The State of the Hulk Comics

The Hulk has gone through some strange transitions int he past year.  First, he had a single book, which, after World War Hulk, became the Incredible Hercules and centered on Hercules and Amadeus Cho.  The response was to give the Hulk a new book, written by Jeff Loeb, which has been panned by the critics since its inception.  And now, the Hulk has been given a second book, written by Gregg Pak, the man who gave us World War Hulk.  How do the books look in August?  Here we go…

• Incredible Hercules- Was strong at the beginning, has gotten a little more silly over the past few months after the whole Greek Pantheon in mortal form has joined in.  Now, the book is being released 2x a month with two different stories, the first which follows Hercules and a Zeus reduced to childhood, and the second which follows Cho’s quest to find out why his parents were killed and where his sister, previously thought dead, is.  Both stories are in their first issue, and I found them both to be a little wanting.  The Hercules-centered story was really weird, while the Cho story shows some potential but the first issue is a little bizarre.  Stay tuned
• Hulk- This is the book written by Jeff Loeb, and even after a year and a couple months, I am wondering where the Loeb who wrote Batman: Long Halloween has gone. That was one of the best stories ever written, but Ultimates 3 was silly, and this Hulk run has just been… to be kind, dull… to be mean, horrible.  This book focuses the Red Hulk, and evil, intelligent Hulk that is simply not interesting.  Issue #600, which was supposed to be a huge anniversary story was just plain dull.  In the end, the Red Hulk basically drains Bruce Banner of all of his Hulk energy, making it so Banner can no longer become the Hulk.  I’ll admit it, I was bored reading it, and it took all of my concentration to get through it.  The next issue was a solo issue featuring Hulk vs Ares, again, blah. Fortunately, the next story arc, beginning with #14, shows some promise, as it features the Red Hulk and a team of assassins up against X-force.  I can only hope it gets better.  the art, though, done by Ian Churchill, is subpar.  His older stuff was better
• Incredible Hulk- Pak has taken over the reign of this book, which centers on Bruce Banner.  The first issue, #601, focuses on Bruce and the Son of Hulk, who has come to earth to battle his father.  Not much in this issue as it is sets up a baseline premise for this series, but it was enjoyable.  in many ways, Banner himself is more interesting than the Hulk, and he is definitely more interesting than the Red Hulk.  So there is promise, but we will have to see where it goes.  Art by Olivetti (previously of the revamped Punisher Warzone) is good.

So that is my quick roundup of the Hulk Universe as it stands now.  I’ll continue to read Loeb’s Hulk because I was a sucker, hoping every month that it will turn a corner and find true purpose.  But this new Incredible Hulk book shows promise, and I look forward to reading the next couple of issues.

The numbering for these books is quite odd… as with these other Anniversary books (Captain America, Spider Man, Daredevil), the books automatically jumped to #500 or #600, so it can be confusing.  But with the Hulk, it is really confusing.  So let me explain…

• Before World War Hulk, the single Incredible Hulk (Hercules) book was in the 100′s, and that book stays the same numbering wise
• The new Hulk book (written by Loeb), which started at #1 last year went to issue #12, then continued into the anniversary issue #600, and then jumped back to the original numbering, continuing with #13.
• The New Hulk book, written by Pak, starts at #601

So there it is folks, hope this enlightened you

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