Red Hulk

Red Hulk is a bit of a curious fish. I enjoyed this collection of the first 6 issues, for the 20 minutes it took me to read them, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's particularly good. I held off buying the first issue when it came out as I intended to sign up to a 12 issue subscription. In the end the collapse of the free world and obliteration of the pound meant I didn't bother, and so I finally got my teeth into them with this collection.

So far as mild distraction or entertainment goes I'm not a difficult person to please, so I'd definitely say that Hulk is big, silly, and fun while it lasts. The main positive I'd mention is quite simply that I like Rulk. Hulk is one of those characters that it's difficult to find a suitable adversary for but Rulk definitely fits the bill. I love the positively brutish gun that Rulk uses. There are also plenty of Marvel cameos for your viewing pleasure, many of them feel unnecessary and slightly rushed but I think they work in the context of this particular book.

There's also plenty not to like. I don't enjoy the artwork, everyone looks like they've taken a double batch of steroids by accident. I don't enjoy the crippling lack of dialogue, even though it is enough to move the story along at a satisfactory pace.

I'm going to leave Loeb and the murder mystery element out of this post as I'm going to discuss it in more detail in the next post but let's simply say that it's a stretch to consider this book a whodunit.

The Hulk collector inside of me still wants to own all of these issues and if I can get them cheap I'll probably pick them up eventually. However, I baulk at the idea of paying Marvels new improved cover price for the 7 lines of dialogue that seem to make it into each issue. I'll continue to read this run but only in collection like this one.

On a final note, this collection is almost worth it just to read the little cartoons at the back written by Audrey Loeb, Hulk Splash is a particular favourite!