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Review: The Incredible Hulk #1

By | October 28th, 2011
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by Marc Silvestri

Hold on to your seats for the biggest, baddest, most Incredible Hulk ever! Join Legendary Artist Marc Silvestri as he teams with Jason Aaron for a Hulk story unlike anything you’ve ever seen in the all-new Incredible Hulk #1! It’s the buildup to the greatest showdown fans have been demanding – Banner versus Hulk. Who is the beast and who is the man?

Jason Aaron had two separate debuts on two wildly different established properties this week, and we gave the other one a pretty damn close to a perfect score. So how does Aaron’s maiden voyage into the world of the Jade Giant play out for us?

Click on down and readeroo!

When Aaron was announced as the new pilot of The Hulk following Greg Pak’s legendary run on the character, I was undecided on whether it was a universally good thing. While obviously more books from Aaron himself in any given month was great, it felt to me at least that Hulk was a little too mainstream for Aaron’s creative strengths. A little too polished, a little less gritty in its nature than I had been used to from the man. In a lot of ways Wolverine and The Punisher is the perfect characters for his sensibilities and I wondered if Hulk would be the best fit for him.

I then started to realize that The Hulk is a character, like Wolverine, who’s past is filled with tragedy and remorse, who has more people that want him dead than even he knows, who is a complete slave to their emotions and who, at a very base level, is capable of (pardon my french) some totally fucked up shit. It was with this in mind that I began to get quite excited about this debut, and I can safely say I was not disappointed.

The story picks up some time after the Hulk-centric Fear Itself epilogue wherein we see that the Hulk and Banner through as yet undetermined means have split into two separate entities. I’m not sure exactly how much time has passed since then, but it seems to be considerably more than a day or two. However, given that the book is still, at least theoretically, inside of current MU continuity, my best guess would be a month or so. Within that time, Hulk has found his way deep underground and become the protector of a largely hidden and for some reason intelligent Moloid community. Whether this has anything to do with anything established by Jonathan Hickman in FF at the moment remains to be seen, however the point is simple to understand: Aaron is combining two distinct elements of Hulk’s recent and overall history. Traditionally, “Hulk want be left alone!” but as of late he has developed this uncanny ability to attract followers and/or build families. This situation seems to be a mix of both as he has found a community but one stunningly far away from any other living thing that does not have teeth the size of a Prius.

Meanwhile, Banner appears to be off his rocker in a very real way. This is the part of the story where I think Aaron will have to do some hardcore convincing since Banner has A) been separated from The Hulk before and B) was very recently trapped inside his puny body for an extended period of time and in both instances he has not gone full on Mr. Hyde (see what I did there?) quite like he has this time. Of course, this may be a result of the way in which they were separated this time, however until I can get a better grasp on what Banner’s current deal is I’m going to remain slightly guarded in relation to this massive personality shift. Then again, preview pages for next issue seem to indicate that while this was very much a Hulk issue, that next issue will be more Banner-centric, so the answers I seek may not be far off.

As far as the art is concerned, Marc Silvestri remains Marc Silvestri and while there are plenty of artists that could have done this book justice (including but not limited two Mike Choi, who penciled the aforementioned Fear Itself Epilogue) his work does the job it needs to. To me, Silvestri has always sort of been what Rob Liefeld could have become if done properly. Yes, there is the wildly disproportionate physiology and yes there are the inexplicably poorly crafted limbs, but there is also immense detail inside of each and every scale on each and every beast seen in this issue and the facial expressions are indicative of emotions other than absolute rage or absolute shock (AKA things involving closed mouths). While its not perfect in any sense and it is certainly closer to 90s era high flash low substance work, it does its job and fits the story being told. The only unfortunate aspect is I have my doubts, given Silvestri’s production speed as of recent years, that he will remain on the book consistently for any length of time (already Whilce Portacio is on tap for issue December’s issue #3).

Overall, I found this issue to be a really strong start and good new beginning for a more edgy, less shiny version of The Hulk. After years of polished, widescreen adventures, I think it will do the character good to have the smaller moments focused on and to get his hands a little bloody as opposed to covered in wreckage and alien innards. I’m definitely in for the long haul.

Final Verdict: 9.0 – SMASH! Then cry about it.


Joshua Mocle

Joshua Mocle is an educator, writer, audio spelunker and general enthusiast of things loud and fast. He is also a devout Canadian. He can often be found thinking about comics too much, pretending to know things about baseball and trying to convince the masses that pop-punk is still a legitimate genre. Stalk him out on twitter and thought grenade.

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