Hulk: Fury Files: Online, Comic Books & the Movies Meet

Frank Tieri tells us about getting into Marvel's movie continuity with Hulk: Fury Files, a Marvel.com exclusive digital comic.
 
We spoke with writer Frank Tieri earlier about his Marvel.com exclusive comic, Marvels Channel: Monsters, Myths and Marvels, but what about his other one? That one with Marvel’s Jade Giant that not follows through from the movie continuity and features a meeting between Nick Fury and the Hulk, but that also just may have implications for the future of  Marvel's movie Universe?

Frank’s glad you asked...

Newsarama: So Frank, Incredible Hulk: Fury Files ... this is a story set in the movie's continuity, and presumably tied to the larger, interlocking continuity between the films, right? Where does your story pick up in regards to what viewers saw in the Hulk film, as well as what we saw in Iron Man?

Frank Tieri: Our story acts as a prequel of sorts to The Incredible Hulk. At this stage not too many people know about the Hulk’s existence, not even S.H.I.E.L.D., and that’s the point we’re at.

And yeah, this absolutely takes place in the larger, interlocking Marvel movie continuity—and that’s what probably makes this all the more exciting. We’re following the movie’s continuity and they’re following ours. This all counts, folks.

NRAMA: Broad strokes, from a creative side of things, are you keeping things more in tune with the film continuity and what was set up there - especially in regards to characterizations, etc, or are you doing more the "comic book" versions of the characters?

Tieri: As I said earlier, the movie continuity is our continuity—and yes, that includes how the characters themselves are portrayed.

But here’s the thing—while the Edward Norton Bruce Banner/Hulk characterization was fairly established in the films, Nick Fury’s was not. Yeah, he has a few cool lines at the end of Iron Man after the credits, but that’s really it—which meant he was pretty much a blank slate for us.
 
Sort of.

It’s clear to anyone who saw that scene and reads Marvel’s Ultimate Universe that that’s their version of Nick Fury that was on that screen—so that’s the version I went with. And the studio was more than cool with that because that’s the version they wanted, too.

See how nice everything works out sometimes?

NRAMA: While we're still early on in the continuity that's growing here, just what are the connections between the Iron Man and Hulk characters at this point?

Tieri: Well, if you look at things up to this point, there are three connections between the Hulk’s world and Iron Man’s:

One. the scene at the end of Iron Man where Nick Fury meets Tony Stark and talks about an Avengers Initiative

Two, the scene at the end of Incredible Hulk where Tony Stark meets Thunderbolt Ross and talks about a Hulk problem

And three, ourstory where Fury meets that “problem” face to face
 
NRAMA: So why exactly is Nick Fury face to face with the Hulk then? What is it that’s brought them to this point?
 
Tieri: On the surface, it starts out as a “two guys in a bar” story—just two guys meeting for the first time in a bar, striking up a conversation about sports, having a few drinks... it’s a scene right out of any bar anywhere in the world. But of course there’s a lot more going on here. What Fury’s actually doing is a little re-con on Banner. Like I said earlier, Fury has very little info on Banner at this point, so he’s sort of feeling him out. All he knows is what he’s heard through whispers and vague reports-- that Thunderbolt Ross has somehow finally succeeded in creating something out of his super soldier experiments... and somehow this meek, milksop of a man is it.

So in other words, Fury doesn’t yet know what Banner becomes, that he turns into a big green monster—all he knows is that if Ross finally did create a super soldier, Fury intends to see it live and in person, the protests of his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents be damned. After all, he’s Nick $%^in’ Fury—he’s lived through all sorts of wars and crazy crap the public has no idea about. He can handle the likes of whatever Banner has become.

Or so he thinks, of course...

NRAMA: How connected is what you're doing with the films? Were you told to move the pieces from x to y in order to get characters closer to where they may be for the next round of movie projects?

Tieri: Yes. Let’s put it this way... by the end of our story, fans might get a better idea of what role Nick Fury might play in the upcoming movies.

And I’m really not allowed to say much more beyond that.

NRAMA: The scope of the story - is just a single tale in the life of Fury and the Hulk?

Tieri: We’ll see. As of now it’s a “one off” but the possibility of doing more has been discussed. Like anything else, the fans will decide how far we go with these.
 
NRAMA: Some fans might think these online comics mark a return for you to Marvel – but that’s not really the case, is it? You have a lot more stuff coming out of there, isn’t that right?

Tieri: Right. Because most of my output has been from DC lately, I think some people got the wrong idea I was exclusive with them. But the truth was, I’ve still been working at both companies, it’s just that a lot of the Marvel stuff hasn’t seen the light of day yet.

As for what some of that stuff is... in addition to a lot of these online comics (This Hulk project, the Marvels Channel stuff (attach link to previous interview), and a number of other things in the works there), there should be an announcement any day now about a Punisher thing I’m doing. Then there’s this Avalanche story I’ve got for X-Men: Manifest Destiny # 5, a couple of one shots and a pretty cool limited series involving a certain Canadian roughneck who I’m... eh, it’s probably too early to talk about that one yet.

So in addition to all this, what I’ve got going on at DC and a couple of other things in the works that are not at the “Big Two”—yeah, I’ve been pretty damned busy. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, ya know?

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