Incredible Hulk #3 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writing), Marc Silvestri (line art), Sunny Gho (colors), and Ed Dukeshire (letters)

The Story:  Hulk tries to defend his moloid buddies from gamma-powered boar brothers 26 and 27.

The Review:  I’m fairly certain that this is one of those issues where you’re going to get reviews across quite a wide spectrum.  The major reason for this, I suspect, is going to be Marc Silvestri’s artwork.

I understand a good number of people will enjoy Silvestri’s style here, but I unfortunately don’t find myself in that camp.  While I enjoyed his first issue, I just can’t escape the fact that his work feels dated.  It has a distinctly 90s style that detracts from the book.  That would be fine, perhaps, if the work showed the same level of attention and craftsmanship present in the first issue, but this felt messy.  It seemed rushed, extra scratchy, and at times, ill-defined.  But really, “messy” is the best word that I can use to summarize this.

There’s good work here, chiefly in Silvestri’s illustrations of the Hulk and Banner’s various monsters, but the rushed feeling really prevails everywhere else, particularly in the backgrounds.  It creates an overall, sloppy 90s aesthetic that detracts from the book.

Last month, I complained that the Hulk just wasn’t an interesting character yet under Aaron’s hand.  Aaron is hammering out the “Hulk just wants to be left alone” trope quite well.  It’s a part of the psychology of the Hulk that Aaron clearly gets.  Thankfully, as far as Hulk’s character and the plot goes, I feel as though the training wheels have come off this month, even if having a third issue of set-up is a little annoying.