“Ehhhh, I don’t know, this is giving me hardcore Swamp Thing, Alan Moore vibes. Which is okay, but sometimes gets a little poetic for my liking.
What is it with these green characters getting all introspective and shit?
TBH, I also could’ve done without the little speech where a Black woman lectures the Hulk on how his anger is coddled by society where hers is a liability. And this is her reason for wanting to be shot with a gamma ray or whatever and become an inhuman monster, she sees that as her route to being able to express her anger.
Can we take that apart a little?
First of all, to say the Hulk has been able to let loose with his anger in a consequence-free way seems more than a little unfair. As Hulk reminds her, he was shot into fucking space. Then she’s like, “You get angry and wreck shop, and Tony Stark tries to send you to a paradise planet.” Which is true, but discounts the fact that what ended up happening is that Hulk gets sent to a hellscape where he fights for his life in an arena, builds an entire life, and then has it all taken away. This is one of many examples of times when his anger was super-not-permissable.
Second, a Hulk’s anger is like a nuclear weapon or something. There’s danger in keeping it around, but at the same time, the Marvel U is one with a bunch of bad guys who do need extreme punching in the face. They need it, they might not like it, but they need it. Some normal-ass lady’s anger is not useful on the same level.
Third, I would argue that Hulk’s anger is not permitted and allowed, it’s exploited. How many times has Hulk been pointed in a direction to fuck some shit up? Is that really being tolerant and facilitating his anger? Is this enabling? Or is it taking advantage of his anger?
Fourth, I don’t know that it’s fair to call tolerance of the Hulk a choice on anyone’s part. How many ways have they tried to control or eliminate the Hulk? I don’t know that anyone is choosing to be tolerant of the Hulk so much as they’re seeing it as a situation where there really is no other option. Hulk is blasted, by Iron Man, with a gigantic space laser that destroys an entire town in the process, and (minor spoiler) he still manages to come back.
Finally, I would say, at the very least, Hulk is suffering from some high levels of mental/emotional disorder. If I were his lawyer, I think I could make a pretty good case for a insanity plea, and I’m not even remotely smart. “Your honor, has there ever been a clearer case of a multiple personality disorder than a man who literally transforms into a gigantic green monster and acts in a completely different manner, is capable of feats of strength never seen before, and acts in ways that are counter to his own best interest?”
Overall, I get it, she’s saying, “You get to be angry, and I don’t.” But it feels like a super-juvenile way of looking at it. Comparing Hulk and a normal lady in the way we might compare, say, a female CEO and a male CEO, one of them being seen as passionate, the other as bitchy, is more than a bit of a stretch.
Oh, also, this conversation happening when they’re in LITERAL HELL also seems kind of ridiculous. I feel like if I were walking around with Hulk in actual hell and seeing shells of people with their eyes burned out, I might care a little less about equity of access to anger.”