Hulk - Issue 1

By: Merin
Date: Friday, January 11, 2008

The Hulk – Issue One
Writer: Jeph Loeb ; Penciler: Ed McGuinness ; Inker: Dexter Vines
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Roll Call: She-Hulk, Doc Samson, General Ross, Commander Hill, Iron Man, Ursa Major, Red Guardian, Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar . . . oh, and at the very end, Rick Jones and Bruce Banner

One Sentence Synopsis: A new Hulk comic starts off strong with guest stars and a nice little mystery.
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The Meat: Doc Samson and She-Hulk are reenacting an assault by someone (Hulk-like) on the Abomination in Russia. Samson is using She-Hulk as a punching-bag prop, and She-Hulk is getting mighty annoyed with the Doc. At the end of which, to the disturbed audience of General Ross, Commander Hill and Iron Man, Samson concludes that the attacker (strong enough to beat the tar out of the Abomination) fired a gun repeatedly into and killing his target.
There is obvious tension amongst this crew of investigators, partially because She-Hulk doesn't like their “scientist” having been left behind and as such they need to bring the evidence back to base for full analysis. Before they can prep the body of Abomination for transport, however, the Winter Guard arrive. Apparently, despite Tony's controlling S.H.I.E.L.D. and he seems to have the okay from Moscow to be there, the Winter Guard are saying that they will take over the investigation. As the two sides try to work this out, Doc Samson up and slugs Red Guardian for some reason, but this only makes the Russian agent mad and a real throw-down is started. Ursa Major slice and dices She-Hulk, which makes her angry enough to strike back. Dynamo faces off against Iron Man, with poor results, and while Samson and Red Guardian are basically fight at a standstill She-Hulk is wiping the floor with the super-bear.

Ross fires his gun into the air to stop the fighting. This is when a survivor of a nearby town that was devastated during the killing of Abomination arrives. The little girl is saying, repeatedly, the word “red.”

Jump over to Alaska, and we find a half-naked Rick Jones stumbling through the snow. From an elevated position he looks down and sees crews of workers trying to contain a raging fire at a break in the oil pipeline. Rick doesn't seem to know where he is or how he got there, but is coherent enough to question what he may have done.

Back to Gamma Base in Nevada goes Doc Samson and General Ross. After passing through redundant upon redundant security measures, they arrive at a very secure cell holding their “scientist” member of their investigative team – you guessed it, Doctor Bruce Banner. Not like you didn't already know / guess that Bruce wasn't the Hulk that killed the Abomination.

All in all, a great read!
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Favorite Line: “I can get paid for this kind of abuse, y'know.”

Favorite Moment: Doc Samson slugs Red Guardian, Hill face-palms and says “Oy.”

Favorite Image: Winter Guard line-up when they first arrive
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Overall Grade: A-
- A solid start with solid writing, as I've personally come to expect from Jeph Loeb. McGuiness's characters all look great, and most of his layouts are solid. There are some instances where how he paces the action on the page bothers me a little, but overall it's pretty good. All in all a great start for the Red Hulk storyline.