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2011 Books 64-70
Jul. 30th, 2011 07:02 pm64) Incredible Hulk 401-411 by Peter David and Gary Frank with Jan Duursema: Back to my pontificating on this. David manages to shift things back to the central metaphors (control of power; the double edged sword of the atomic bomb) by making the now intelligent stable Hulk in charge of the Pantheon, an inherently unstable organization that uses tons of covert military force, often against the wishes of the US Government. This run of the book continues the feel of the last one while giving Banner something powerful that he can barely control that isn't himself. Plus, a chance for David to give is a look at a Nick Fury who is nicely human and nicely badass.
65) Incredible Hulk 412-419 plus Future Imperfect by Peter David, Gary Frank and George Perez: Aaaand we get to watch control slip away from him. Good solid story arcs with an outer space battle time travel adventures and possible the best "hero fighting an evil future version of himself" story I've seen. There are also some genuinely funny bits in this, mostly focusing on Rick Jones' romance with Marlo, the Grey Hulk's girlfriend from Las Vegas (following the law of conservation of cast).
66) Incredible Hulk 420-426 by Peter David and Gary Frank, with Liam Sharp on the last issue: It all falls apart, both the Pantheon and Hulk's control of his psyche, continuing that pretty deft parallel. The endgame of this is a little weak, for reasons that will become clear. A nice change in the Hulk power set where at this point if he gets too angry his brain's fail safes change him back into Banner but with the rampaging Hulk's personality.
67) Incredible Hulk 427-441 by Peter David, Liam Sharp and Angel Medina: I hate to say it, but right about here is where the book starts to fumble, and it's pretty clear that it's not entirely David's fault. Marvel's editorial staff decided in 1995 to start chasing the Vertigo horse and designated a bunch of its books had to become 'Edgy', and Hulk was deemed one of those books. Suddenly it was put on new shiny paper (which makes the art look lousy) and shifted to dealing with child abducting murderers, anti-abortion shootings and getting yanked out of its current setting - Hulk and Betty are hiding out near the Everglades - back to New York to involve Hulk in a pointless crossover of Edgy Urban Crime/Biblical Fantasy that culminated with the incredibly stupid killing of Nick Fury at the hands of the Punisher. It's all pointless to the actual Hulk plotlines, and it's followed by a 5 issue arc involving the Leader's long term plans and the return of the Army Hulkbusters and Glenn Talbot that would have been pretty good if it too hadn't felt incredibly rushed, likely because David and the Hulk were now popular enough to get stuck on the thrice annual crossover circuit. The mid 90's really were a crummy time for comics.
68-70) PS 238 Volumes 3-6 by Aaron Williams: the book continues to be fun, but it's starting to suffer from subplot kudzu with too many new characters and some plot threads that were B plots, then C plots and then forgotten becoming A plots for a few issues, producing plot whiplash. The best part of this 3 volumes are the issues with a small chunk of the cast in Las Vegas because it let Williams focus on them and their development. The rest feels oddly muddled, which is strange since it's not like Williams doesn't have time to flesh things out a bit.
65) Incredible Hulk 412-419 plus Future Imperfect by Peter David, Gary Frank and George Perez: Aaaand we get to watch control slip away from him. Good solid story arcs with an outer space battle time travel adventures and possible the best "hero fighting an evil future version of himself" story I've seen. There are also some genuinely funny bits in this, mostly focusing on Rick Jones' romance with Marlo, the Grey Hulk's girlfriend from Las Vegas (following the law of conservation of cast).
66) Incredible Hulk 420-426 by Peter David and Gary Frank, with Liam Sharp on the last issue: It all falls apart, both the Pantheon and Hulk's control of his psyche, continuing that pretty deft parallel. The endgame of this is a little weak, for reasons that will become clear. A nice change in the Hulk power set where at this point if he gets too angry his brain's fail safes change him back into Banner but with the rampaging Hulk's personality.
67) Incredible Hulk 427-441 by Peter David, Liam Sharp and Angel Medina: I hate to say it, but right about here is where the book starts to fumble, and it's pretty clear that it's not entirely David's fault. Marvel's editorial staff decided in 1995 to start chasing the Vertigo horse and designated a bunch of its books had to become 'Edgy', and Hulk was deemed one of those books. Suddenly it was put on new shiny paper (which makes the art look lousy) and shifted to dealing with child abducting murderers, anti-abortion shootings and getting yanked out of its current setting - Hulk and Betty are hiding out near the Everglades - back to New York to involve Hulk in a pointless crossover of Edgy Urban Crime/Biblical Fantasy that culminated with the incredibly stupid killing of Nick Fury at the hands of the Punisher. It's all pointless to the actual Hulk plotlines, and it's followed by a 5 issue arc involving the Leader's long term plans and the return of the Army Hulkbusters and Glenn Talbot that would have been pretty good if it too hadn't felt incredibly rushed, likely because David and the Hulk were now popular enough to get stuck on the thrice annual crossover circuit. The mid 90's really were a crummy time for comics.
68-70) PS 238 Volumes 3-6 by Aaron Williams: the book continues to be fun, but it's starting to suffer from subplot kudzu with too many new characters and some plot threads that were B plots, then C plots and then forgotten becoming A plots for a few issues, producing plot whiplash. The best part of this 3 volumes are the issues with a small chunk of the cast in Las Vegas because it let Williams focus on them and their development. The rest feels oddly muddled, which is strange since it's not like Williams doesn't have time to flesh things out a bit.
