It’s a rare thing when you go to a movie and the audience applauds at the end. Most recently this happened when I was at a preview screening of Young People Fucking. But it also happened at a regular screening of The Incredible Hulk.

It’s testimony to the well-crafted nature of the film. It strikes the right balance between real life grit, believable character development, and enough comic book action to keep audiences engaged.

Obviously the filmmakers have learnt from the success of films like Batman Begins and Superman Returns. Not to mention the failure or weakness of X-Men 3, Fantastic Four, and the original Hulk by Ang Lee.

I wasn’t fond of Edward Norton in the new version, even though I thought he did a great acting job. He just doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy I envision Bruce Banner from the comic book to be.

Nonetheless, the strength of the movie makes that a minor quibble.

But what I am very curious about is if a geographical detail in this new version of The Hulk will result in Canada’s superhero team making an appearance in any potential sequels.

At one point, Banner ends up in British Columbia. In the comics, the Hulk goes on a rampage, necessitating Canada’s official superhero team, Alpha Flight, to battle the beast.

Alpha Flight was created as a spin-off from the creator of the new Uncanny X-Men (they were the team where Wolverine came from).

I had hoped that Alpha Flight might make an appearance in the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, but it doesn’t look like they will be. Which is a real disappointment, since they played a huge role in his origins.

But it looks like they’ve changed the storyline as they’re using more recent characters, such as Deadpool, Gambit, and Beak.

Anyhow, if the Hulk does end up fighting Alpha Flight, it’d be great to see characters from the original lineup such as Shaman, Talisman, and Snowbird, who represent some of the only Native and Inuit superheroes in Marvel comics, as well as Northstar and Aurora, two of the only Quebecois superheroes too.

It would be very understandable if they did tie in Alpha Flight as one of its main members, scientist Walter Langowski from Vancouver, used the same transformation process to turn himself into Sasquatch.

In the comics, Langowski and Banner were colleagues and friends.

Keep your fingers crossed.