Hulk Vol 1 Red Hulk v 1
Superstars Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness will change the way you see the Hulk! In this startling origin epic, the breathtaking events that ended World War Hulk rocket into this brand-new Hulk title. When one of the Hulk’s oldest cast members is murdered, everyone turns to the team of Iron Man, She-Hulk, and Leonard Samson to solve the grizzly case. All the evidence points to the Hulk as the killer - but…! Join us for a brand-new story and a brand-new team who loves the Hulk as much as you do Collects The Hulk #1-6.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Great If You Like ED McGuinness; Poison If You Don’t.
The story in this book is non-existant. That’s because Jeph Loeb is a flat out terrible writer who can only seem to write three kinds of story– overly sentimental tripe where everyone acts out of character (Superman for All Seasons, Daredevil: Yellow) which focuses on relationships from a childish and one-dimensional point of view, murder mysteries which take twists and turns but are ultimately nonsensical and have let-down endings (Batman: Long Halloween, Batman: Hush) and the comic book equivalent of Jerry Bruckheimer films– all flash and loud fights with “shock” moments (Superman/Batman, Ultimates 3). He’s a writer with a relatively limited pallette of plots and character types and it all because pretty old, pretty fast.
Red Hulk falls in the latter category, BTW. It starts with Red Hulk using a gun to kill the Abomination, which is an awful cop-out. The last time we saw him, Banner had just slept with his wife and was involved in her death; instead of picking up that interesting angle, they just kill him as a shock and to pump with the new Red Hulk, or Rulk as he’s been recently called. From here, we go on a “rollercoaster” of aimless action sequences strung together with a half-baked plot to hold them all together.
I once read that Jackie Chan used to film his fights first, then have a writer to create a story to weave them together. That’s how this feels. It’s like Jeph figured out which fights he’d like Ed to draw and then concocted this lame story to pull them all together.
That said, I gave this 3 stars for the ever-incredible work of Ed McGuinness. There’s no way around it– this thing is an art book.
Meaning, the only reason to buy it is if you enjoy Ed McGuinness’ wonderful art; a mix of Bruce Timm, Manga and Masters of the Universe. Some criticize the art because it’s too cartoony looking, so that’ll just depend on your personal taste. In reality, the work isn’t any less realistic than Jim Lee’s or John Byrne’s work– check out an actual photo of a real human being and do some side by side comparisons. You’ll find that the vast majority of comic book artists distort and exaggerate the human form as much as Ed does.
But personal taste is personal taste– if you like Ed and don’t care about story, this is a sure thing.
Too bad they didn’t keep Pak on this title; Ed’s art would have had a story that could keep up with it. This ain’t no Planet Hulk.
5 Stars THE BEST HULK COMIC SINCE WORLD WAR HULK
This book begins with the murder investigate of one of the oldest Hulk’s characters and the search for the New and bad RED HULK, the book has a lot of intense fights, the story is great, the art is awesome and I can’t wait tiil the Vol. 2 because I want to know who is the Red Hulk?.
4 Stars More than meets the eye.
After reading these first issues of Hulk, I began to attempt to read in between the lines to see what was truly going on with this story. This volume of Hulk is good for those comic readers that love Hulk brawls. This is not what one would expect from a Hulk book after the wake of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. We have a return of Marvels green goliath Savage Hulk. Do not let this departure from World War Hulk deter you from this book. This is a fairly decent installment of Hulk. My best reccomendation for this read is to wait for the culmination of Loeb’s story to be completed before picking this up. Buy the entire work together. It is a long wait but would be best if you are going the trade paper back route.
3 Stars Not as good as Greg Pak’s run
I thoroughly enjoyed Planet Hulk and World War Hulk was an adequate attempt at closure towards Hulk’s expulsion from Earth. However, I was a little disappointed with the first volume of the new Hulk book. Especially considering my love of Jeph Loeb’s work on Batman and his Colors series. Seemed to do away with any remnants of Hulk’s superior intellect from Planet Hulk or his supreme power from the aftermath. Guess I missed the boat on this one.
1 Star A pathetic followup to World War Hulk
Following the epic events of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, which saw the character of the Incredible Hulk explored in terrific depth and drama, Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness have turned in a very lackluster story that introduces an evil Red Hulk and kicks off the mystery behind his true identity. The only problem is that no one really cares who the Red Hulk is.
The basic notion behind the Red Hulk is that he is the Hulk gone bad, willing to do things that even Bruce Banner’s repressed rage would stop short of, including wielding guns and murdering his enemies. The Red Hulk is even stronger than his green counterpart and thus is more dangerous…or maybe he isn’t. The story is very inconsisten on the Red Hulk’s powers, showing him as capable of defeating Thor in one issue but then clearly inferior to the thunder god mere pages later. The six issues collected ehre are essentially a series of one-sided fights, with the Red Hulk taking on opponent after opponent before finally going down.
Besides lacking for any sort of plot and being filled with inconsistencies, this book is just flat out terrible in terms of quality. The dialogue is absolutely atrocious, the characters radically depart from what they were just issues prior to this series (the green Hulk, for example, went from an aggressive but somewhat smart man-monster to something that is even stupider than the standard “Hulk smash!” brute), and the art is cartoonish at best. A lot of things are introduced for no reason at all — for example, the Watcher shows up only to get punched, which has no bearing on anything else. And don’t bother hoping to at least get some resolution behind the identity of the Red Hulk — it’s not revealed in this book.
After an incredible run with Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, Marvel had one of their flagship characters in prime position to tell some of the greatest comic book stories ever. Instead, they turned to Jeph Loeb, who seems to have spent about fifteen minutes scribbling down a description of fights to be rendered in large, cartoonish pencils by Ed McGuiness. The Red Hulk storyline lacks in almost every way possible, and makes for a letdown of epic proportions.
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