Marvel’s animated division through Lionsgate will unleash two direct-to-DVD animated films featuring the Hulk facing off against Thor and mixing it up with Wolverine on January 27, 2009.

The two encounters will be issued as a single DVD release, Hulk vs., in a standard edition, special two-disc and Blu-ray versions with various bonus feature material.  The raging Hulk will be voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who Hulked out for both Ultimate Avengers DVDs from Marvel; Steve Blum is Wolverine, and Matt Wolf is Thor.  The stories were co-written by Chris Yost with Supervising Producer Craig Kyle.

The three characters are among Marvel Comics’ most popular heroes (in the Hulk’s case, often anti-hero, of course) over the years.  Hulk and Thor, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, go back to the early 1960s, while Wolverine first appeared in a now extremely valuable issue of The Incredible Hulk, created by writer Len Wein, drawn by artist Herb Trimpe. When he became an X-Man a few years later, writer Chris Claremont added much more to his back story, as did Frank Miller, among others. 

This marks the first appearance of the characters from the main Marvel Comics universe (as opposed to the Ultimates universe) in the company’s most recent DVD animated film releases, which also included Iron Man and Dr. Strange.  The Hulk comes to Asgard, fabled home of the Norse Gods as depicted in numerous Marvel comics over the decades, and we’ll also see many familiar supporting cast members from Thor comics.  Hulk and Wolverine meet in the the wild, not unlike their first comics encounter more than three decades ago. 

Look for a Buzzine review of Hulk vs. Thor, Hulk vs. Wolverine in late January, 2009.