Iron Man/Hulk/Fury #1 – Review

By: Iron Man: Paul Tobin (writer), Ronan Cliquet (pencils), Chris Sotomayor (colors) Hulk: Frank Tieri (writer), Salva Espin (pencils), Guru eFX & Chris Sotomayor (colors) Fury: Joe Caramagna (writer), Hugo Petras (pencils), Chris Sotomayor (colors)

The Story: This comic tells three short stories taking place in the Marvel Film Universe. The Iron Man story shows Tony before events of the film, and shows what happened right before his press conference at the end. The Hulk story details an encounter between Banner and Fury. When exactly it takes place in relation to the movie isn’t totally clear, but Fury has been sent to see if Ross really came across something with the Super-Solider serum. Finally, Nick Fury’s tale is heavy on espionage as Nick attempts to smoke out a traitor within SHIELD.

What’s Good: Iron Man’s portion really nails the tone of the film. The Tony Starks in this book feels so much like the film’s Tony, you can believe that these scenes could’ve served as extra features for the dvd. Also Fury’s inner monologue in the Hulk story also reads very well. He’s smooth, relaxed, and badass without being cliche.

What’s Not So Good: The Hulk-Fury story is inconsistent. Tony’s story wasn’t anything new or groundbreaking, but it also wasn’t a rehash of the movie. Fury could easily be replaced by Ross or anyone else as he tells us how careful and smart Banner is. There’s also a huge tonal shift between each story. That isn’t a problem, but what’s lacking is a clearly defined start/stop point to the stories. Without a title page or something at the start of each, the shift from story to story is very jarring.

Conclusion: The book is a little misleading. I didn’t know it was a movie tie-in upon purchase. Granted movie tie-ins are normally bad, so it’s probably for the best that they didn’t plaster that over the cover. Still, with Ultimate Fury on the cover most people will probably think it’s an Ultimate Universe story which isn’t the case. Decent art and a solid story for about a 3rd of a comic aren’t really compelling arguments to part with your four bucks.

Grade C-

-Ben Berger