A Cult Classic Comedy Flop Predicted Marvel’s Red Hulk (Or Did It?)

When the mighty Marvel Comics duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby debuted the Hulk in 1962, the big fella was initially gray. According to Lee, this was to keep the character from being identified with any one ethnic group — and he might’ve stayed that way had colorist Stan Goldberg not struggled with the gray shading. Lee could see that the color was all wrong, so, after that first issue, he decreed that the Hulk must be green, which, aside from flashbacks to the character’s origin in 1984, is the way things were in the Marvel Universe until 2008. (Even reprints of the first issue now portray the Hulk as green.)

Then Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness decided to go and add a different, bolder hue to the character: red. This was not Bruce Banner’s Hulk, but the laboratory-created alter-ego of Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross, who was keen to go toe-to-toe with his bête noire for a change. This was a huge deal for comic book readers, but didn’t really register outside of that world. Most people had no idea there was a Red Hulk until they started seeing trailers and commercials for “Captain America: Brave New World,” which sought to goose ticket sales by spoiling Harrison Ford’s transformation, as Thunderbolt Ross, into the ruby ruffian.

We know Loeb and McGuinnes are the creators of the Red Hulk, but what influenced them? Did they come up with this idea on a whim? Or did they nick it from someone else? Basically, what we’re asking is: Did they steal it from John C. Reilly in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story?”

Jake Kasdan’s “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” is a spot-on spoof of showbiz biopics. It’s so devastatingly accurate that you’d think filmmakers would stop emulating the formula it so mercilessly parodied. Alas, it feels like we still get at least one movie a year that hews to this structure (like 2024’s disappointingly listless “Bob Marley: One Love”).

It’s possible that Hollywood has forgotten “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” because it was a box office flop upon its theatrical release in December 2007. Of course, those of us who ventured out to see it instantly fell in love with it, and, at the time, comic book fans were wondering if Jeph Loeb was among the film’s fervent admirers.

At one point in the movie, Reilly’s Dewey Cox lashes out at his manager, Schwartzberg (David Krumholtz), because his network variety show is cratering in the ratings. This leads to the following exchange:

Cox: Schwartzberg, have you seen the ratings? We’re getting our ass kicked every week by “The Incredible Hulk.”

Schwartzberg: Well, last night’s episode was a very special episode. They revealed that the Incredible Hulk has an evil twin, and he’s not green: he’s red.

Cox: I know, it was amazing. Did you see it?

Schwartzberg: You can’t compete with that.

Considering that the Red Hulk had yet to be introduced, some viewers have wondered if Dewey Cox inspired Loeb to create the character. It would be hilarious if this were the case, but the Red Hulk debuted the following month, so it was just a wild coincidence. Still, Marvel Studios could do a heckuva lot worse than writing Dewey Cox into the universe (though Reilly would then be pulling double duty, seeing as he’s already appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Rhomann Dey in “Guardians of the Galaxy”).