Released in 2008, "The Incredible Hulk" was only the second film in the MCU. After a sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk film was scrapped, and the idea was retooled to fit into the new continuity, with a script by Zak Penn (and re-writes by Edwart Norton), and directed by Louis Letterier. Fast-forwarding through the usual origin story, the film finds Bruce Banner hiding out in Brazil, learning how to suppress his anger and anxiety, to keep the monster at bay. Eventually, he is tracked down by the American military under the control of General Ross, bringing him back stateside and unleashing much Hulk-smashing in the process. The film received decent reviews, though was then left largely abandoned after Norton was re-cast for future films (after trouble power dynamics between himself and the studio over control of the film's cut), though it was heavily called back to in the latest Captain America film. Personally I enjoyed the film, especially the first act, with some great development of Bruce's human side early on and the horror-esque first action tease of Hulk in Brazil, with Norton pushing a more thoughtful, philosophical approach to the character that diminished was the film went along into the standard over-stuffed action climax.
Joining the adventure was Scottish composer Craig Armstrong. Known primarily for drama, thriller or romantic scores, as well as his collaborations with Baz Luhrmann, Armstrong was perhaps an unusual choice for a pure action score, but he delivers in a big way. This score is beefy and propulsive, anchored by a pounding three-note motif for Hulk, a softer theme for Bruce and Betty, and featuring some kick-ass action sequences. Though it might not feature as distinct a main theme as many of the later Avengers films, this is still one of the most solid and well-rounded MCU scores overall.
Produced by Marvel Music, the full score was released on a 2-disc album, originally with an exclusive on-demand CD printing at Amazon. Was never a fan of the giant "Double Disc Edition" label, so this has been on my list for a while. I present a total of 15 new covers, using studio, commissioned or fan pieces.
Usually I lump the fan creations at the end of my set, but for Cover 1, I couldn't help but showcase this awesome piece by Canadian designer Nicolas Tetreault-Abel. Nicolas has created a serious of custom posters for most of the MCU films, with complex and layered collages. Fortunately this one actually worked rather well for a cover format without needing to edit or crop much of the image. I just enhanced the image, painted out some text, and tweaked levels a bit.
Covers 2 - 11 all feature official artwork, either the original studio posters, artwork for later home video releases, coinciding video game (for Cover 8) and for Empire Magazine (Cover 4). All required various small edits and clean-up's. Covers 10 and 11 feature comic-book style artwork for the Blu-Ray steelbook, for both of which I had to shift some portion of the image around to fit the tighter crop and re-blend things together, but they provided a nice contrast in styles from the rest.
Covers 12 - 15 all feature various commissioned or fan creations. Cover 12 features art by Matt Ferguson, who created paired minimalist covers for a video release of the "Infinity Saga" films. I simply expanded the sites a bit more to better accommodate for cover.
Cover 13 features hand-painted art by Leo Leibelman, who originally worked in Marvel Comics, then got into film story-boarding and concept art and paints custom film-related oil paintings.
Cover 14 features art by Banish Creations, and Cover 15 uses a piece I found online (but I have been unable to find the original artist), to which I simply shifted the bottom portion of the image higher up.
Hope you enjoy, and let me know your favorites!
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