| Title: | Hulk |
| Contributors: | Mark Waid Mark Bagley |
| Publisher: | Marvel |
| Issue #: | 1 |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Pages: | 32 Pages |
| Age Rating: | 18 (Violence) |
| Story Grade: | B |
| Art Grade: | B |
Oddly enough, that question never gets fully answered in this book, but that was never really my question in the first place. Look out, a little rant is going to happen here for the next couple of paragraphs.
My question is; "Why reboot the series after only 20 issues of Indestructible Hulk especially if you are just going to continue the storyline with the same writer and artist?" Or how about this question being answered; "How many times and in how many books does the Hulk's origin have to regurgitated?" I mean really, are they that hard up for fresh content that they have to fall back to the "flashback episodes format" television shows use for as a format for page filler these days?
Okay, my real complaint is with Marvel's, nay the entire industry's, need to reboot in the name of some imaginary profit gain they think they get. So they sell a few extra issues. I understand that there are collectors that only collect #1s, but are there so many that they actually outnumber the collectors that actually collect full runs, or those that collect to actually read the story from start to finish? What do I know? I don't work in the industry. I'm just a frustrated consumer of the industry that rules my entertainment happiness.
As for the flashbacks to recap the retelling of the origins of characters, it is just outright annoying to me. I pay $2.99, $3.99, $4.99 sometimes $5.99 for a 32 page book that is mostly pictures, the least a publishing company can do it not waste a single page on retelling something the reader should already know. Unless it is an updated origin, do we really need to read it again? Fresh, new, riveting content is what we pay for; not a 2, 4 or 6 page rehash of the first issue originally published back in 1963 or last month's episode for that matter. If someone isn't caught up to the current issue, they need to buy the last issue or a reprint of Issue #1 (originally printed in '63), otherwise they can deal with not knowing. Hell rent the movie.
Okay, the rant is now officially over.
One of the more interesting aspects of this book is that you actually see very little of the Hulk in action. Instead, the book is focused around a surgical team working to save Bruce's life while being tricked into betraying him.
The curious aspect is particular story arc is that each one of the team members have had a brush with the Hulk or Bruce in their past. In a nice twist, the members of the surgical team don't see the Hulk or Bruce like most "people" in the Marvel universe see them; as a threat. To them, the Hulk is not just a monster, but rather a force of nature. In some cases that force of nature happened to have a positive impact on their personal lives. In other cases they feel that force of nature is partially their responsibility. It is an interesting view into the world around the Hulk. It is a view into the world of other literary characters that I have shared, like with Frankenstein's Monster for example. Hulk shares enough physical, mental and social traits with that to deny Frankenstein's Monster to be as much of a source of inspiration for the Hulk as Jekyll and Hyde is would be like denying your own face in the mirror.
It's nice to read a story that is focused on the ways the Hulk has touched people's lives, both directly and indirectly, other than through his normal destructive manners.
All in all, the art is pretty status quo. There was nothing really to rave about, but again there was nothing to bitch about either. So nothing inspired or uninspired, just enjoyable.
All in all I graded this book a solid B. A good story, with some plausibility issues, but still a good story that definitely makes me want to see how they explain it as well as see where they take it.
Until next time... Just remember, in Hulk's world, E doesn't always MC2
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