It's so hard to pin down the one thing that makes this book so terrible, but be warned, Hulk fans: Incredible Hulk #1, writer Jason Aaron and artist Mark Silvestri's relaunch of the green-skinned goliath has all the pop of a wet bottle rocket.
Here's the story: apparantly, for the last several months, (and for reasons yet to be explained) the Hulk has been living peacefully WITHIN the Earth with a race of Moloids...when suddenly, Hulk is attacked by those puny humans who are always hunting and hounding Hulk. They attack for the standard 4 pages (nong) and then ask Hulk to come to the surface and stop...BRUCE BANNER...who has somehow been separated from ol' Jade Jaws and is experimenting on animals. The book ends with an angry, pissed-off and maniacal image of Banner, ready for the confrontation.
Folks, this is no PLANET HULK and Aaron is showing that he is no Greg Pak. Or Peter David. Or even Jeph Loeb. When I pick up a copy of Hulk, I want to see one thing:
smashing. I want to feel the comic shake in my hands when HULK GETS MAD. The terrific thing about this character is that he has both heroic and destructive tendencies, but those characteristics are so defining to the story and the mythology, that everything involving a HULK story can either be incredibly unique and epic, or sadly dull and boring. And INCREDIBLE HULK #1 is
borrrring. Not only is there some unHulklike dialogue, but there's intelligent INTERNAL dialogue by none other than the Hulk himself, too. Great for a brooding, solo comic hero like BATMAN, but not so much for a character like HULK, who spent the first 20 years of his life crushing things. *sighs*
To Jason Aaron's credit, he mentions John Byrne's run on HULK as some of his first introductions to that character in an interview in the back of the comic. I was a kid when I read those Byrne issues and I loved them. In fact, if I recall, Banner and Hulk were split into two people in those issues as well...but there was so much action, and destruction, and fist-pounding that you WANTED Hulk and Banner brought back together, which was a simple, straight-forward story. In Aaron's book? It's uneventful, anti-climactic...and a snoozer. Oh, and Mark Silvestri? Not his best work either...but granted, I've never been a die-hard Silvestri fan. I enjoyed his X-Men stuff, but his standard cover to INCREDIBLE HULK #1, with veins-popping-out-everywhere-Hulk looks more like MAN-THING than MAN-MONSTER. No thanks. I'll take the PLAIN WHITE SKETCH COVER, please.
The HULK Universe has been dull for quite some time, but even Loeb's RED HULK run had at least SOME element of uniqueness in that it was at least nice to look at. Skip this series or wait for the trade. Maybe it'll be better as a 6-issue arc, but I don't know if I'll wait around or it. BUT YOU CAN be the judge! Go to ComicCollectorLive.com and type HULK (2011) in the search engine and you'll see all the variant covers to this book, and 1st prints starting as low as .75 as of this writing! But don't take Steve's word for it. Steve say go to funny electric box and get one so you read. Or Steve Smash.
Kidding. Steve lover not fighter.