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Hulk, Vol. 1: Red Hulk (2008)

by Jeph Loeb(Favorite Author)

3.17 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0785128816 (ISBN13: 9780785128816)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Marvel

series

Hulk (II)

review 1: There is a new Hulk in town, and he is defeating every hero and villain you can think of! He defeated Iron Man, most of S.H.I.E.L.D, She-Hulk, The Abomination and even Uatu The Watcher and Thor! Obviously, he is not worthy of holding Thor's hammer, but he managed to pick it up and it took him to the MOON! He smashed Thor into the moon and jumped down and landed safely on his feet on the ground, creating a huge crater.This Hulk is red, and the Green Hulk is getting all the blame. No one knows who this Red Hulk is or his origin, but he's still running around and smashing up the place.There's only one person or thing that can stop him: HULK (even though Red Hulk did knock the tar out Green Hulk a couple times)!Red Hulk is stronger, faster, meaner, a lot like Hulk but in a... more way a lot different. He creates earthquakes and uses guns, not just his hands, as you'd expect. How does our green smashing hero smash this new villain into next week? Find out, in this amazingly-illustrated comic book, written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Ed McGuinnes.Who is the Red Hulk?
review 2: I had heard a lot of good things about this story line and this run of Hulk comics. I think back on that and wonder where the hell I DID hear that, because it seems almost everyone that HAS read it felt the same way I did: incredibly disappointed.Maybe it's the fact that there is the potential for a REALLY good story here, and I can see that great amazing five start story if I squint my eyes real hard and ignore 95% of what actually happens in the pages. So before I get in to my long list of all the things I hated, what did I like? Well, The idea of the Red Hulk being a Hulk that is perhaps evil but mainly only because he seems to not be following the rules of the Super Hero universe works well for an antagonist. Killing the bad guys and not capturing them? Using a gun?? Just not done sir! All of the shorts at the back of the issue? Amazing! A Hulk story that really is more about the Hulk supporting cast and how the Hulk existing effects them? Those are the best Hulk stories!So what did I dislike? Oh where to start... Lets stat with the Art. There were pages where I thought, "This is amazing!" and then I'd turn the page and feel like it was sooooooooo bad that it just had to be someone making fun of the worst aspects of the Super Hero genre. In general almost all male characters are drawn to have muscular build the hulk should have and the Hulk's are drawn to ridiculous sizes. This is all made to feel even more exaggerated by the fact that the few woman that appear have faces that appear to be that of a 13 year old but busts and waists of that of a blow up doll.The mystery of who the Red Hulk is seems painfully obvious, and I'm surprised how many volumes it takes them to actually reveal it. And perhaps it's spelt out in later volumes but there seems to be no actual reason for most of the Red Hulks attacks. We're suppose to think there is one, but I don't think the writer actually had reasons other than, "wouldn't it be cool if Red Hulk beat this guy up next?" which for most of this book feels like that is the extent of the story line.One of the things that drove me nuts the most was how inconsistent the tone felt. You'd get a few pages of the book taking it's self and the genre very seriously, and then a few pages that seemed like a silly slap stick poking fun at the genre (like the part where the Red Hulk beats up the watcher). Those to tones can, I suppose, exist in one story, but they don't get mixed well here. The story just comes off at first as a mess trying to do many things at once, but by the end you get the feeling it's such a mess because the writer isn't actually trying to do anything at all. less

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