Once upon a time, there was a science lover who ended up in the middle of a laboratory accident and acquired superpowers. The story sounds familiar to you, doesn’t it? Your immediate response was likely Peter Parker … or was it Bruce Banner? Either one is correct. Actually Hulk and Spider-Man they share more things in common than you think.
These are not just pioneering projects about the idea of an ordinary man exposed to extraordinary situations. Also from comics that approached the idea of the everyday mixed with the fantastic. The subject had been touched before with greater or lesser success, but the Hulk and Spider-Man analyzed novel points. Love, guilt, fear in relation to formidable powers and abilities. The quality of the monstrous – or the portentous – that is linked to the individual. Both characters they toured a completely original space on very diverse subjects.
But there are three points that Hulk and Spider-Man agree on that make their stories reflections of one another. We tell you what they are:
Hulk and Spider-Man saved Marvel
In the sixties, Marvel went through one of its worst crises that would only be repeated in the nineties. One that, in addition, threatened the financial integrity of the publisher. That’s when the first issues of Spider-Man and Hulk appeared. Your immediate success allowed the company to resurface and take more ambitious paths in its stories.
The alter ego of gifted science student Peter Parker He first appeared on August 10, 1962 in Amazing Fantasy # 15. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s work was an immediate response to adolescent public interest in Marvel’s work. And it was a resounding success from its first appearance.
As for the Hulk and his tormented human version Bruce Banner, he entered the comic book world a few months earlier. In May 1962, The Incredible Hulk # 1 is published, also signed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Like Spider-Man, he became a public sensation instantly. Together, both superheroes managed to save the publishing house from a dangerous crisis.
In the 1960s, Marvel comics weren’t doing so well and then these two heroes came out with their first issues. The Hulk and Spider-Man comics were first released in the 1960s and became huge hits for the company.
Men with flaws
One of the things that unites Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Bruce Banner / Hulk is that they are both flawed men. In the sixties, Marvel competed against DC characters like Super-Man and Wonder Woman. Both were symbols of absolute good, with incorruptible morals and high spiritual principles.
So Marvel went to the other extreme. His heroes starting with Spider-Man and Hulk were common men. While their capacity for heroism was undoubtedly evident, there is also a fallible part to any of them. In particular, Spider-Man and the Hulk shared human feelings that until then, they had only been partially exploited by Batman. Guilt, anger, the pain of loss, uprooting and fear were feelings that Marvel incorporated into its characters. The result is fallible and deeply moving characters.
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Three faces for great heroes
And yes, as you must have thought, the Hulk and Spider-Man have been played by three actors at different times in the last twenty years. Bruce Banner has had the faces of Edward Norton, Eric Bana and Mark Ruffalo. As for Peter Parker, he was embodied in three different trilogies by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. A whole repertoire of faces that have provided a unique cinematic story to both characters.