Slate magazine has put together this color spectrum of cartoon characters, which drew in some comic book characters as well.   
 

Clash of the Comics 29/30

Mr. Fantastic vs. the HULK

 
Origin:  

In terms of the Fantastic Four, Reed's exposure to the Cosmic Rays affected him the least in terms of his presence as a hero.  It is really his massive intellect which defines him more so than his super abilities.  So his origin is either the cosmic rays or just born that way. 

Doctor Bruce Banner used to be a renowned nuclear physicist until some pesky brat named Rick Jones ruined his life by sneaking into his laboratory where he was conducting a gamma-bomb test. Selfless hero that he was, Banner risked his life and took the full blast of the bomb which knocked him out. He awoke later in the hospital with minor injuries; however he learned that whenever he got angry he turned into a giant green (gray at first) monster. Everything from his career to his relationships were all ruined, he was constantly pursued by the military so he decided to hold the boy responsible hostage as his sidekick.

 
R: In both cases we get the "radiation causes powers" origin, which is not really accurate (as it usually jut causes death).  Aside from their powers the two have still very similar stories.  I think though I have to go with Reed, because his involved in addition going to space, and who wouldn't want to go there.   

U: Hulk – Although both characters’ stories display a sense of science gone wrong, Banner was transformed into the Hulk while doing a noble deed where as Reed was disobeying orders and putting the life of three others in jeopardy. Plus, Hulk’s whole life was changed due to his transformation where Reed continued to work as a scientist and didn’t have to confront as many problems.

 
Powers:

Super intelligent and the ability to stretch himself (which also gives limited invulnerability)

The Hulk has a potentially unbounded degree of super strength which fluctuates in balance with his emotional state. He has an incredible level of healing factor surpassing even Wolverine’s and although he can’t fly, his jumps are so high and far that it’s almost the same. More so, when the Hulk reverse-transforms into Banner, he is also one of the smartest person.

 
R: I will go with Hulk here as really the list of non-omnipotent characters in different comic book universes that he couldn't beat can be counted on one hand.   

U: The Hulk would stomp if there was no preparation, but if there was preparation the outcome of the match would be up in the air. It would depend on whatever counter-measure Reed devises and how angry the Hulk could get.

Costume:

Now in the Future Foundation costume, previously some version of the Fantastic Four costume (which usually is depicted as stretching along with him.) 

The Hulk doesn’t have a costume as his clothes begin to tear when he transforms into the Hulk and he gets both taller and wider. However, he does wear super large purple pants.

 
R: The Hulk's costume is pretty iconic but so is Reed's.  I will go with Reed here, because its has been somewhat successfully updated as well.   

U: Although no one wears purple pants like the Hulk, Mr. Fantastic takes this for having a high tech costume and of his own design.

 
Personality:

Marvel's resident scientific genius and nerd.  Sometimes doesn't know when to let the science talk stop.  Still he is one of Marvel's best leaders, best husbands and best fathers.   

The Hulk is a monster that is restrained with the presence of Banner who is able to lessen the damage caused by his alter ego and even help portray him as a noble character. It’s a sacrifice that Banner has to make for the rest of humanity because without him the Hulk would be much more savage and dangerous.

 
R: A tie here, they are both such iconic characters, and the archetypes of their behaviour are pretty strongly rooted.  

U: The Hulk is a more selfless hero than Reed, but Reed is also the family man by being a good husband and father for the most part. More importantly, without Reed, we wouldn’t have Val!

 
Aesthetics:

Plays the nerd role to perfection, and plays it cool.   

The Hulk is a pop icon and is recognized just about everywhere so much so that he even has an expression associated with him: “hulking out”.

 
R: I am going with my bias here and going with the cool nerd. Bruce Banner is a pretty cool nerd too, but not so much when he is the Hulk. 

U: Hulk for having his own expression and being more popular. Where the Hulk originally found a home amongst college kids, Mr. Fantastic would be hated for being too smart and making everyone else look dumb with his various degrees and even graduating early!

 
Best Story: 

Although it is not only his story, I like the original story with the Silver Surfer, where the team goes up against Galactus.   

Although most stories revolving around the Hulk seem to over weigh the fights over the actual plot of the story, the ones that do not follow this agenda are actually better.   For example, the stories that involved the separation of Banner and the Hulk or the one where Banner wanted to commit suicide after the death of Betty Ross are noteworthy.

 
R: Interplanetary fun versus internal struggle - i can't give a tie to all of these, so I will go with the Hulk.   

U: The Hulk usually just stays in his own private corner (aside for World War Hulk); Mr. Fantastic has had a lot of development and stories as of late. He is also well represented in Marvel’s event titles.

 
Fun Fact:  

He is not just regarded as intelligent in comics - Business Week ranked him as one of the most intelligent super heroes.

The Hulk is based off of classic stories Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein.

 
R: The Reed fun fact I provided is not so great after all, because Bruce Banner is also on the list.  The allusion to classic literature wins here - Hulk Smash! 

U: Hulk for being based off of Frankenstein is pretty cool. I have always thought that the Hulk book would work well as a horror story.

 
Media Appearance:  

In animated form with the Fantastic four series and on the big screen in the FF movies

The Hulk vs. animated movie was pretty good, especially the Hulk vs. Thor where Loki separated Banner from the Hulk and vice-versa and learned how much of a mistake he’d made. The Hulk has also gotten two movies in his name, although both of them were origin stories. Surprisingly, the Hulk is also referenced in comedy shows like the Simpsons and Family Guy.

 
R: I thought Reed in the first FF movie was well portrayed and better than the treatment Banner got.  Of course Banner is in the upcoming Avengers, but on the third actor for the character now.  

U: The Hulk for having two movies and an animated movie. Plus, he will also be in Avengers. 

 
Whereabouts: 

Leader of the Future Foundation.   

Currently on a rampage and not in control of himself serving the Serpent as the Breaker of Worlds.

 
R: I will go with reed, because being in control of vast power is kind of important

U: Mr. Fantastic for being in control of himself and teaming up with his enemies such as Doctor Doom and the Wizard in order to confront a group of “evil” Reeds from multiple alternate realities.

 
Mr. Fantastic: 5 + 4 = 9

Hulk: 3 + 5 = 8 
 
Hulk doesn't smash this one, Reed wins!

The brain is said to be the most complex thing ever observed in the universe.  There are differeing ways in which to represent this complexity one is simply through pure math.  The number of synapses is somewhere in the range of 1 x 10 to the power of 13 and 1 x 10 to the power of 15 with the 100 billion neurons.  In comparison there are 200 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, more than the number of neurons in one brain, but quite a bit smaller than the number of synapses.  In a more abstract sense, the human brain is capable of such a wide array of abilities, from science to art to sex and to war.  One of the hallmarks of what is considered to be exceptional brain power is that of memory (though this is often considered only one of many aspects of intelligence.)   Memory itself is not a single mechanism but rather what are generally regarded to be three mechanisms -  sensory, short term and long term.  Sensory relates directly to the senses, in that information is stored almost as an immediate perception of what occurred.  Short term refers to information which is more recent  (and more recent than most people give it credit for - several seconds to a minute.)  Short term memory also involves a maximum capacity of 7 +/- 2 items.  It is only with long term memory that we get into what we consider real memory.  This is memory that has to be rehearsed in some way.  This rehearsal is what it takes for a person with potential to become something like a lawyer or engineer or doctor.  With this in mind it is interesting that in the past year two separate story arcs in Marvel have dealt with the removal of memory and its replacement.  In one case in the story arc "Stark Resilient" Tony has rebooted his brain from a backup he had stored.  In another Loki is reborn and communicated with the spirit of his old self his reveals clues of his former identity.  Both involve the restoration of memory through some method based in this case either on science fiction or on fantasy.  Is such a re-creation actually possible though.  John Stuart Mill is considered by some to be the smartest man that ever lived, seeing as he was able to conceive of and write abstract political essays at a young age, but this ability to perceive a different living condition for people within the state was not a factor of his memory, or at least not in itself.  Empathy and creativity were also important factors, as was analysis, each of which is an aspect of intelligence that falls ouside the realm of memory.  The same can be said for any child geniuses, especially so for Beethoven, who could compose before he was 6.  Thus rebooting a brain would require more than simply a recollection of all that was thought in a person's lifetime, because even if such thoughts could be reintroduced they wouldn't have any real meaning or context (similar in this case to Eisenberg's uncertainty principle where you can know the location of a particle or its momentum, but not both.)  The rebooting of a brain then would require not just downloading memories but rather an an entire replication of the brain's structure, including giving the proper emotional weight to all the events which had occurred in a person's life (that is to say that there is some worth in nurture over nature as well - Tony Stark may be the smartest person alive, but he had to have the conditions for intelligence to develop.)  In this case therefore even though it is more fantastical and based on a kind of magic, the reboot of Loki's brain is actually more realistic, because it is a representation of his spirit which is communicating with him, filling in not so much his memory gaps, but the more important stuff, like who he was because of what he had done.  This is a rare case of a fantasy concept being more believable than a science based one. 

I watched Captain America last night after resisting temptation to watch it this weekend.  I had fun and thought it was a good movie (though the claims it is the best Marvel movie yet I think are a bit overblown.)   One thing I thought of this morning was the connections that movies make and their associations and connotations which certain movies contain.  Of course as a comic book fan, I am familiar with Dum Dum Dugan, but not everyone in the world is, and so some must have heard the name of this character and associated it with the events of this weekend's tragedy in Norway (where the killer was using dum dum bullets.)  Some probably even felt a sense of outrage at this event and thought less of the movie for promoting gun use and violence.  It is interesting to consider though if something might have been changed if the producers knew the movie would be released the same weekend.  It may seem far-fetched but really is not.  Advertising for Die Hard with a Vengeance was cut back after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building.  The terrrorist acts on 9/11 caused a few implications.  First of all one of the early trailers for Spider-Man had to be scrapped altogether, whereas Peter Jackson was going so far as to consider changing the name of the second instalment of the Lord of the Rings before he realized that fan outrage would make more people angry than it would placate.  Of course, they couldn't override almost 50 years of comic book history just because of the events of one madman in Norway, but if they had known might they have left out the name (but kept the bowler hat)?

The smurfs is kind of a stretch for a comic book related movie, but my rationale behind my comic book related associations have been superceded by my demands for fashion. So from last night's premiere we have Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara and Katy Perry, but Katy was really the standout here.

Katy is one of the fashionistas that I almost love to hate with an over reliance on kitsch. That having been said she has also been seen to pull off an amazing dress every now and then. This, however, is probably the first time I have seen her pull off kitsch and look so good doing it.

I have run across an interesting concept twice in the past week in different forms of media.   It deals with our interpretation of what is perfection, and how it is a folly to conceive of perfection.   The first instance occurred in Tron Legacy.   Kevin Flynn has created the Grid by his own perception of perfection and has created an avatar that will make this perfection real.   Unfortunately for him the avatar’s conception of perfection, at least as he is concerned involves the removal of anything undesirable, including the ISOs (a group of spontaneously formed life forms) and the users themselves.  What is left is a sort of dystopian existence.   Alternately in the For Tomorrow story arc featuring Superman, a pocket dimension is created (but I can’t say why so as to not ruin the plot for those who haven’t read it) in which perfection is also sought.  What is interesting in both cases and becomes apparent is that perfection is not really achievable.  There are multiple facets of this, the first being one of simple chemistry or physics – entropy drives the universe towards chaos and not towards order.   Thus even if perfection could be achieved it is still only for an instant.  The layout and design of Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican is one thing in my life which I have seen which been be said to be as close to perfection, but essentially from the moment it was created it started to become less perfect (due to wearing or erosion of the monuments and architecture or simply the passage of people.)  Despite this flaw of perfection there is another.   Perfection is by nature almost entirely subjective and not objective, or at least so as it applies to subjective concepts.   Therefore you can have a perfect cube of material (though even this is tenuous thanks to entropy) but you cannot have a perfect society, because a perfect society means different things to different people.  As various characters in these different stories begin to realize the concept of perfection is inherently flawed when it is a single individual projecting their concept of perfection on others.  Some may like it, but some definitely will not, and therein lies the exact dilemma of why perfection is impossible.