Indestructible Hulk Issues #1 - #19 Review

Title:	Indestructible Hulk
Contributors:	Mark Waid Leinil Yu
Publisher:	Marvel
Issue #:	1-19
Year:	2012 - 2014
Pages:	32 Pages
Age Rating:	12+ (Language, Violence, Adult Themes
Story Grade:	B
Art Grade:	B+

To say that I am a fan of the Hulk is an understatement. I won't say that I am the Hulk's biggest fan, because I don't presume to know that for sure, but I do that out of all of the characters in the known literary universe, at least my known literary universe, the Hulk is my favorite bar none. He is the character I actually identify with the most out of all characters ever written about, except for maybe the Lester Burnham character from American Beauty as all he wanted was to have a simple, happy life with little responsibility and just enjoy the little things that make us happy. I just got off on a tangent there didn't I.

I started buying this series just last month and bought the remaining issues needed to finish to the first 19 issue in the current run, including #1, just last week. While there have been some disappointing moments in the first 19 issues, overall I have enjoyed this series immensely.

The story arch takes a fresh spin on the relationship between Banner and the Hulk. Banner finally admits to himself, for very egotistically motivated reasons, that the Hulk is indestructible, and that he wants stop focusing on curing himself of the hulk and focus his science on creating great things for mankind (again for selfish reasons). I don't ever recall Banner being jealous of Reed Richards' or Tony Stark's success before, and I am not sure what I think of it in how it relates to true nature of Banner's character historically, but I like how it plays out in this series.

So he turns himself into S.H.I.E.L.D. in exchange for doing so, S.H.I.E.L.D. gets to use the Hulk, whenever it needs to, as a weapon of mass destruction and Banner gets a lab of his own to create wondrous things for the benefit of mankind and his ego (don't forget that selfish part).

As the story progresses through the pages of each issue Hulk/Banner gets to go a few disconjointed adventures, some more entertaining than others, Banner gets some lab assistants, a few baby sitters (human and android) and things move along. A few of the issues are multi-part story arcs which can be fun because they don't feel so sit-com-like, but one of these multi-part story arcs, five issues long, deals with time travel, which I am rarely a fan of simply because time travel is rarely done right, and in this case it wasn't. Thank god it last only five issues of the nineteen, but it was five painful issue to get through. Here is my advice to comic book writers, and most other writers in general... stay away from time travel; period. If you think you have thought of every possible paradox and solved it you haven't... just ask me, I will show you.

The art work is good for the most part, but at times it feels like the style seems to shift, feeling like different artists are drawing in the same comic, but for the most part, it stays consistent. The art is colorful, clean, consistent with the story being told and compliments the characters and their development.

I graded the comics thus far in the series a B because the art is lacking some consistency within the same books, the overall adventure arcs feel as though they lack cohesion from one book to the next plus the Agents of Time arc was just too damn hokey. Outside of those problems I have enjoyed the series and look forward to better things to come.

Until next time, Happy Smashing.