Incredible
Hulk #106
Marvel
Comics
Writer:
Greg Pak
Artist:
Gary Frank
So
the Hulk’s angry and the Hulk’s coming. Nothing new there. The
Hulk’s always angry about something and, ultimately — in the
cosmic, metaphysical, cryptic, spooky “To bend the spoon you must
realize that there is no spoon” sense, the Hulk is always on his
way somewhere so, in the end, the Hulk is always coming. So nothing
new there either. But the Hulk’s never been well-stocked in the
brains department. All that blind rage and gleeful desire to smash
things has always been the Hulk’s greatest strength and weakness.
So how does one manage to arrange a “world war” if you’re not
the strongest thinker? Simple. You get a young, bright-eyed, “I’m
smart enough to understand the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey” kid
to help you out.
Incredible Hulk #106 is all about Mastermind
Excello — the braniac kid who’s vowed to help the Hulk — and his
attempts to convince She-Hulk — Big Green’s leggy, athletic,
equally green cousin — to help him fight against Tony Stark and his
oppressive, government-backed powerhouse “The Initiative.”
Greg
Pak does a pretty good job with this issue of
Hulk. Mastermind Excello’s attempts to convince She-Hulk to fight
against Doc Sampson, Tony Stark and the rest of The Initiative does a
great job of bringing the reader up to speed on just how out of line
the government, and those heroes who sided with the government,
really are. Pak does a great job of muddling things and, somehow,
arguing against himself. As Doc Sampson does the job of trying to
convince She-Hulk that working with the Initiative is the only sane
way to live these days, Excello is equally adept at pointing out the
flaws and injustices of the program. The end result? Both sides of
the argument come through loud and clear and the battle lines for the
impending World War Hulk are drawn.
On
pencils, Gary Frank seems to have been in the mood to have a little
fun with this issue. The artwork is sound but full of what feels like
references to other artists. Overall, the artwork of this issue has a
“Jim Lee” feel to it—a lot of sharp lines, pointy noses and an
excessive amount of distress lines. Then, in the middle of the book,
there’s a panel that’s almost a photocopy of one of the ending
panels of Frank Miller’s
That Yellow Bastard storyline from
the Sin City franchise. However, in spite of all of his likeness to
other writers, Frank has still managed a well-drawn story. He’s
done a great job with layout and panel arrangement and has a real
knack for large splash pages that bring home the action.
Overall:
7 on 10. An overall good lead-in to World War Hulk.