Hulk #38 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (writer), Elena Casagrande (artist), Bettie Breitweiser & Jim Charalampidis (colorists), Ed Dukeshire (letterer), Jake Thomas (assistant editor) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Red Hulk wraps up his Fear Itself tie-in with some unlikely defenders of NYC coming into play.

What’s Good: Jeff Parker does something pretty cool in this issue.  The common complaint with line-wide comic events (such as Fear Itself) is that they ruin the natural flow of the stories the creators were already telling by putting a supposedly entertaining story to the side for 2-3 months while the characters deal with the event.  “Just let the creators tell their stories!”, moan the fanboys!  And, it is true that most creators have simply surrendered and put their “main” story on hiatus while dealing with Fear Itself.  Well, Parker shows in Hulk #37 and this issue that a clever creator can use the event to service your own storytelling goals.

It isn’t really possible to discuss this issue much without a SPOILER WARNING.  There aren’t any huge events in this issue like anyone dying, but there are a few cool moments that you might want to experience organically in the pages of the comic.

As stated above, what makes this issue and story arc so cool is how Parker has used the back drop of Rulk fighting super-Thing into something that serves his own story.  If you’re a pretty big Marvel reader, you probably already saw the Rulk/Thing fight back in an issue of Avengers a month or so ago.  One of my complaints last issue was that the ending didn’t seem to quite sync up with the action in Avengers, but Parker fixes that here and that’s where the magic comes in.

Weekly Comic Book Review’s Top Picks

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Detective Comics #880 – I absolutely loved Scott Snyder’s take on the Joker, a horrific monster who dwells in the very subterranean, dark heart of Gotham.  Not only was the Joker creepy as hell, but Snyder did a great job in fitting him seemlessly into the themes regarding Gotham that Snyder has made integral to his series.  Oh, and the James Jr. slasher flick cliffhanger was pretty fun too.

Most Anticipated: The Punisher #1 – Greg Rucka returns, not just to Marvel, but to comic books in general (seriously, where the hell is Stumptown?). The Punisher has often struggled outside the Marvel MAX imprint.  Too gritty and realistic and he doesn’t quite fit in the superhero abundant Marvel Universe.  Too wacky, and you end up with weirdness like Frankencastle or Frank as an angel. I think Rucka is a writer who will manage to find the balance and, at the very least, I’m sure will get some dark, noir-y goodness. And certainly, the art is going to be absolutely gorgeous.

Other Picks: Flashpoint #4, Batman: Gates of Gotham #4, Scalped #51, Secret Six #36, Wolverine #13, Superboy #10, Sweet Tooth #24, Amazing Spider-Man #667, Moon Knight #4

Dean’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Captain America & Bucky #620 – This one comes with a big asterisk as I just came back from vacation and haven’t picked up some primo books from the LCS yet (American Vampire, Detective Comics, etc.), but this issue really illustrated by Chris Samnee and Elizabeth Breitweiser are two of the brightest lights out there on the artistic front.  Sure, the story of how Bucky became THE Bucky is entertaining, but Samnee and Breitweiser are the real stars here.

Most Anticipated: Scalped #51 – With the sad news that Scalped will be ending with issue #60, you just KNOW that Jason Aaron is going to be bringing the heat for the remaining 10 issues.  He’s been pretty unafraid to do bloody and traumatic things to these characters, so I can only imagine what he’ll do now that he isn’t saving anything for future story arcs.  The end starts here!

Other Picks: 50 Girls 50 #3, Severed #1, Infinite #1, Hulk #38, Punisher #1, Rachel Rising #1, SHIELD #2, Sweet Tooth #24