Rhaaarrrggghhh!

Blockbuster- Hulk

In terms of character significance, this pairing is even more lopsided than the Wonder Woman- Thundra match-up. Like that one, we see a character lined up with it’s direct inspiration.

Clearly, the Blockbuster was created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino to evoke the Hulk. I would imagine that the powers that were at DC took one look at the second creation of the burgeoning Lee-Kirby explosion and said “they’re gonna try to make a monster sympathetic?” Indeed, the Hulk is a link to the kind of comics Timely/Atlas/Marvel proffered in the late ‘50s/very early ‘60s: typically, ones in which grotesque beasts were either created or were awoken by nuclear testing. Apparently, when Marvel’s line began to make waves, DC brass couldn’t quite understand how these crudely drawn stories featuring squabbling, sometimes threatening (anti-)heroes could be appealing.

And the Hulk was a sinister creature initially, a real nasty Mr. Hyde-esque piece of work to Bruce Banner’s Dr. Jekyll —the infantile “Hulk smash/Hulk is the strongest one there is/Hulk wants to be left alone” characterization emerged in the late ‘60s (I think). It’s no surprise that the always rationalistic DC’s rendition of the character would be an unambiguous bad guy.

So this pairing is imperfect. For a long time, I put the Hulk with Metamorpho, which was not a good idea. Many have noted similarities between Solomon Grundy and the Hulk, but the former is a zombie, and has no correlative to the Bruce Banner persona. But despite the fact that the Blockbuster is a minor character (and one that’s seen at least two iterations since its debut version, created in 1965, was killed off in the late ‘80s), he’s the best parallel for Mean Green.

Commonalities:
Scientists turn into super strong, not-so-bright brutes.

Differences:
Only that one is a character known by everyone, one that represents its parent company to the wider world via merchandising, a ‘70s TV program and two major films, and one that essentially is misunderstood and known by other characters to be goodhearted . These are distinctions that elude the other entirely: only the nerds know of Blockbuster.

Alternate histories:

BB: Chemist Mark Desmond is inadvertently exposed to radiation, and when under duress is transformed into a childlike brute possessed of immense strength. Referred to as the Blockbuster, the creature becomes world-renowned for its destructive rages, but occasionally is allied with other super-human operatives, who often understand that Blockbuster is misunderstood and essentially goodhearted. Meanwhile, Desmond is most often haunted by the creature’s exploits, and thus travels the world as an outcast. A lot of stuff involving repressed childhood trauma, multiple personalities and exile to other planets has happened too!

HU: Physicist Bruce Banner bombards himself with radiation, and sporadically is transformed into a nearly mindless brute possessed of immense strength called the Hulk. His unscrupulous brother manipulates Banner to perpetrate destruction and to be enraged by the sight of Captain America when in the Hulk form . Eventually, the Hulk falls in with various super-human criminals, and finally dies in battle.