Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Color Artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Paniccia
The Incredible Hulk is the Grateful Dead of Marvel Comics.
Hear me out. The Dead are a band you've heard about before you ever heard their music. Their merch is everywhere. Even people who only like a handful of their songs have the shirt, the sticker on their car. The term "jam band" is forever attached to them. And then you finally hear their music and, hey, it's pretty good. Not every song is a winner, but overall, it scratches numerous itches and is rarely ever not a fun ride.
That's the Hulk. The best Hulk stories are great, even the most mediocre are pretty good, and even if you've never picked up a Hulk book, you get the gist. There's hype, but at the core of it, it's generally earned.
I say this because even a fairly middle-of-the-road Hulk book like Red Hulk #1 is still pretty good, even with all the accompanying aura from the Captain America: Brave New World flop that's in theaters now. Red Hulk #1 is okay. Benjamin Percy and Geoff Shaw do a serviceable job with exceedingly uninteresting characters (Deathlok, Machine Man, Red Hulk himself), setting up a One World Under Doom tie-in that doesn't seem to promise anything continuity shaking.
General Thunderbolt Ross — a character who I think was actually more interesting and useful as a perpetual foil for the regular Hulk than as a gamma-powered superhero that writers are forced to do something with — is captured by Doctor Doom at the beginning of Doom's rule over the Earth. Why? Doom's collecting strategists, scientists, superheroes, and criminals to serve as an under-the-table think tank for his new regime. So Ross, unpowered in this issue, begins the process of breaking out.
I was so swept up in the details of this breakout that I was actually let down by Ross's eventual transformation into Red Hulk at the end.
Thunderbolt Ross just isn't an interesting character, no matter how big his muscles are or what color his skin is. His role is that of a heavy that other characters play off of, so trying to make him sympathetic at all is difficult. His internal dialogue is mostly, "Man, it's so hard to be me, I'm so badass." It's not on Percy at all; that's how Ross has been written since he stepped out of the Hulk's shadow and started becoming a superhero. Percy's X-Force and Wolverine were great runs and I commend him for putting an engaging story together with the pieces he had to work with.
It doesn't feel like it matters. I hate second-guessing writers with their plots, but if given the choice, I'd have much rather explored Doctor Doom's plans for tapping a pool of undesirables to pull off the heist of the entire planet than follow this prison break storyline.
I want to see how it winds up, but I'm not engaged, nor do I think this is going to lead into anything of importance down the road. Just another chapter in the Doom vs. The World crossover, and Doom himself just peaces out after a quick appearance — it's just Doombots until the end. Everyone here seems third-string and the big bad (Doom) and the big hero (regular green Hulk) aren't really part of it.
If I'm carrying the Grateful Dead metaphor forward, it's like paying for tickets to see a Dead show that's just Mickey Hart and Keith and Donna Godchaux. Okay, could be fun, but not satisfying.
Doctor Doom: 1/5
Red Rage, as promised on cover: 1/5
One World Under Doom, as promised on cover: 3/5
Jarring Teddy Ruxpin appearance: 3 weird panels
Pages that didn't happen, it was all a dream: 8/25
Verdict: You could probably skip this one.
