Hulk #5 ; Secret Avengers #22

Writer: Jason Aaron
Penciller: Whilce Portacio
Cover: Leinil Francis Yu

I have distanced myself from all things Hulk focused ever since the whirlwind of ridiculousness that was World War Hulks and Fall of Hulks. I HATED Red Hulk when he was first introduced, mainly because Loeb was writing him. But since then, I have actually grown to like the character. But when the previously stated two story lines were happening, it was just out of control. I was curious about the Intelligencia, but after seeing the ungodly number of spin-offs there were, I said no. Since then, things have seemingly settled down a bit in Hulkdom, and Red Hulk has found his place with the Avengers and the greater Marvel Universe. I think making Ross Red Hulk was the best thing to do with that character (though I still don’t know why he loses his damn moustache...). Red Hulk’s own book hasn’t even been that bad; I will possibly review it at a later date.

Now, the Hulk is back in his own book, and it’s focused on him and Banner again, for which I am thankful. The past five issues have established the new status quo for the Hulk/Banner situation. They have finally, truly been separated from each other. Hulk has decided to live deep below the surface of the Earth made a life for himself among a tribe of Moloids, and was seemingly content with his new friends and beard. Banner, on the other hand, has not been dealing too well with the loss of a sizeable chunk of his psyche. He has secluded himself on an island, where he has been desperately trying to re-create that gamma incident that formed Hulk. Needless to say, he has lost his mind and is now creating gamma irradiated creatures on the island that consider him to be their father. He is rapidly closing in on villain status, which is a cool twist for the character.

Enter the US government’s response to the mad scientist threat. Led by Amanda Von Doom, no relation, her and her team’s objective is to assassinate dangerous mad scientists around the globe. Their quarry is now Banner, and they promptly enlist the aid of Hulk. Issue five reveals who is actually responsible for the separation of the two, and it’s awesome. I love everything about the idea of doing brain surgery on the Hulk with an adamantium chainsaw! I don’t want to spoil anything so I will just leave it at that.

So, how has the book been? It’s great actually; I have really been digging it. Jason Aaron can seemingly do no wrong. I used to think his portrayal of Wolverine was his best writing, but the more I read Incredible Hulk, the more I start to think that he is a true Marvel renaissance man. The issues read fast, but that’s ok given the directness of the story. There is no annoying set-up that takes 4 issues; it’s fast, efficient and best of all, entertaining.

The art has a scratchy “Marc Silvestri” look to it. But it’s good, it’s coherent and the action looks really cool. I usually prefer a more traditional Joe Mad or Ed McGuinness type style for Hulk, but this works really well. So, my point is…read this book. If you’ve never read Hulk, give this a shot- it’s a pretty good jumping on point.

Writer: Rick Remender
Penciller: Gabriel Hardman
Cover: Art Adams

Finally, Secret Avengers is back on track. I have to admit, I have really disliked Secret Avengers the past six months. Warren Ellis has written nothing but a series of one-shots that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about. That’s not to say they weren’t well written, I just didn’t get into them even though I usually love Warren Ellis’ work. This is the perfect place to jump into this book, if you haven’t already.

The premise is that Captain America is being stretched too thin with all of his other responsibilities and has chosen Hawkeye to be the new leader of the covert Avengers team. The group consists of veterans Black Widow, Pym, Beast and Valkyrie, along with the “Irredeemable” Ant-man and the newly initiated Captain Britain. I love the fact that Beast is in this book still, but I am biased towards the character, as he is one of my favorite X-men. I just think he fits well within the team, and it makes sense, as he has a history as an Avenger and has had a falling out with most of the X-men. I kind of wish they had kept Shang-Chi and War-Machine in the group - maybe they felt they had too many characters with hyphens in their names. But you can’t win ‘em all, I suppose, and regardless, the team is interesting. Their first mission is to investigate strange energy signatures in the Middle-East. Not much is revealed about this arc’s villains; they seem to be new, but I could be wrong. The last page especially has me scratching my head, but my attention is definitely grabbed.

One reason why I always really liked this book when it was first created was the whole “black-ops” aspect of it. It’s a different concept beyond the typical Avenger team with a slightly different roster; it gives it character that the others generally don’t have. I think that all team books should have their own concept or mission statement to set them apart from the others. I don’t know how many times I have gotten what happened in different X-men or Avenger books mixed up.

The art isn’t amazing but serves its purpose. Nothing can really compare to some of Deodato’s art in the first few arcs of this book when it was launched. I hate to hold everything to that standard, but hey, I am. The art did get kind of confusing during the end of the book, but other than that, no major complaints.

I am interested in the story and team and will continue to read. I am happy to finally see this book head in the right direction. I recommend jumping on now if you’re curious, I think you’ll enjoy it.

By: Josh "Bun in the Oven" Loe