THE INCREDIBLE HULK #30/#504

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Friday, August 10, 2001

As Bruce Banner lies dying of ALS, a condition accelerated by his unusual physiology, his mind retreats into a dream world haunted by the past, his alter egos, and a voice calling to him from a mineshaft in the desert. He transforms into the Hulk and goes in search of the voice, only to find someone he never expected to see again...

I'll freely admit that I haven't followed this title for a long time, simply because it seemed like all the stories that could be told about the Hulk had been told. I mean, how often can you split Banner from the Hulk, or attempt to cure him, or give him yet another personality, or make the Hulk intelligent/bestial/demonic? (I could just see the creative team saying, "Let's make him a teenager next...oh, wait, that didn't work out so well last time. Never mind...") And yet this is undoubtedly one of the more interesting twists that the saga of the Hulk has taken and obviously there have been enough of them. One of the strengths of McKeever and Jenkins' plotting is that they don't ignore these previous plot twists the bestial Hulk still resides in Banner's consciousness side by side with the gray-skinned intelligent Hulk and the lizard Hulk. Whether it's one of the worst cases of split-personality disorder in history or the ravages of ALS, it's hard to say exactly which is worse for Banner.

It's interesting to have one of the most brilliant scientists in comics suffering from the same disease that affects physicist Stephen Hawking. One wonders what Reed Richards, who admits that even he is unable to cure the condition, would do in a similar situation. It's a bit odd to discover that the same disease doesn't affect his green-skinned alter ego, of course, but it's also a fascinating plot device to use wouldn't quite be the same if the Hulk couldn't go off and investigate something that could save Banner's life, would it?

Joe Bennett and Tom Palmer's artwork captures the psychological terror of that life with lots of odd perspectives, strange color combinations, and other unusual touches that make it clear that Banner is not like the rest of us, even in his perception of the world. While many of the half- and full-page panels in this issue are undeniably striking, however, their impact is often diminished by their overuse. The last four pages of the entire book, for example, are composed of one three-panel page, one equally divided four-panel page, and two full page images. Sure, the Hulk is a big guy, but surely he doesn't need this much space, does he? This technique is effective at some points in the book, such as the sequence in which Banner first dreams about the voice in the mineshaft the splash page there is particularly striking but not when it's used so frequently. In some cases, less really is more. (And one quick word to the editor: if you intend to have a major revelation on the very last page of the book, make sure you don't give any spoilers in the letters column when it's placed in the center of the book. You never know there just might be an anal-retentive comics reviewer out there who will read that bit first.)


THE INCREDIBLE HULK #30 (or is it #504? Ah, to hell with it...) has a few flaws, but it's also a compelling first chapter in a new story-arc, so it may be the best chance for fans grown tired of the rollercoaster ride of Banner's life to rejoin the story. If nothing else, the Hulk's disquieting pronouncement, "I don't think Bruce is coming back," is worth following up on.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

Grade: B-

Author(s): Sean McKeever, Paul Jenkins, Joe Bennett, Tom Palmer

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $2.25