No, you didn't read it wrong... The title really does say Blue Hulk & the Pet Avengers.
Apparently this was mentioned during the Marvel Panel at this weekend's inaugral Long Beach Comic Con when Jeph Loeb took a Question & Answers session. This snippet was buried among Newsarama's coverage, as a one-liner:
The final bit of Hulk talk was that Loeb's daughter, Audrey Loeb, will be writing a Blue Hulk and the Pet Avengers story.
Now, for those not in the know, Audrey Loeb isn't just Jeph's little girl. She is also a writer who has been writing the small comic-strip adventures of the Green Hulk, Blue Hulk, Red Hulk in the back of the regular Hulk series. Although the strip has had to say goodbye to G-Man's beloved Chris Giarusso (who has been working on his own series, G-Man: Cape Crisis), it has received Carlos Silva as a worthy artistic replacement.
The stories of the three Hulks (Green, Blue & Red) are cute, and follow in the same innocent humour that we've come to expect from back-up strips like Mini Marvels, Franklin Richards: Son Of A Genius and the old Marvel Bull-Pens. However, they are NOT considered as canon. Therefore, the Blue Hulk has not yet featured in any actual comicbook story lines. Althouugh, anyone who has read Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers will already be suspicious of whether they are canon in Earth-616 continuity. If thesy team up with the Blue hulk, perhaps this would confirm that the Pet Avengers aren't part of regular continuity. Who knows...?
It's hard to know if this new title of 'Blue Hulk and the Pet Avengers' will be another back-up strip, or an actual title. So far, we know that the Pet Avengers are due for another mini series in February 2010. However, previous news indicated that would be titled just 'Pet Avengers' (dropping Lockjaw's name), and it has already been confirmed that this will be written by Chris Eliopoulos (who wrote the first series).
It is possible that the Blue Hulk will team-up with the Pet Avengers, as a back-up strip to the new Pet Avengers. The Pet Avengers have already received a second mini series in Marvel's exclusive online section (by subscription only), entitled Tails of the Pet Avengers which went into detail about individual members of the team. Perhaps the Pet Avengers are so successful that Marvel has already commissioned a third series, featuring the first appearance for the Blue Hulk outside of the three-panel format?
I'm sure some people will groan. However, I know others enjoy these stories. I've really enjoyed both Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers, and the adventures fo the 3 coloured Hulks. Personally, I'm looking forward to hearing more news about this, and wish Audrey Loeb the best of luck with it.
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