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Every Marvel Release in 1988

The only Marvel release of 1988 was The Incredible Hulk Returns, which runs about 1h 40m. Here’s where it fits.

Every release this year came from outside the MCU: The Incredible Hulk Returns.

Marvel in 1988

Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno reunited on May 22, 1988, for The Incredible Hulk Returns, an NBC TV movie that did much better in the ratings than a reunion was expected to. It also doubled as a backdoor pilot. Eric Allan Kramer played Thor, more than twenty years before Chris Hemsworth, in a story meant to spin him off into his own series. That series never happened, but the idea of the Hulk sharing the screen with Thor came back in The Avengers and later Thor: Ragnarok.

In syndication, Marvel Productions bundled its cartoons into the Marvel Action Universe block, which ran from 1988 to 1991 and would later carry the X-Men pilot that led, years down the line, to the 1992 animated series.

One detail ties this TV movie to the MCU directly. Here, Thor is summoned by Dr. Donald Blake, the mortal alter ego from the comics. Thor (2011) nods to the same name when Erik Selvig hands Thor a fake ID and clothes belonging to Jane Foster's ex, Donald Blake. The Hulk Returns also makes a fun double feature with Thor: Ragnarok, the film that finally gave the two characters a proper buddy story.

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