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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
A fun and actually thoughtful retelling of the origin of The Hulk. Damn fine artwork.
Fred Van Lente was doing comics for kids when I started buying Marvel Age for my small people. He quickly became someone whose name I would look for when I got their stuff because he was able to write accessibly for kids without pandering. This is from the 2011-2012 attempt by Marvel to deal with Stan Lee's exhortation "every comic is someone's first" by bringing everyone forward through time (Banner has a cellphone when the blast happens, it's 1991, not 1964) and incorporating elements of the various versions of people's origin stories (AIM, Hulk chimp). It's good, this thing. It was a propellant read, and a solid Hulk story.
Full Review at: https://ilayreading.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/hulk-season-one/
I’ll break this down into two sections. Again…first graphic novel ever…this is going to be a learning process.
Story/Writing: Boy was this dark! I had heard people say The Hulk was a dark story, but this is not The Hulk I knew at ALL. Obviously, this is not the Avengers Hulk, and maybe I’ll do some reading to see where all that fits in, but he is not a superhero here. I kept waiting for that to happen, and it didn’t. The explosion happens, Banner doesn’t die, and his superiors are pissed that he’s still alive? Ummmm ok? Thanks a bunch, asshole. The misogyny in this book is horrible, by the way, and the jokes are totally crude. I had to look to see when this was written–I was expecting 20 years ago, not 2012. I was also extremely confused by Banner vs Hulk. In the interpretation I am used to, Banner IS Hulk, but in this book it seems that they are two split entities/bodies. At first I thought they just had two different consciousnesses warring with each other–that would make sense to me–but about halfway through I think they were no longer even in the same place. I wasn’t entirely sure how that split happened or why.
Art: The aesthetics of this book were not to my taste, but that doesn’t mean they were necessarily bad. They are definitely for a more traditional, hyper-masculine sort of fan. The men are jacked up, and I’m sorry…but no female scientist is going to be in a mini-dress and knee high boots with exposed legs and an open labcoat. Nope. Sorry boys. I did, however, really like the super close up panels of The Hulk “hulking out,”–like the shots of his eyeball or the sound-effects. There’s also a great one where Banner is walking with a clipboard in his hand and The Hulk is ginormous behind him (again, I thought it was representing his subconscious…but maybe they really are split at that point).
I definitely much prefer Movie Hulk–and maybe I’ll look into reading something with the Avengers, so I can see the difference. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. This was a little dark for me, and the art wasn’t to my taste. But…now that I have a bit of an idea how to read a comic and what I am looking at, I have my foot in the door! AdultBooklr does a monthly Graphic Novel readalong, so maybe I’ll start participating in that.
I’ll break this down into two sections. Again…first graphic novel ever…this is going to be a learning process.
Story/Writing: Boy was this dark! I had heard people say The Hulk was a dark story, but this is not The Hulk I knew at ALL. Obviously, this is not the Avengers Hulk, and maybe I’ll do some reading to see where all that fits in, but he is not a superhero here. I kept waiting for that to happen, and it didn’t. The explosion happens, Banner doesn’t die, and his superiors are pissed that he’s still alive? Ummmm ok? Thanks a bunch, asshole. The misogyny in this book is horrible, by the way, and the jokes are totally crude. I had to look to see when this was written–I was expecting 20 years ago, not 2012. I was also extremely confused by Banner vs Hulk. In the interpretation I am used to, Banner IS Hulk, but in this book it seems that they are two split entities/bodies. At first I thought they just had two different consciousnesses warring with each other–that would make sense to me–but about halfway through I think they were no longer even in the same place. I wasn’t entirely sure how that split happened or why.
Art: The aesthetics of this book were not to my taste, but that doesn’t mean they were necessarily bad. They are definitely for a more traditional, hyper-masculine sort of fan. The men are jacked up, and I’m sorry…but no female scientist is going to be in a mini-dress and knee high boots with exposed legs and an open labcoat. Nope. Sorry boys. I did, however, really like the super close up panels of The Hulk “hulking out,”–like the shots of his eyeball or the sound-effects. There’s also a great one where Banner is walking with a clipboard in his hand and The Hulk is ginormous behind him (again, I thought it was representing his subconscious…but maybe they really are split at that point).
I definitely much prefer Movie Hulk–and maybe I’ll look into reading something with the Avengers, so I can see the difference. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. This was a little dark for me, and the art wasn’t to my taste. But…now that I have a bit of an idea how to read a comic and what I am looking at, I have my foot in the door! AdultBooklr does a monthly Graphic Novel readalong, so maybe I’ll start participating in that.
I have mixed feelings about this comic since some of the plots seemed like an unneeded attempt to create an 'edgier' version of the Hulk's origin story, which unfortunately resulted in something that felt very odd and distanced from the original source material.
However the parts of this that I did care for I really enjoyed, such as Bruce's fight for dominance with Hulk inside his mind that was extremely powerful and meaningful on its own, but also for people who themselves struggle with the toxic feelings and behaviors Hulk has come to represent which are often developed from experiencing continuous mistreatment or abuse.
The general story I wasn't really into due to its weird and gritty nature, and I wish much of this had more solid writing since it isn't on Marvel Unlimited and I had to purchase it separately, but I still don't regret buying or reading it since pieces were excellent and complimented well by the art.
However the parts of this that I did care for I really enjoyed, such as Bruce's fight for dominance with Hulk inside his mind that was extremely powerful and meaningful on its own, but also for people who themselves struggle with the toxic feelings and behaviors Hulk has come to represent which are often developed from experiencing continuous mistreatment or abuse.
The general story I wasn't really into due to its weird and gritty nature, and I wish much of this had more solid writing since it isn't on Marvel Unlimited and I had to purchase it separately, but I still don't regret buying or reading it since pieces were excellent and complimented well by the art.