Incredible Hulk #3:
What Happened: Hulk returns to his mole-people and discovers that Crazy Bruce Banner's(yes, he's officially “Crazy Bruce” now.) weird gamma-warthog pets had captured all of the child mole-people to draw Hulk out... You know, this scene is WAY better than it sounds... Trust me on that one... Anyway, Hulk and the two warthogs battle for a while with the battle ending when Hulk smashes the ground open which causes the warthogs to be swallowed up by the earth. Realizing that if he stayed with the mole-people he'd be allowing his enemies to possibly hurt him through them, Hulk leaves the mole-people and returns to the government agents who were tracking Crazy Bruce, telling them he'd join up and help them hunt Crazy Bruce down. This one ends with one of the government agent's tracer devices finding Crazy Bruce's island and Crazy Bruce preparing for the inevitable invasion with an army of gamma-powered animals.
The Good: I have to say, I really enjoyed the story here... It was chock full of action, and was the type of story you really didn't have to think too hard about while reading it. The cliffhanger was fantastic... Probably too good... Dammit...
The Bad: I'm just going to come right out and say it... The mole-people are a dumb concept. There. It had to be said... I guess there COULD have been a bit more to this comic than Hulk smashing some green warthogs, but that's not a huge complaint... The only way I can see this storyline ending is with Hulk and Crazy Bruce merging again, especially since that appears to be the only way Crazy Bruce won't die from his brain tumor.
The Verdict: Dammit!! When I wrote the introduction to this post, I was like 86.8756% certain I'd be dropping this series after closing this comic book up. Instead I'm almost positive I'll be forced to pick up at least another issue, as I REALLY want to see the Crazy Bruce/Hulk confrontation. Yeah sure, I have a pretty good idea of how the storyline will(probably) eventually end(look above at “The Bad” section!), but I still want to see Crazy Bruce and Hulk get in each other's faces. *sigh* Well, I guess I'll probably drop the Ultimates and keep this series... For now...
Score: 8 out of 10.
Hulk no angry, Hulk sad...
Glad you agree that the whole mole civilization gimmick should've died off in the 60's. I don't care for the Hulk, but would've bought this series for Silvestri's art if the story was anything above utterly mediocre.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Mole Man is another one of those characters that worked in his original era, but just doesn't cut it, for me, nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually leaning towards dropping this series again... That $4 cover price is just too much for a series I've liked, but haven't loved...