Graphic Novel – my copy downloaded (50 pages) during June 2012
#45 of 2011-12 – #166 of All Time
- 3 nods out of 5 -
The recent success of The Avengers - titled, somewhat annoyingly, Avengers Assemble in the United Kingdom – has brought the green titan that is the Hulk to a brand new audience. Yes, sure, there have been other recent big screen portrayals, including 2003’s Hulk of (‘Don’t make me Ang Lee’, geddit?), as well as the mis-titled The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton. The latest incarnation in this year’s superhero blockbuster has taken the Hulk in a more promising direction, and the Worm warmly applauds this.
The Hulk is one of comics’ best characters: the haunted intelligence of Bruce Banner, juxtaposed with the smashing menace of the green skinned beast. Rarely are these characters portrayed in complex terms; but yet Stan Lee’s creation continues the literary continuity of dual personalities stretching back deep into our past. The closest similarity is, perhaps, that with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: a lethal cocktail of brains and brawn. It is the reason why the Hulk has remained so popular with comic reading and film going audiences.
This one-off showing of the Hulk is set in a future in which everyone on the planet has been killed in a - wait for it - nuclear holocaust. The Hulk, now in interestingly aged form with grey hair, has survived due to his near-on indestructable nature, left to bounder across the world. The action is split with the wandering, old figure of Banner: alive, only because of the Hulk’s insistence on them remaining in existence.
The writer Peter David, and the art team of Dale Keown (illustration), Joe Weems (inker) and Dan Kemp (colourist) create a world of horror, in which Banner is defeated yet forced to continue walking the earth, and in which the Hulk himself is attacked and pecked to smithereens by a swarm of large, killer bugs. The story is cleverly interwoven by both the Hulk and Banner able to watch the other due to the involvement of a floating video-bot that captures humanity’s last throw of the dice.
The duo remain in conflict: the Hulk wanting to rid himself of Banner who he deems weak and pitiful; and Banner wishing to be allowed to die to rid himself of this nightmare. The story comes to a climax as Banner suffers a heart attack and is finally allowed to pass away. The Hulk is left to announce his triumphant in defeating all of his enemies, including Banner. But loneliness now surrounds him: ‘Hulk…only one there is…Hulk feels…cold.’ It hints at his need to have Banner within him, as the two have co-existed in a long, ongoing struggle. Again, this akin to Jekyll and Hyde, to Batman and the Joker, to Bert and Ernie, and to give a modern political comparison, to Cameron and Miliband.
Hulk fans will undoubtedly enjoy this comic; and its brevity is fit for an afternoon’s reading. It captures more of the Hulk than in previous films, and this includes the recent Avengers film. A future solo Hulk film will hopefully make more of the conflict between the two central protagonists: it has been the key ever since Stan Lee created this special character many, many moons ago.
Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Hulk-Marvel-Premiere-Classic/dp/0785130268
