Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Big Things: Part 4
Written by: Bruce Jones
Penciled by: Dougie Braithwaite
Inked by: Bill Reinhold
Colored by: Rainier Beredo
Lettered by: Randy Gentile
Assistant Editor: John Miesegaes
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The last year has not been kind to Hulk fans. The last summer’s movie was by no means a “monster†hit. I enjoyed the film, but it definitely doesn’t hold up over repeated viewings. I can live with that! Most superhero films have been disappointing on one level or another. The comic is what I care about, and I have to say, I don’t care about this comic right now. I’ve got nothing against Bruce Jones, in fact, I’m interested to see his work with DC (Jones signed an exclusive contract with DC last week). The best part of Jones going to DC is that The Incredible Hulk is finally guaranteed the new direction that it’s desperately needed for at least a year now.
Let’s see why…
Most of Jones’ run has been very readable. In fact, the stories have usually been well written, but with the oft-mentioned X-Files-esque plotting, a miserable failure as Hulk stories. That cannot be said about the two most recent storylines though. “Dead Like Me,†continued the shadowy tone of previous arcs and was nothing more than a group of people standing around in a cabin interspersed with fist fights between Hulks. Somehow “Big Things†has been even worse! This was the arc that brought the big transformation of the Hulk character over to the Marvel Knights brand. The arc has featured Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, along with other supporting characters that I don’t care about, standing around in laboratories doing the talking-heads routine, waiting around until the Hulk and Iron Man can duke it out for the umpteenth time. Yeah there’s a plot revolving around some Iron Man outfit that Stark’s building for the U.S. Government that will suck radiation out of an area. That’s just the reasoning to get the Emerald Goliath and Shell Head into frequent fist fights.
This debacle that is Hulk-Marvel Knights couldn’t have come off worse. Is this really what Axel Alonso meant when, in a January interview with Newsarama, he said, “We figure that the Marvel Knights reader is probably not somebody who lies awake in the middle of the night pondering who’s stronger, Hulk or Thor.†Are you kidding me? Hulk and Iron Man talking scientific in-between kicking the snot out of each other is supposed to be serious adult entertainment?
The next two issues of The Incredible Hulk will be double-sized “extravaganzas†that will finally pull all of the Home Base-X-Files nonsense to a close. It will also see a hiatus for the book, as Marvel will, instead, present another wonderful piece of adult entertainment the Marvel Knights way. Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks will feature the titular duo kicking the snot out of each other during the course of what will certainly be a “senses shattering†four-issue mini-series! Oh, hooray, yay! The big question: where will Hulk and Thing stand around talking each others heads off between slugfests? You’ll just have to drop $3.50 per issue to find out.
After all of this bashing, it’s time to say a kind word. Dougie Braithwaite has put in some exceptional work on the “Dead Again†arc and the final two parts of “Big Things.†He is certainly not to be faulted for the lackluster nature of any recent plotlines.
It still hasn’t been announced what’s going to happen after the festivities surrounding the Hulk/Thing slugfest. I beg Marvel to put things right and not bother giving a mini-series to Peter David; RELAUNCH the book and give PAD the chance to ongoing tell Hulk stories the way they ought to be.
