Marvel and DC comics have had some success with direct-to-DVD animated movies. Marvel has had five so far, and the latest release is a pair of films entitled Hulk Vs.
In Hulk vs. Thor, we travel to Thor’s realm of Asgard where his father Odin must do his annual “Odin-sleep” which lasts a week. During this time various nefarious denizens try to attack Odin’s land, but his son Thor and various warriors protect it. This year, though, Thor’s half brother and God of Lies Loki has a trick up his sleeve — he’s kidnapped the Hulk and taken over his body for control of Asgard. The film is called Hulk vs. Thor, but a more appropriate title would be Hulk vs. Asgard as the Hulk fights his way across the fabled realm and even enters Hela’s realm of the dead where the Hulk’s alter-ego Bruce Banner has been sent and Thor must go and rescue him. The film is well done and captures Thor’s essence as portrayed in the comics and how various artists have depicted him.
The second film is Hulk vs. Wolverine, which deals with Wolverine’s origin and features the Hulk and Wolverine versus a number of villains from the Weapon X program that created the adamantium bezerker. Wolverine and the Green Goliath take on Sabretooth, Omega Red, Lady Deathstrike, and everyone’s favorite, “Merc with a Mouth” Deadpool, who now work for the program and have kidnapped Wolverine and have greatly angered the Hulk. This film allows for more action and violence than Saturday morning, and is not for the little ones. Wolverine isn’t very nice in the comic and this film gets the angry little man down perfectly. Past X-Men animated series have come close to how he is in the comics, but this animated film comes the closest and I will watch repeatedly.
Don’t turn off the movie before the credits end as there’s a funny scene after the credits, and look for a sequel of sorts to this film in the animated series Wolverine and The X-Men in the seventh episode of that series. Episode 3 airs this Friday, January 31, so that episode should air early March.
Since Wolverine is one of my all-time favorite comic characters, I liked Hulk vs. Wolverine better than Hulk vs. Thor. Both are enjoyable, but the Wolverine film just interested me more, and I could point out all the cameos and Easter eggs and could recognize what issues were influencing specific scenes in the film.
Article comments