Marvel Comics
Mark Waid, writer
Leinil Yu, artist
Several reviewers of "The Avengers" movie gave their highest praise to the portrayal of the Hulk. This book takes that concept and runs with it.
I have to say I haven't been too impressed with most of the advance information on the Marvel Now! titles. Some of them might be very good stories, but most didn't make me want to pre-order the books. However, I've enjoyed Waid's writing in the past, most recently on his recent new take on Daredevil. So I thought I would give his new Hulk a try based on that title.
This first issue was necessarily mostly setup and thus pretty Banner-heavy at the cost of very little Hulk action. But I like the direction Waid is going. Banner hasn't exactly decided to embrace his green alter ego, but he HAS decided to quit using Hulk as an excuse to be miserable. He decides to turn himself in to S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill and request a staff and funding so that he can produce the kind of innovations to help mankind that Reed Richards and Tony Stark often create. After all, Banner is a pretty smart guy in his own right. In exchange, he will allow himself to be pointed in the villains' direction WHEN he hulks out, because as he puts it, "It's a given" that he will hulk out at some point. Then when the crisis is averted and Hulk calms down, S.H.I.E.L.D. just comes in and gives Banner a lift back to his lab. Everybody wins.
I love this concept and am anxious to see it in action, so I plan to stick with this book for a while. In fact, my only real complaint so far is the Hulk's hair. When Banner does finally hulk out in this issue to take down the Mad Thinker as his trial run with S.H.I.E.L.D., the Hulk is colored as the familiar green everywhere but his hair, which remains brown. Not only is that not consistent with ANY other incarnation of the character I'm familiar with, it just looks odd!
No comments:
Post a Comment