy to carry on as Cap.
The same would work for the Hulk but less risky than Bucky because he's so well known and has had so many stories written about him people would just accept him as the Hulk. What you would have to do is take it back to the character's core concept. That being a 120 lb weakling with the most brilliant mind in the world turns into a 12 foot tall god with the impulse control of a toddler. I think you would have to make the Hulk not a brain-dead smash smash smash kind of guy but just kind of lesser than normal people but clever.
Stan Lee realized that Jekyll didn't get dumber when he turned into Hyde he just became immoral. Instead of making the Hulk dumber just make him angrier and you have the potential to have stories where it would make sense for the Hulk to win a fight against someone like the Leader or the Abomination. The Incredible Hulk movie did I think the best dumb Hulk version ever but I would like to see him as smart as he is in the original run on Ultimates or even the cocky bastard he was in Volume 2. Hulk is Victor Frankenstein and the Monster rolled into one which makes him such a brilliant character.
As far as side characters go E's right, they don't need to change. Thunderbolt Ross is one of the greatest antagonists in comics. Betty Ross is possibly the most heartbreaking love interest any hero has. The Leader is scary because he's everything the Hulk isn't. Abomination is his equal but even smarter. The problem with Loeb's run was that he made Rulk look tough by beating the **** out of everybody. A villain isn't tough because the writer god hands his way into the universe and makes him so, he's that way because he can personally affect the Hulk. Make Ross, Abomination and Leader the villains again just because their such good villains. And don't turn Ross into a Red version of Hulk because it betrays the character completely.
My two cents .
The same would work for the Hulk but less risky than Bucky because he's so well known and has had so many stories written about him people would just accept him as the Hulk. What you would have to do is take it back to the character's core concept. That being a 120 lb weakling with the most brilliant mind in the world turns into a 12 foot tall god with the impulse control of a toddler. I think you would have to make the Hulk not a brain-dead smash smash smash kind of guy but just kind of lesser than normal people but clever.
Stan Lee realized that Jekyll didn't get dumber when he turned into Hyde he just became immoral. Instead of making the Hulk dumber just make him angrier and you have the potential to have stories where it would make sense for the Hulk to win a fight against someone like the Leader or the Abomination. The Incredible Hulk movie did I think the best dumb Hulk version ever but I would like to see him as smart as he is in the original run on Ultimates or even the cocky bastard he was in Volume 2. Hulk is Victor Frankenstein and the Monster rolled into one which makes him such a brilliant character.
As far as side characters go E's right, they don't need to change. Thunderbolt Ross is one of the greatest antagonists in comics. Betty Ross is possibly the most heartbreaking love interest any hero has. The Leader is scary because he's everything the Hulk isn't. Abomination is his equal but even smarter. The problem with Loeb's run was that he made Rulk look tough by beating the **** out of everybody. A villain isn't tough because the writer god hands his way into the universe and makes him so, he's that way because he can personally affect the Hulk. Make Ross, Abomination and Leader the villains again just because their such good villains. And don't turn Ross into a Red version of Hulk because it betrays the character completely.
My two cents .
