Superhero Media: The Incredible Hulk Returns

I've never seen much of the classic, Bill Bixby, The Incredible Hulk television series, but thanks to trolling through DVD clearance bins at dodgy shops, I have seen both attempts at launching a spin-off, Trial of the Incredible Hulk and The Incredible Hulk Returns. Six years after the end of the classic series, David Bruce Banner is happy, successful and evidently hasn't had a Hulk incident in a decade, somehow, whilst working for a major science company and dating a coworker. When a mysterious figure from Banner's past, Dr Donald Blake, tracks him down and inadvertently releases the Hulk once more, Banner and Blake, along with Blake's new charge, the Mighty Thor, must avoid detection, save the girl and stop the bad people from stealing the science machine. Did I mention Thor? Yes, well, The Incredible Hulk Returns is not only a "soft reboot" for The Incredible Hulk television series, but is a backdoor pilot for a Thor television series. FYI, Stan Lee purportedly hated this idea, despite his support and love for The Incredible Hulk series. 

Rather than the exiled prince of Asgard, the Thor of The Incredible Hulk Returns is a Viking warrior denied access to Valhalla, brought back to life when Donald Blake holds his hammer and shouts the name "Odin". Unlike the comics, Blake doesn't trade places with Thor, he just hangs around and tries to tell Thor what to do in any given circumstance. Although this is something of a poor choice, it does make for some fun moments, like Thor and Blake bonding at a Biker Bar and Blake and Banner using Thor to distract a journalist. For all the crummy parts that make up The Incredible Hulk Returns, as a whole, it's really not all that bad a watch, if incredibly silly. It's a bit like watching some Knight Rider or The A-Team, you know it's going to be bad going in, so you can enjoy what's good; and if Lou Ferigno painted green is a deal breaker for you, how did you even get this far, seriously? 

I'm hoping that Disney+ secures the rights to The Incredible Hulk at some point, because I've heard the series, if not the "movies", is pretty good most of the time. There's some inspiration there for a "low-rent" takes on superheroes, which I've seen a few people actually game over the years with systems like Pulp Alley and 7TV, Golglo Island Miniatures even do a pretty decent approximation of this version of Hulk in their range. Of course, I have considered making an "Avengers" team of the television versions of Hulk, Thor, Daredevil, Captain America and Spider-Man, but aside from Hulk and Thor, the rest aren't too different from their comic counterparts, and I'm guessing most people would mistake the Daredevil as being from the Netflix series. If you're young enough to have never seen any of The Incredible Hulk, The Incredible Hulk Returns can be worth tracking down for a look, as it's pretty short, and hits most of the beats of the series, but with the added hilarity of Thor and Donald Blake's perm.