Thanks to the recent news as of this writing that we might see
RED HULK in one of the upcoming
MARVEL CINEMATIC films, I thought it would be a great time to go back and revisit
Jeph Loeb and
Ed Mcguinness' stint on HULK. These two are no strangers to epic books with larger-than-life characters (
Remember Superman/Batman?) so there's pretty much a chance I'll have a liking of this book and series as well. The cover itself was enough for me to buy this book. Intriguing enough...WHO IS THIS RED HULK??? Well, thanks to these two guys, everyone was asking that very question for months.
The long and short of it: Abomination has been killed. Well that's not entirely accurate: murdered. And not just murdered...beat up and then shot with a really big gun. The story opens with Doctor Leonard Samson and She-Hulk going over the crime scene along with SHIELD's Maria Hill, Iron Man and General Thunderbolt Ross. All signs point to THE HULK, but the HULK is giving off enough heat to turn the sand in his footprints to glass. The story is told in half-flashbacks, and then the SOVIET SUPER SOLDIERS show up (because as fans know, Emil Blonsky is Russian) and a fight ensues. So there's a murder mystery as well as an identity mystery going down.
It's not a bad book on re-read, but I remember feeling a little jaded at the time it came out. The artwork were very large panels (double-splash pages, splashes, half-splash and 3-panel splashes...so much so that the 2nd print wraparound cover IS a direct double-page splash in the book. So it's easy to feel a little cheated in the pacing and the artwork of the book. But it just look so darn good. I love MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE and you can totally tell Ed McGuinness cut his artistic teeth learning to draw from the sculpts of HE-MAN figs. So while I felt like I might have been taken for a ride money-wise, the artwork does fit the book.
Then there's the whole BIG reveal thing...which doesn't happen for a LOOOONG time in this series, which drove fans and readers nuts and then when the big reveal happened, it left many scratching their heads. Just in case there's one or two people on the planet that doesn't know who the RED HULK is, I won't give out his identity. But it's definitely weird.
Anyway, this issue has started to "heat" up a little on the back issue market thanks to the movie news, but you can pick up the trades or hardcovers relatively cheap enough, so if you want a fun story, just go that route. Otherwise, go dig yourself a copy or two of this book out and sit on it. In the meantime, you can see more of Red in the HULK and the AGENTS OF S.M.A.S.H cartoon on Disney XD.*
*You can read more of my comic reviews (and write your own) right here on ComicCollectorLive.com, your #1 site for cataloging, researching and collecting your favorite comic books!