Hulk! Thor! Frost Giants! Silver Age team-up stories! With Banner and his team trapped in Jotunheim, can the Hulk smash their way back home?
Written by Mark WaidIllustrated by Walter Simonson
• Hulk and Thor–together versus the Frost Giants!
• But what’s wrong with Thor–and why doesn’t he recognize Hulk?
• And Bruce Banner lands a bombshell surprise on his assistants!
“Indestructible Hulk” is somewhat a rarity for Hulk books in recent years. Not only does it have a big name writer in Mark Waid taking the helm of the book in previously uncharted waters, it also has a staple of artists in Leinil Yu and now Walt Simonson that have really brought weight to the smashing that is inherent to a Hulk book. This issue sees Waid and Simonson bringing the Hulk to the wastelands of Jotunheim, the home of the Frost Giants. There, both the Hulk and Banner’s team of scientists team up with a distinctly Silver Age Thor as they try to look for a way home. Both creators definitely lend their weight to craft a team-up in the vein of old Silver Age comics stylings, but there just feels like there should be more going on under the hood of this issue.
Mark Waid made some big waves when starting the book with a new focus on mending the bridges between Bruce Banner and the Hulk. However, in this issue he mostly focuses on Hulk as he teams up with Thor against the Frost Giants. The Banner element of the story is almost completely eliminated, taking away the human element that drove the Banner/Hulk relationship that Waid had focused on going into the title. Here, he seems more focused on pitting Hulk against some new bad guys, instead. What character work we do get near the end of issue, though, does shine. Though they were only introduced a couple of, Banner’s little squad of scientists all feel like distinct personalities thanks to Waid’s deft writing of character voices. The only thing they suffer from in this issue is a lack of panel time due to the focus on the Hulk’s battle with the Frost Giants. The battle isn’t bad, far from it, and both Waid and Simonson have a lot of fun bringing in old school Thor into the midst of it, but there’s little more to the issue than that and it leaves the issue feeling emptier than a book from these creators should.
Simonson, on the other hand, is no less than a comics legend for his work on “Thor” and it really shows in the battle scenes. The combat of the issue really does feel truly epic with the help of his pencils in the way that only a team-up between the Hulk and Thor could and he expertly conveys the weight of the battle throughout. In the wide panels his landscapes look like epic vistas of ice and snow befitting the world of the Frost Giants that gives a real scope to the world. However, as much as Simonson is a legend, his pencils in the quieter moments of the book show that his facial detail isn’t quite what it used to be. During the battle with the focus on the action his work shines, but as soon as the story starts to slow down and we see more dramatic close-up panels that Simonson’s scratchy pencils lend to oddly shaped faces. It makes the book feel disjointed because as soon as the momentum of the issue winds down for quieter moments, the art looks out of place. The art isn’t bad it’s just incredibly hit or miss and for someone with the status of Simonson, that’s really disappointing.
That seems a great way to describe the issue as a whole, actually: hit or miss. As mentioned, the battle that takes up most of the issue works purely on how much fun the creators clearly had with it, but they give such little face time to the human element, Banner and his squad of scientists, to make the fighting really matter. They only really seem to be in peril two, maybe three times in the entire issue while the rest seems just like a Hulk and Thor slugfest. It takes the agency away from the fight that is supposed to be the crux of the issue. The issue also touches on Maria Hill back on Earth in a substory, but it seems like it only exists here to set-up a pay off in the next issue which leaves it stuck here between an extremely well-executed team-up fight and a middling second act story set-up.
This issue should have been no less than stellar from two practically legendary creators on a book that takes a staple of the Marvel universe in new directions and new locations, but it just feels like so much filler. Perhaps that’s to do with it being the middle chapter of a three-issue arc, sure, but Waid and Simonson, while both trying to tell an exciting adventure that hopes to capture the feel of old Silver Age team-up comics, just play it all a bit too safe to make the issue work beyond being little more than a middle of the road comic. The dialogue can be fun at times, especially with Thor, and the action is great, but while the characters (what little we see of them) still shine this issue just adds very little to the story arc as a whole.
Final Verdict: 6.0 – Browse if you’re desperate to see these creators work together, but just wait until the next issue for story.
