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Still the best live-action Hulk.

While Marvel has had a great run in the last ten years with getting their comic books adapted to live-action, such wasn’t always the case. Outside of some highly-successful Saturday morning cartoon series, Marvel’s forays into the big and small screens usually ended up as complete fiascoes, from George Lucas’ Howard the Duck disaster to the utterly forgettable Dolph Lundgren Punisher vehicle. About the only project that did go right for them was the television show The Incredible Hulk, which began in 1977 and ran for five seasons. With Bill Bixby as tortured scientist David Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as his green-skinned alter ego, the Hulk, the show remained popular for years and still retains a large fanbase. Just in time for the release on the new Incredible Hulk film, Universal has released two more seasons of the show on DVD, seasons three and four, as separate sets.

The formula for the show was pretty standard and not more than a bit reminiscent of the old Fugitive television show. Desperately seeking a cure for his monstrous other self, Banner showed up in a new town every episode, where he befriended someone in need of aid. By the end of the episode, Banner would get angry, change into the Hulk, break a couple of tables and crash through a wall or two before helping to set all right in his new surroundings and moving on to the next town.

While the show played up the human drama more than it did the superhuman showmanship, and these two seasons are no different. There seems to be a recurring theme in these two seasons of the use of psychics, but otherwise, much of the run keeps to the tried-and-true. There are two (actually three, as one is a two-parter) episodes of particular interest in season four: “King of the Beach” co-stars Ferrigno as a completely separate character while “The First” (the two-parter) has Banner confronting another Hulk-like creature (played by future Swamp Thing Dick Durock), about the only time in the show’s course that there was anything of the sort.

The two sets contain 23 and 18 episodes, respectively. Each contains a unique retrospective, which are fairly entertaining, as the producers go into things like who all was considered for the role of the Hulk (Schwarzenegger, Ted Kiel). Season four has an audio commentary on one episode, as well as a photo gallery of that ep. Other than that, the only special feature on both sets is a “sneak peak” at the new film.

Marvel didn’t get much right over the years while trying to turn their properties into flesh-and-blood, but this show was one of the few before the recent decade-long renaissance. The Incredible Hulk may not have been the most action-packed show around, but with its emphasis on characterization and the well-developed characters in particular of Banner and, yes, the Hulk himself, it remains one of the most well-done Marvel ventures.

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