even their names sound lame!
What comics did they appear in?

NFL Superpro had his own series. Speedball had his own series and was a founding member of New Warriors afterwards. Hindsight Lad was just a kind of spoof hero/mascot in the New Warriors series in the second half of its run. Cypher was a member of the New Mutants who thankfully got killed off.

Cancer was in Avengers, first appearing in Avengers #72

Which means he was part of the organization known as Zodiac which the Avengers have fought multiple times over the years correct? Or is this a different guy by the name of Cancer?

yea he was in Zodiac..then there was Cancer II that was just a robot-looking Cancer...

I rather enjoyed the run in the Avengers had with Zodiac when Taurus was running the Zodiac. It was somewhere in the 120s or 130s numbered issues I think. Anyway it had Thor as the chairman and leader of the Avengers! How cool is that? The arguably most powerful, longest lived, and most experienced fighter on the team leading the Avengers.

With the upcoming Hulk movie, I thought we could talk about the big guy himself a little.

He is rumoured to be one of, if not THE strongest character. Is this true? What are the limits to his strength...
Who is the closest contender in the strength stakes, Thor maybe?
Who is Grey Hulk?

Well as far as physical strength is concerned quite possibly the Hulk is the strongest(when he's savage and green and ticked off). Some other characters who are possibly in the Hulk's strength range are Thor, Sasquatch, Namor, Abomination, Rom, Thing, Silver Surfer, and Adam Warlock.

The grey Hulk is also known as his Joe Fixit personality. He is slightly weaker but is cunning and ruthless. The grey Hulk is one of the different manifestations of the Hulk due to Bruce Banner's Multiple Personality Disorder.

Abomination is actually stronger then Hulk, but only at Hulk's normal "calm"(there really is no "calm" level)level...but Hulk can have adrenaline rushes due to heightened emotional states causing him to have greater amounts of strength then the Abomination.

At certain times yes. It seems to depend on which incarnation of the Hulk though. They recently fought and BANNER punched the Abomination off of his feet. This partciular battle the Hulk decisively won and the Abomination was totally outclassed.

I have no idea who the Abomination is... perhaps a little background info...?

He was a spy by the name of Emil Blonsky. Thanks to a heavy exposure to gamma radiation he became a super strong behemoth like the Hulk. Unlike Hulk is exposure was so strong that he does not transform from human form to the Abomination. He is actually more massive and certainly as strong as some of the various forms of the Hulk and stronger than some of the Hulk's other forms. He hates Banner with an insane passion especially after recently learning that Banner had an affair with his wife. The Abomination by the way is also the one responsible for killing/practically killing Banner's wife Betty. She has been in suspended animation for sometime now until a method for her to be revived is discovered she will remain that way. The Abomination is one of the Hulk's A List foes and can arguably be considered his number one enemy.

How often does Marvel release Essential volumes? Once every few months or so? Also, how many essential X-Men are there?

The next Essential volume that I know of to be released is the Essential Human Torch which reprints the Human Torch solo stories from Strange Tales by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It's due for release in August. Apparently Essential volumes of the various Marvel series have been bumped back for a short period of time due to Marvel rereleasing the various hardcover Marvel Masterworks Volumes of Silver Age Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Thor, X-Men, etc. These are full color reprint volumes that are hardcover, high quality paper, printing, and recoloring.

Juts podnering, what will happen to this thread now that an actuall forum ahs beenc reated, will it be closed or left open?