INCREDIBLE HULK #44

By: Tony Whitt
Review Date: Saturday, August 24, 2002

There's literally only one disappointment in the latest issue of Bruce Jones' run on THE INCREDIBLE HULK: the old numbering for this title is not displayed alongside the new numbering. But perhaps that's a good thing, as this incarnation of the series shares as much in common with the old series as that series did with the TV show of the same name. For that matter, it's an even more drastic change than that - and this time, it's all for the good.

Bruce Jones' take on the Hulk has a great deal in common with that beloved old TV series, actually, not least because it focuses more on Bruce Banner than it ever does on his green alter ego. In this issue, for instance, the jade giant gets only two panels, something unthinkable only a few years ago. Here, it works perfectly, since the story focuses on the efforts of the mysterious agents after Banner and their use of Samson as tool to catch him. (Their idea is one which has been used before, but never quite as effectively as this - the "eye trauma" cover will give you a clue. Yes, it actually happens in the book, though not with an X-Acto knife. I mean, really.) Also, the fugitive motif that worked so well for the TV series works even better here, as the agents after Banner resemble an even more shadowy version of the group after Jared in a similar and equally well-done series, THE PRETENDER.

Jones should also be commended for rehabbing one of the silliest characters to ever come out of the Hulk flock - Doc Samson. Even in the '70s, the long-haired hippy with the green rinse job and the Flash-rip-off muscle T-shirt looked out of place, and only occasionally did his appearance ever feel truly justified, even during that period in which he tried to separate the Hulk from Banner. (As much as I generally can't stand Byrne, I did read those, you know.) Here, Jones gives Samson some purpose and actually makes him live up to the promise of the gamma radiation-inspired genius he's supposed to have. I'm not quite sure how he pulls off the final trick he does in this story, mind you, but I'm also willing to let it go; suspension of disbelief is much easier when the rest of the story inspires belief.

This issue is almost more his story than Banner's, and it's enough to make you wish he had his own series - but only if Jones were writing it. Jones has also created one of the best sets of villains in the shadowy group chasing Banner - there's something very Bond-like about an organization that refers to its members by numbers, electrocutes them in their chairs when they fail, and then brings new agents up out of the floor via those same chairs. You'd expect to see THRUSH doing something like this in old episodes of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., but it works just as well now as it did then.


Immonen and Koblish's artwork is also the best to grace this book since the Herb Trimpe days...period. True, John Romita Jr.'s work brought some of the same care and mood imagery to this book that now makes AMAZING SPIDER-MAN so...erm, amazing, but these guys have taken the artwork to a new level. I never thought I'd find an "eye-trauma" image so aesthetically pleasing, but the cover to this issue is a work of art by anyone's standards, and the artwork inside, using heavy doses of chiaroscuro and near-photorealistic imagery, isn't far removed from those standards, if at all. This is a handsome book, and this issue is a true "jumping-on" point for those who want to experience what's making the INCREDIBLE HULK truly "incredible" these days.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at
feedback@cinescape.com.