Sadly the beauty of that cover is where the artistic greatness stops, the inside by Dillon really doesn't play up that well. Dillon is a British artist, his style seems very similar to Frank Quitely a Scottish artist, maybe it something with the European artists that have this like style, but it doesn't translate well to The Hulk.
Dillon's probably best known for his work on a book from Vertigo called Preacher but he has had successful runs with Marvel comics as well on The Punisher; probably why he was hired to do this part of the story. While his depiction of Punisher is fine, the way in which he draws the Hulk is terribly wrong. On the third page in of art there's a panel where the Hulk is taking on three men in a hotel room. He looks to be only a little over 6ft tall and maybe 250lbs? He wasn't even Lou Ferrigno big. The Hulk needs to always be a monster, huge, giant close to 8ft tall and massively large. To make him just slightly larger than a regular man is wrong.
The story isn't bad, Hulk finds out that when he calms down he reverts back to Banner, something that hasn't happened for quite some time and shouldn't be happening at all since (spoiler alert) the last issue showed the death of Bruce Banner. But apparently now Banner is the crazed person we all have to worry about and Hulk is a well spoken green giant that will indeed help people out if they need it.
The villain in the story is a new comer, Pit-Bull, no he's not the Miami singer entertainer he's a dog man, seems mostly dog, but he walks up right and has human limbs, kind of like a Thundercat but doggy. Anyway he just seems stupid and forced, if you're a dog man how would you possibly become a drug lord, who would take you serious? I would think everyone would want to pet you, maybe play catch. Is his true arch nemesis the mail man? Its clear that the fact that he's some sort of hybrid will play a part in this story but why did he have to be the main villain? Its like the writer just thought it would be cool if he was a dog man so go ahead and make him be drug lord and we'll name him after Mr. Worldwide.
Another thing that bothered my inner smart geek, why is Hulk is still bald in this issue? Apparently its due to a gamma bomb going off in his face, but I would think his healing factor would cure baldness as well. He started the new book with shaggy hair and a beard and now he's all smooth and clean shaven, another point that just seems dumb to ignore. I suppose artist continuity when it comes to small things like this doesn't matter that much to most. To me its a thorn.
I started reading this new Hulk book primarily because of the artist that started it, Whilce Portacio, Whilce a Filipino artist has an amazing style, the best way to describe it is refined sketching. I was a huge fan of his in the 90s with his work on X-Factor, some truly great stuff.
Mr. Dillon taking over for Whilce has some big Hulk shoes to fill, and I'm not sure I like his European look to the characters. Thank fully it seems this story of Stay Angry is one writer and a different artist each issue. Next issue we get Pasqual Ferry, a Spanish comic book artist. I know it seems like I'm really focusing on where the artists are from, but one thing I've noticed as an artist, the region you're from has a great influence on your art, and other artists from that area usually tend to draw similar. Spanish comic artist in my opinion are some of the best, Humberto Ramos, Carlos Pacheco and others, all of them my personal favorites.
There are some good scenes in this book, I don't want to give it a total bad review, a scene in which Hulk was realizing he was calming down and was afraid he'd turn back into Banner got funny when he told the Punisher to repeadetly shoot him in the face, the Punisher of course complied.
If you're in your comic shop this week and you haven't picked up any of the new Hulk books I'd say go grab issues 1-7, they are truly great books and really expand the history and character of the Hulk in a great new way. Then once you've gotten those read go ahead and grab this one as well, I mean we have to find out what Banner's up to and lets hope next issue the Hulk gets a little bigger.
HULK BOOM!
Finally: an accurate review of this truly atrocious issue! Like the reviewer, I bought Incredible Hulk 1-7 for the amazing art, particularly Portacio's run, and the great storyline. I picked up #8 without thinking twice since the cover is amazing.... Sadly the story is pretty childish (tho bloody). Talking road warrior dogs. Cheesy art. Small and bald Hulk. Stunted interior monologues. RUINED. Thanks, Disney.
ReplyDelete