· Character Bios
· Episode Guide
· Episode Reviews
· Archives
· Interviews
· Video Clips
· Title Sequence
· Comic Gallery
· Home Video
· Cameos
· Avatars
· Message Board
· MAA Home Page


Nightmare In Green
Review and Media by Stu

Episode 22 - Nightmare In Green
Original Airdate 25th November 1995

Bruce Banner is searching for a cure for The Hulk, and hopes that Reed Richards will help him find it. Unfortunately, Dr. Doom has other plans for the green goliath, mainly to kill The Fantastic Four!

Credits
Written By: Glenn Leopold
Directed By: Thomas McLaughlin. Jr.
Music By: William Anderson and Anderson Scores
Guest Voices: Ron Perlman as Hulk/Bruce Banner, Benny Grant as Rick Jones, Simon Templeman as Dr. Doom
Animation Services: PASI (Philippines)


Review: This is how you do a guest appearance. I always like it when guest stars actually have relevance in the characters show, and visa versa. The Hulk has proven to be a character incredibly difficult to pull off, but always seem to work well in guest starring roles. This version of Hulk wasn’t as enjoyable as the one who appeared in his own a short while after this show ended, and nowhere near as good as the 80’s cartoon version.

This episode had some great fight scenes; the opening with Hulk attacking The Thing and especially the finale, which was basically an all out brawl featuring the FF, Hulk and Dr. Doom. The episode has a somewhat clichéd premises, Doom tricks Hulk into thinking the FF has stolen Rick Jones friendship and decides to kill them all because of it.

The Hulk was a little weird here. Ron Perlman is usually a fantastic voice actor, his roles as Clayface, Slade and Orion asset to that, but both his Hulk and Bruce Banner felt a little off. The dialogue can be blamed for some of it, but it was still a little distracting. I prefer it when 2 different guys voice the characters. As always, the 80’s version is the best animated version for the voices. I missed Michael Bell and Bob Holt; they are still the best actors to portray the characters some 20 years later.

The final fight, as said above, was awesome. The one benefit of having a syndicated show like this is that there aren’t any network standards to uphold to, which means The Thing can clobber The Hulk in the mouth and the camera will actually see it. I was surprised at the Thing’s ‘death’ scene, specifically at how long it lasted. It wasn’t a simple, down, everyone is sad, characters moves moment that’s annoying in nearly every show that’s tried to pull it off. He was ‘dead’ for a good few minutes, and Reed failed in his attempts to revive him.
 


Screenshots: