Hulk vs Wolverine 2009

After watching Hulk vs Thor I had to move right onto the second half of the double feature with Hulk vs Wolverine. And even though they are essentially two halves of a double feature, there is nothing connecting the two stories aside from the fact that Hulk is fighting another Marvel character. While I wasn’t all that fond of Hulk vs Thor I can’t say that I was impressed with Hulk vs Wolverine either. But I will say that between the two of them, this half of the double feature comes out on top, partly because of the surprise inclusion of Deadpool who I had completely forgotten was in this.

When comparing the two segments, this half does have a slightly more comprehensible plot to it. Where Loki was basically just using Hulk to try and kill Thor, here there’s a group of villains led by a scientist who are using Wolverine to capture Hulk to improve their Weapon X program. In any live action film, the scientist would have been Striker but is much more scientist than military here. It’s a little surprising that in a title called “Hulk vs Wolverine” there is very little time spent where the two of them are actually fighting similar to in Hulk vs Thor. But what’s even stranger here in this segment is that shortly after their first fight it spends a good ten minutes or so retreading Wolverine’s Weapon X origin, something that’s been covered in the live action films ad nauseam. Then there’s the introduction of the villains which seem to be pretty much every mutant with a healing factor plus Omega Red (who may or may not have a healing factor, I’m not too familiar with him). This includes Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, as well as Deadpool for some reason. And that reason may very well be just for comic relief which he does well here.

Again comparing this segment to the Thor segment, when it actually does get around to Hulk fighting Wolverine, they are much more visually interesting than the ones with Hulk and Thor. Where the former essentially boiled down to brute force vs brute force plus the occasional lightning, there was more strategy involved with Wolverine’s tactics. The initial fight in the mountains had a lot of agility involved, while the later fighting within the Weapon X compound had the advantage of the multiple combatants to keep things interesting. It also had the odd, yet very comic book feeling ending where the two have defeated the villains but Hulk being Hulk still has someone left to fight and Wolverine is fully game for it.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about this that wasn’t already said about Hulk vs Thor, while they were companion pieces, there is a slightly different animation style between the two of them. The difference was most notable with the design of Bruce Banner, even though he didn’t have much screen time in Thor and even less here. Between the two of them, this had a slight upper hand with slightly better fights and a more interesting overall plot as thin as it was. But even so it barely rises to a mediocre level, the biggest saving grace for this is its very brief run time as well as all the fun moments with Deadpool. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.