Incredible Hulk #600
This review written by James Hunt on Jul.28, 2009.
In a list of things wrong with Incredible Hulk #600, the fact that any serious attempt at counting up issues of Incredible Hulk can only come up with 598 in total* is way, way down the list. But that does indicate the level of competence we’re dealing with here. In a week where Spider-Man #600, flawed as it was, managed to offer a story-bonanza the likes of which we will almost certainly never see again, Incredible Hulk #600 looks almost like a joke by comparison.
For those wondering, this is an issue of the regular Hulk series in all but name. Loeb and McGuinness are the creative team, and bring with them everything that entails. Splash pages. Nonsensical plot developments. Cringeworthy dialogue. As a matter of considered criticism, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Or perhaps someone else can suggest why “Rulk” suddenly decides, after repeatedly encountering the Hulk, to absorb the gamma energy from him. Makes all the gun-toting of the earlier Hulk issues seem a bit redundant, doesn’t it?
The story does serve to tie together some of the more incomprehensible threads of Loeb’s Hulk run – apparently, A-Bomb, Rulk and more besides are all part of some Gamma-Soldier program being developed by AIM and MODOK. It’s incredibly hard to see this as anything more than revisionist storytelling, since there wasn’t anything to suggest this in the previous year’s worth of stories, at least. We’re also once again teased with the suggestion that we’ll learn the identity of the Red Hulk, and once again, we don’t. It wouldn’t matter if the mystery were compelling, but the longer it’s drawn out, the less sense it makes. Personally, I want to know just so I can see how well the “clues” stack up – right now, the smart money is on General Ross, but only because Rulk uses a gun and keeps calling Banner a “milksop”, which is a word that literally no-one has used since the 1960s.
But let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that Rulk comics are your cup of tea. I like Frank Miller’s All Star Batman in an ironic, deconstructionist way, so I appreciate that there’s room for people to read Loeb’s Hulk too. Issue #600 of Spider-Man treated fans to multiple backups and a massive lead story. Does Hulk #600 do the same?
Not as such.
The lead story is a hair longer than a normal issue. Stan Lee’s short is a demented highlight, but a backup about the new She-Hulk comes over as a transparent marketing exercise. A reprint of Hulk: Gray #1 does, again, make sense if your goal is to shift more copies of the TPB collection, but in an anniversary spectacular, it feels rather cynical and half-hearted. If you’re a big Hulk fan, the issue itself is decent value that, had it could out before Spidey #600, might feel acceptable. But the bar was inadvertantly raised, and if you’re a casual dip-in, dip-out Hulk fan, you probably won’t be pleased with the results.
* Tales to Astonish/Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 – 474 issues.
Hulk/Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 – 112 issues before becoming Incredible Hercules.
Jeph Loeb’s Hulk – 12 published issues
474 + 112 + 12 = 598. Which makes #600 the, er, 599th issue.
July 29th, 2009 on 4:29 am
Food for thought on why this book is so stupid (at least by #3, which by then I gave up): Maybe Red Hulk is an unreliable narrator.
You figure the guy the guy views himself at the coolest ☠☠☠☠ in the universe, and perhaps in his mind he views everyone else as one dimensional and otherwise inferior versions of how they’re represented (Thor, for example) in every other book. He hears what he wants to hear and makes up the rest as he goes. As a result, what we’re reading on the pages is what’s going through Rulk’s head. I don’t think I’ve heard of a comic (let alone a mainstream superhero one) use that kind of narrative regularly (or at least explicitly).
Of course, what kills any possibility of that theory is that the rest of Loeb’s output in the past couple of years has also been awful like this book. If it was another writer, I would’ve certainly given them the benefit of the doubt. But it’s Loeb. He’s lost that privilege.