To quote Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley in "Bubba Ho-Tep" while looking at himself in the mirror: "
How could I have gone from the king of rock'n'roll to this? An old guy in a restroom in East Texas with a *growth* on his pecker.That's how I felt for the Hulk while reading this latest, and extremely delayed, issue.
What the hell is Jeph Loeb doing? Greg Pak put his heart and soul to give us a Hulk that everybody loved. Planet Hulk was a homerun for Marvel as far as Purple Panted Super Heroes are concerned. A masterpiece even. World War Hulk was a bit of a let down, but it was an action packed good effort and brought Hulk back to Earth.
Now Jeph Loeb took over the title and crapped on everything Greg Pak worked so hard to create. How could Hulk have gone from The King and Ruler of Sakaar to this? I big dumb green guy with no clear direction or growth of character.
“Hulk” has been pretty to look at, but I’m actually getting a little sick of Ed McGuiness’ “cartoony” art. The colors are vibrant as usual and the action panels leap off the page, but it just seems shallow and without purpose. It’s all for nothing, but that’s not the artist’s fault, that’s the writer’s fault.
**
SPOILERS AHEAD!! (not that it matters)**
Issue 10 is a setup for a team battle (
to the death apparently) between Green Hulk and Red Hulk (
Is it just me or did everybody stop caring about finding out his true identity?).
Ready for Jeph Loeb’s truly genius approach at making this happen? (
In case you missed it, that was sarcasm.)
Here we go.
Hulk is dreaming (
yes, Hulk dreams.. and why the hell has he not reverted back to Banner again?), anyway, Hulk is dreaming of Jarella (
one of his great loves from way back in Incredible Hulk #140, 1971... an Editor’s note would have been appreciate BTW. I had to look this crap up) only to be plucked from his dream by “Big Blue Man”, otherwise known as The Grandmaster (
wasn’t he dead? Oh well). Grandmaster promises to reunite Hulk with Jarella once more if he completes a task for him, but Hulk needs to assemble a team of his own choosing. Hulk can pick the people, but Grandmaster gets to chose the time period from which to chose them from (
this is why we see a blue masked Dr.Strange on the cover).
So, Hulk picks Silver Surfer, Namor and Dr. Strange. Grandmaster plucked them all from periods of great love tragedies. Surfer’s origin where he abandoned his love to be Galactus’s Herald and save his home planet, Namor from his wedding day where his Bride was killed and Dr.Strange from when he lost Clea to the “mindless ones”.
All of them fueled by their tragic loss and their desire to be with those loved ones again.
Then we find out that Grandmaster’s brother, The Collector, is also setting up his own team chosen by the Red Hulk. Red Hulk chose Baron Mordo, Terrax and Tiger Shark (
Yawn) and he affectionately calls his team “The Offenders” (
Bigger Yawn)
So this was really all a setup by the 2 “Elders” who were apparently bored and wanted to pit Super people against each other.
In a final kick in the pants to his “brother”, Grandmaster waves his little finger at Green Hulk and SHAZAM! Hulk is intelligent again.
OH MY GOD! …COP OUT!
With every passing issue, Jeph Loeb is insulting my intelligence. But this thing is like a car wreck.. I just can’t look away.
Bottom Line: As has been the norm with this title so far, it’s pretty to look at (
Ooooh… bright colors) and the stories have been entertaining, provided you check your brain at the door. I have money to spare, so I don’t care.. but save yourself some money on this one and pick it up in the back issue bin in 6 months.
Thanks for reading.