HULK SMASH

Hey there, true believers!

It's been a while, hasn't it? So, I regret to inform you all that while I intended on starting my "Game Changers" segment this week, I think I will put that off for another post. I am mulling over a few ideas and what all else on how to make it bigger, better, and more spectacular.

Instead, I'm dedicating this post to a little-known fact about me.

When I was a little kid, my absolute favorite super hero was the Incredible Hulk. I have no idea why that is. I recall owning a tiny Hulk toy... and I must have watched the old Incredible Hulk tapes we owned about ten bajillion times (slight exaggeration). As I got older, I remember being super excited for the movie version of the Hulk in 2003. My favorite superhero was finally getting a movie! So while I was expecting something along the caliber of my childhood admiration and fantasies, I get this.

Not pictured: Whining

I wanted a rip-roaring, pulse-pounding, Hulk-smashing good time and instead got a plodding, bizarre, comic-book cropped, way-too-dang-serious-for-its-own-good work of schlock. I was heartbroken. Years passed, and the Hulk kind of fell out of graces with me. I was embarrassed to admit he was my favorite superhero.

Flash forward several years. I was told that they were rebooting the Hulk for a new movie, and at first I was outraged. The previous film had only come out around 5 years previous! Anyhow, I watched it once I returned from the mission, having heard nothing but glowing reviews from my family.

MUCH better.

And lo and behold, it was so very much better... except for one thing.

"The Hulk just heard you say, 'Bwuce'"!

Liv Tyler. Good GRAVY I hated her in the role of Betty Ross. So then I kind of forgot about the Hulk after a while... until last night.

 Pictured: The most butt-kickingest green rage monster EVER.

I saw the midnight showing of The Avengers, and while I was plenty excited to revisit the delightfully self-absorbed Tony Stark, the "aww-shucks" humility and embodiment-of-the-American-spirit Captain America, the "I-totally-had-a-better-movie-than-I-had-any-right-to" Thor and the others, I braced for another somewhat disappointing Hulk.

And NOTHING could have prepared me for what was to come. It seemed like the whole movie was almost geared toward giving audiences the Incredible Hulk they'd always dreamed of. And the movie delivered in spades. The Hulk of my childhood was front-and-center, smashing just about everything in the whole dang movie to smithereens and generally being the coolest Avenger of them all. My sister Marianne will testify that I squealed like a fan boy multiple times during the Hulk's scenes.

Long story short, go see the Avengers. IT'S. FREAKING. AWESOME.

"Hulk SMAAAAAASH!"

(Translation: He's my favorite superhero again. Awwwww yeah!)