Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(2025)

I don’t know why but I freaking love the red Hulk. He just works for me. When I saw Thunderbolt Ross becoming a more utilized character in the MCU I just knew, I KNEW, they were going to do red Hulk and I was so excited. Then William Hurt passed away.

He played the part in five films. He’s usually so mild mannered but when he is portraying anger, man, I believe him. It would have been so interesting to see him as red Hulk. May he rest in peace.

Heck, I would have given my right arm to see Sam Elliot become the red Hulk. Could you imagine!?! Elliot played Thunderbolt Ross back in the 2003 Eric Banana Hulk film directed by Ang Lee. What a piece of tripe that one was. Love Sam Elliot though.

I think my love of red Hulk primarily started with Lego set 76078 “Hulk vs. Red Hulk”. One of my favorite Lego sets, it posits the notion that both the Hulk and She-Hulk would enter a battle with red Hulk and red She-hulk, not of brawn but demolition derby astride their Hulk sized dune buggies. The front bumpers of each buggy triggered a catapult so, when they crash into each other, the respective Hulks would fly off and collide midair. It’s great fun.

Hulk always irritated me because, while he may have been useful for a moment, he always goes out of control and has to be subdued by Iron Man and his arsenal of Hulk busting tech. If Tony Stark was able to put as much money into stopping universal tyrants as he had to put into keeping the Hulk in check, maybe he could’ve afforded to build a Thanos bustin’ suit instead of a Hulk Buster.

Hulk works better as a villain because he’s a pain in the ass. Go ahead and go be Professor Hulk, Hulk. I like you that way. Let red Hulk smash for a while.

I enjoyed most of this movie. Anthony Mackie was awesome. It did get a bit talky-talky which bored two out of five of my kids. Incidentally those two were the ones who came with me. The rest stayed home.

The one thing I would advise if you’ve not seen this yet: You should probably watch The Eternals before you see this. It’s not super necessary but it helps.

Now I have to wonder… will we see Liv Tyler become red She-Hulk?