MID-OHIO-CON: HULK PANEL

Paul Jenkins, writer of Universal's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction video game, said he is pleased with the reaction of the game.

"Now that the video game is out and everyone seems to love it, I may do another one, if they ask me to do it," Jenkins said Saturday at the Hulk panel at Mid-Ohio-Con.

Jenkins appeared at the panel with fellow former Incredible Hulk writers Peter David and Sean McKeever.

In other highlights from the panel:

* Asked what the writers' favorite issues of the Hulk were that were not written by them, David said it was Hulk #6 from the original run.

"I got more story fodder out of that one Stan Lee/Steve Ditko issue than I could have possibly believed," David said.

The story involved the Hulk actually having Bruce Banner's head and having to wear a Hulk mask.

"It look so freakin' weird," David said. "It was the genesis for what became the merged Hulk."

McKeever's favorite was the Incredible Hulk/Thing: Big Change original graphic novel by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson. "I liked the idea of using the Hulk as a tool for humor," McKeever said.

Jenkins said he enjoyed Bill Mantlo's issue, but picked a specific moment where Bruce Banner is walking through a store and a sales clerk says, "I have 568 pairs of stretchable purple pants. What am I going to do?"

* David said his most recent run on The Incredible Hulk was intended to be for six issues but was extended through the House of M story. With so-so sales and increasing workload -- Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Fallen Angel and X-Factor -- David said he felt it was best he moved on.

"I don't want to rule out any possibilities of ever coming back to the Hulk, but it's not going to happen real soon," David said.

* David said that, in his most recent run, he had the Hulk talking tersely and not using personal pronouns. "And everybody thought I was ripping off Joss Whedon's dialogue," he said, shaking his head.

* Jenkins said he viewed the Hulk as a "ticking time bomb" of a character and that he basically told his story in the comics.

* McKeever's first work for Marvel was Incredible Hulk #26. He and Jenkins co-wrote issues, but Jenkins said it was basically McKeever writing stories incorporating Jenkins' plot notes.

* David said he was consulted upon during the first draft of the Hulk movie script written by Jonathan Hensleigh. He said that many of the things he found fault in the script were echoed by Universal, which ultimately went in another direction.

* Jenkins said he enjoyed Ang Lee's version of the Hulk.

(Look for coverage of Peter David's panel on Sunday here in The Continuum.)