Red She-Hulk #67 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Patrick Olliffe, Wellington Alves (Artists), Guy Major (Colorist)

The Story: Betty, Aaron, Jennifer and Man-Thing deals with the Echelon soldiers and gets to know about the order of the Shield with Nikola Tesla.

The Review: What a pity.

It’s always hard to see a title go, to see that despite all their efforts, the creators could not make the book sell enough to warrant a continuation. God knows that in this market we have seen a lot of cancellation on splendid titles, with the likes of Winter Soldier and Dial H being taken away because sales were low. It’s never a good thing to see such things happen, but there are also worse things that can happen to books that are cancelled. One of these, unfortunately, is to have an unfitting an unrewarding conclusion.

I am sad to say that this is the case here as even though Jeff Parker tries his very best to give us a grand finale and to resolve every plot points he had seeded in his book, he does not succeed. What gives this impression would be the fact that he tries to conclude too many elements at the same time, which gives the issue a very rushed feeling as the action jumbles a bit chaotically, not letting the reader assimilate everything that happens at a pace that feels satisfactory.

Red She-Hulk #66 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Patrick Olliffe, Joe Bennett, Ruy Jose (Artists), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: Betty should really know better than to try to harm Man-Thing. Seriously, the dude pretty much is the protector of various other realities.

The Review: This seems to be some kind of habit at some point. As awesome a writer as he is, capable of bringing enough care and development to characters that would never receive any, it seems he’s always the unlucky one that never has enough readership to maintain a book for a proper period of time.

Case in point, Red She-Hulk, who will see its last issue next month, has to make a point for the long-term storyline that had been running since the title and protagonist switch that happened when Betty Ross took a hold of the book. Despite the care he tried to give to this book, it seems that this book never really took off in a way that made it connect to a larger audience. Is it perhaps the lack of marketing, or maybe the sad fact that most female-lead books aren’t as hot sellers as other books in the superhero industry?

Red She-Hulk #65 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Ray-Anthony Height, Wellington Alves (Artists), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: Betty and Aaron have to fight several villains on Mount Rushmore in order to access another part of the great machine.

The Review: I think this title has an unfortunate curse, one that makes it unable to be consistent in terms of quality, despite the best effort of the team working on it. Either they balance their action and development well-enough to give us a rewarding read, or something gets in the way of our enjoyment.

Here, what seems to be causing a bit of disappointment would be the setting of a routine of some sort in the book. Sure, Jeff Parker bring some good and original ideas in the mix, but somehow the plot of most issues so far seems to be ‘’exotic locale, fight bad guys, look at the machine’’, which then continues like this. We are sometime treated to the development of other situations, like the original She-Hulk meeting General Fortean or the Mad Thinker and his schemes.

Red She-Hulk #64 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves (Artists), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: Both Betty and Aaron gets underground as they meet the Mole Monster who has some monsters for them to fight and some information to share.

The Review: Now this is the Jeff Parker I remember liking in the first place, the man who dared gives some absurd concepts their chance at shining, using them to his advantage to write quality stories. In short, the writer who could manage to give some deeper characterization and bring some fun to any characters if he was granted the chance to do so.

Red She-Hulk #63 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves (Artists), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: Betty and Aaron are on the run as S.H.I.E.L.D is trying to get them.

The Review: This title is a little bit infuriating. One second we think we’re going to have some more moment with our titular character and delve into who she is and what she wants, the next we get sidetracked with dozens of side characters that advances the plot without our heroine.

This does not mean it is a bad title or a bad issue, but it is annoying to see that Betty Ross does not necessarily have a great impact in her own book. So far, there seems to be more focus on the threat, Aaron Stack and the side characters than on Red She-Hulk. While there seems to be more characterization on her part, it still does not make her such an important or integral character to the plot. It even seems like they could have replaced her, so far, with a whole plethora of other characters and it would not have made any difference.

Red She-Hulk #62 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves (Artists), Val Staples (Colorist)

The Story: Betty explains how she got so much information on the potential disaster of military meta-humans and also encounters a cell of metahumans out to get her.

The Review: This is more like it. Although the series had suffered a bit with the absence of the titular character in the first issues of the re-titling of this book, the previous issue had remedied this problem a bit. This issue does it even further, giving us more of Betty Ross as a character.

Indeed, Machine Man is pushed a bit aside for this issue as most of the action and dialogue are centered on Betty Ross, both as her human person and as the Red She-Hulk. As the first page opens us on a scene explaining just how Betty met Nikola Tesla (the same one from S.H.I.E.L.D), we get much more characterization from her. Taking some part of Matt Fraction and Greg Pak previous versions of the character, Jeff Parker adds some more layers to her and what could make her go angry. It would make some sense of course that she’d become much more headstrong now that she knows she has the power of a Hulk, considering how much she had suffered with all the things people with that kind of power has done to her. Jeff Parker version of the character plays her like this, while still making her a good and interesting heroine, which is something I commend him for.

Red She-Hulk #61 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves (Artists), Val Staples (colorist)

The Story: Red She-Hulk and Machine Man escapes from a military base, then they engage in some conversation, explaining their motivation for what each other does.

The Review: In my previous review of this series, I said that the title character of this series should have been Machine Man, as he was the one which had received the most screen-time and had received much more development than Betty Ross. Since he had been our point of view character and that, in the span of three issues, we knew close to nothing of the reasons why Betty Ross was doing all these actions; the title was suffering since the book is titled Red She-Hulk.

This issue shows how much a series can change in the span of a single issue as we finally get more focus on Betty as a character, with a large part of the issue dealing with just who she is, who she was and how she got directed on the path she is right now. This helps us readers in connecting with her, since that character has actually been active since the 60’s in the Marvel Universe.

Red She-Hulk #60

By: Jeff Parker (writer), Carlo Pagulayan , Wellington Alves (artists) and Javier Tartaglia (colorist)

The Story: Betty Ross gets away from the Avengers and Machine Man continues his investigation on the Red She-Hulk.

[Editor’s Note: Everyone give a hip-hip-hooray for the newest addition to the WCBR staff, Hugo Robberts Larivière, who should be congratulated and honored for his name alone.  Looking forward to his thoughts on comics from now on.]

The Review: Being a fan and follower of Jeff Parker, I would not dare miss any of his mainstream Marvel titles. Having read his Thunderbolts, Agents of Atlas and Hulk runs, one could see that he has talents for writing interesting characters and fun superheroics. However, the switch from Hulk to Red She-Hulk has not been without problems.

Defenders #11 – Review

by Matt Fraction (story), Mirco Pierfederici (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story:  As the Death Celestial runs rampant, the Defenders discover the true nature and purpose of the Concordance Engines.

The Review:  In reading this sadly pen-ultimate issue of Defenders, I kept feeling like this was constantly teetering right on the edge of becoming a hot mess.  I think a lot of that is because of the ridiculous scale of Fraction’s story, the sheer size of his ideas, and the fact that, somehow, he only has one more issue after this to finish it all up.  I don’t know how the hell he’s going to manage that, but as far as this issue goes, it thankfully never implodes and said hot mess, though flirted with, never comes to fruition.

The big highlight this month is Fraction finally revealing the nature of the Concordance Engines, a reveal that really forms the heart of this issue.  Quite frankly, I thought Fraction’s explanation of their purpose was straight up amazing.  Fraction is a writer that often messes about with grand ideas and while they often go awry or end up overly ambiguous, he hits it out of the park in this one.  If I’ve understood the issue properly, the Concordance Engines’ effect on the Marvel Universe is so staggering that it’s actually mind-boggling; once you grasp what Fraction is actually saying, the implications are staggering.  There’s grand scale and then there’s….this, an idea so massive that it almost become metatextual.  Without revealing anything else, I’ll just say that the Concordance Engines basically answers how one universe can have so many superpowered beings when compared to a universe like, say, ours that is much more mundane.  Yes, there is a comparison there that Fraction implicitly draws between superhero shared universes and our world.  It’s pretty ballsy stuff and have fun wrapping your head around it.

Fraction also does a great job of milking the post-apocalyptic world he’s dumped his heroes in.  While it does lead to action and adventure, there is one scene involving Dr. Strange and Wong that is an absolute, emotional gut-punch.  It was amazing how a scene that came seemingly out of left-field with so little build up could nonetheless have such a substantial emotional impact.  In fact, I think that it IS such a surprise lends it a lot of its impact.  It’s a great scene and a definite highlight of the run.

The Defenders #7 – Review

by Matt Fraction (writer), Terry Dodson (penciller), Rachel Dodson (inker), Sonia Oback (colorist), and Clayton Cowles (letterer)

The Story: Black Cat gets recruited by weirdoes to steal weird stuff; the Defenders take their hunt for John Aman to Wakanda.

The Review:  As my top picks for this week can attest, I was looking forward to this issue, but this actually managed to exceed expectations.  Suffice to say, should Marvel ever consider a solo Black Cat series, Matt Fraction would definitely be on my short-list for the book.

Fraction’s has a naturally strong handle of Black Cat and her particular voice and he wisely has her narration the portions of the book in which she appears, allowing him to show off his understanding and clear love of the character.  Felicia Hardy is just as she should be: sassy, living on the edge, thrill-seeking, and cocky.  She leaps off the page and showcases everything that makes her a fan favourite.  Put simply, it’s impossible not to like Fraction’s Black Cat.  The way she’s introduced is also a stroke of genius: we get to see Felicia working an office job, which is comedy gold.  It also, of course, helps to have the Dodsons on art.  While their work overall on the issue is beautiful, as expected, having them draw Cat is a natural choice, given that drawing good-looking women has become one of their trademarks, having published several sketchbooks dedicated solely to doing just that.

Taking the Defenders to Wakanda is also a nice touch.  I’m really enjoying Fraction’s using this book not only as a way to spotlight disparate, B to C list characters, but also as a way to visit the far-flung corners of the Marvel Universe.  It adds a sense of vibrance and diversity to the book that makes it rather trippy, setting it apart from Marvel’s line.  I also cannot emphasize enough how much I loved the way Fraction introduced Wakanda itself: as the Defender’s land, they’re accompanied by narration that sounds like a voice-over from a cheesy old adventure movie or travelogue; it’s so amusing, that it’s guaranteed to have you hearing it in your head.

Defenders #2 – Review

By Matt Fraction (writer), Terry & Rachel Dodson (artists), Sonia Oback (colorist)

The Story: Dr. Strange gets a new nickname.

The Review: In my review of The Defenders #1, I complimented Fraction’s use of that issue as a way to introduce the team rather than diving into a dense plot right away. It presented a good foundation to build some group chemistry and highlighted the group’s diversity. Now, however, I’m a bit confused as to why he went through all that effort, as he doesn’t seem interested in building on it.

The heroes are remarkably dull, which is really an accomplishment when you consider the group Fraction is working with. Worse, they sound very much the same as one another. There are still some token reminders that these are distinct individuals—Dr. Strange drops some mystical history on the group, and Namor shouts “Imperious Rex!”—but it all feels oddly shallow. Even the narrator and the villains sound eerily alike. They’re like skittles; each character has a different veneer, but they’re really just different degrees of tart, and don’t actually taste a hell of a lot like the fruits they’re meant to.

The Incredible Hulk #2 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, & Billy Tan (pencils), Michael Broussard & Eric Basaldua (pencil assists), Scott Hanna (finishes), Joe Weems, Rick Basaldua, Jay Leisten, Don Ho, & Crimelab Studios (inks), Sunny Gho (colors), and Ed Dukeshire (letters)

The Story: Hulk meets the MAD Squad and man, oh man, I think Bruce is two fries short of a Happy Meal.

1.  The artwork is a messy mixed bag.

A lot has been made online of the fact that this book features a whopping six artists and five inkers.  Frankly, there’s no way that’s going to end well.  Furthermore, because this likely occurred due to Silvestri’s recent health issues, there’s no doubt that there were deadline concerns.  As a result, no one does their best work here.  If you enjoyed the hyper detail of last month’s issue, prepare to be disappointed.  This really does look like a rush job.  Also, as you might expect, the transitions between Silvestri, Portacio, and Tan is jarring and also pretty random.

2. Bruce Banner the mad scientist.

While the art is a bit of a hot mess, Jason Aaron’s work on Banner is amazing.  This truly is a Banner unlike you’ve ever seen him.  Yes, he’s pretty much crazy, but it’s not at all over the top.  Instead, what we have is a Banner gripped and defined by obsession.  This is also a Banner that is utterly pathetic and broken.  With that said, there’s a constant sense of inner violence to the character; he’s at once seething with rage and obsession while wallowing in his worthlessness and failure.  It’s a compelling portrait and it makes for a character that leaps off of the page.   The sheer pathos Aaron loads into the character is so much fun to read and left me wanting more.  Interestingly, Bruce is also the one area that the art team does well with: in every panel, there’s always just that hint of madness in Bruce’s eye.

3.  Marital strife sure is fun to watch.

Building on that, I thought that opening extended dialogue scene was very well done.  Not only does it highlight Banner’s current state, but man, oh man, does Betty get off a few zingers.  There are two to three lines where I literally went “ooooh” out loud.  Betty pulls absolutely no punches, throws a couple of low blows, and her evaluations of Bruce are brutally cutting.

Avengers #15 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Chris Bachalo (pencils & colors), Tim Townsend, Wayne Faucher, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba, and Mark Irwin (inks), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Steve Rogers sends a strike-team to Brazil to tackle the Worthy-fied Hulk, including a Spider-Woman still searching for her big moment of redemption.

What’s Good:  While I know that he has his detractors, I personally quite like Chris Bachalo’s art.  It’s cartoony flavour has a kind of good-natured sincerity to it that feels genuine and positive.  His action scenes are also lightning fast and overall, he handles the hectic stuff about as well as anyone could hope.  Mostly though, his strength is in the fact that his unique style does well in making characters naturally likable, which is crucial in an issue like this.

Both Bendis and Bachalo also did really strong work in coordinating the running battle this month.  And really, that’s the best way to describe it: coordinated.  The action had a nice, organic flow to it and really gave off the sense that the Avengers involved were working in tandem and employing strategy.  Better still, we got to see guys like Hawkeye, the Protector, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Woman at the forefront of the fight, using a whole range of their abilities.  It’s a nice change, given that these characters usually take a backseat to the bigger-names when it comes to sharing page-space in fight sequences.

What’s Not So Good:  ]It seems that Bendis has been using Fear Itself as a kind of narrative vehicle through which characters can define themselves by.  We saw it last month with Red Hulk, and we saw it in this month’s New Avengers issue with Mockingbird.  The thing is, there were reasons to focus on those two and there were fresh motivations and changes to both characters that left them wanting to define themselves.  Rulk’s a former bad guy and had just joined the Avengers, while Mockingbird had just had a near death experience and had just gained superpowers.  Both characters were in new places in their lives.

The Incredible Hulks #631 – Review

By: Greg Pak (writer), Paul Pelletier (penciller), Danny Miki (inker), Morry Hollowell with Jesús Aburtou (colorists), Jake Thomas (assistant editor), Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Heart of the Monster, Part Two: OK. AIM scientist party-crashes on Red She-Hulk/Tyrannus lovefest to turn fountain of youth into a wishing well. Some dumb wishes get made, bringing back to life a cool half-dozen of the Hulk’s foes, plus some random monsters and additional sub-wishes, and some more sub-wishes….

What’s Good: I started buying Hulk again because I was interested in seeing what Pak had been doing with it for a while, but more importantly, because of Pelletier’s art. Pelletier, Miki and the colorists really have a good thing going on. The art is detailed and textured, no matter who or what Pelletier is looking at. Fin Fang Foom has deep, shadowed ridges and the monster teeth are cracked and irregular. Rick Jones’ face (such as it is) is expressive and the weapons are shiny and new-looking. Wendigo and Bi-Beast figured heavily in this issue and the art team depicted them in lavish rage, while Umar (I didn’t even realize she was a Hulk foe!) and Amadeus have more subtle characterizations of their moods. And of course, the Hulk was big and blocky and green and all muscle, slapping it down with all comers and creatively outsmarting (in his limited way) the dumbest of his enemies. All in all, a visually satisfying issue.

On the writing, Pak’s tongue-in-cheek tone, mixing enemy and friend in quick-moving banter, while stirring in deadly danger, made for a fun ride. The wishing well and the complexity of the wishing structure that Cho figures out was intriguing, fitting cheek-by-jowl with funnny, Hulkish cunning involving Wendigo’s tail. I liked all the characters involved, even the villains, and no one seemed to be taking any great pains to take themselves too seriously, which was my signal to take it easy. Why did I like them? Well, they all wanted something that was obvious and important to them. The Hulk is heart-broken. She-Hulk, Cho and Rick are his buddy musketeers and Betty is his lost love. Poignant. Painful. Heart-warming. At the same time, on the villains’ side, we have some villains, who, at every turn, have seen their efforts stymied by this gamma-irradiated monstrosity. Of course they want a bit of payback, or to rebuild what they lost. What reader can’t buy into that? Pak has taken some very bizarre people (I’m talking about all of them), and made them sympathetic with some very clear, simple desires and obstacles.

Fear Itself #3 – Review

by Matt Fraction (writer), Stuart Immonen (penciller), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Laura Martin & Larry Molinar (colorists), and Chris Eliopoulos (letterer)

The Story: A major Marvel hero dies at the hands of Skadi/Sin, the final member of the Worthy is chosen, and Thor tries to escape prison and rush to Midgard’s aid.

The Review:  I’ve really been enjoying Fear Itself thus far, but I’ve been pretty honest in saying that the sub-text and tone of the story was often more interesting than the hammer-laden story itself.  I’ve really loved that inclusion of desperation and anxiety that has made the book feel relevant, current, and a surprisingly smart read.

So yeah, cue my disappointment when Fraction basically forgets about that sub-text altogether this month, instead focusing on the Worthy stomping about with their hammers and a crapload of action scenes.  It’s not a bad comic in itself, but certainly a letdown given what we’ve been getting, as the book immediately becomes less nuanced and a whole lot simpler.  It’s dangerously close to going from being a book that’s a reflection of the times, to being “just another” superhero comic event.

There’s a lot of fighting, yes, but things also seem to move slowly.  Thor’s inevitable escape from Asgard seems a little more long-winded than it needed to be, for example.  In other cases, pre-event hype hurts the book: the identity of the last member of the Worthy, crowned this month, has been known for quite some time now.  I mean, even the book’s cover more or less gives it away.

On the other hand, there are definitely things to like about the issue.  The ending, for example, is very well plotted and sequenced and delivers the “shit just got real” effect that was clearly intended, particularly given the deceased characters’ identity and his/her last words.  Things definitely feel a lot more dangerous and the superhero community, and the world itself, continues to look vulnerable and truly in danger, not an easy feat in superhero comics.   While some might have predicted it, the death is nonetheless one that’ll hit home for a lot of readers, as it should.

The end result is one that shows much of what the last page of last month’s issue told.  That is, it emphasizes the powerlessness of the Marvel Universe’s heroes in the face of this threat.  From the Hulk running rampant and tossing Betty around, to the major Marvel characters who die and transform to join the Worthy, to a pitiful last stand late in the issue, the point is driven home.

Fear Itself #2 – Review

by Matt Fraction (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: The Worthy are chosen and the world breaks into chaos.

The Review:  You know, it bodes well for an event when the second issue builds upon the first and is, in fact, possibly even better.  It’s all too common for series to have a slam-bang first issue, only to follow it up with water-treading and a loss of direction.  That’s not the case here.  In fact, Fraction’s focus is even tighter this time out and what we get is things getting taken up a level.  Events are bigger, the comic gets a little louder, and the tension gets higher.  Shit hits the fan this month more than the last, while promising even more in the issues to come.  In other words, it’s great pacing all around.

Also, Fraction takes what could be a boring issue structure (focusing on each character as he/she picks up a hammer and is transformed) and uses it to his advantage; jumping from Worthy to Worthy allows Fraction to emphasize the global impact of this event, making the story feel far more expansive.  This is paired with a truly excellent use of textboxes, which carry little snatches of panicked newscasts.  It leads to a sense of desperation and pandemonium, enhanced by the fact that we’re only getting fragments of broadcasts and not anything comprehensive.  Hence, a sense of chaos is created, helping to legitimize the threat of the Serpent and the Worthy.

In focusing on the Worthy, outside of the opening scene in Asgard (probably the only mediocre portion of the issue), Fraction makes the Avengers and the superheroes in general nothing more than a background presence.  Hence, when he has the newscasts, the world, crying out for the Avengers, or Steve Rogers calling for his comrades to no avail, it feels all the  more powerful.  The superhero community, reduced to such a minor presence amidst Fraction’s chaos of globetrotting and panicked fragmented newscasts, seems suddenly impotent.