By Jon Palmer
The writers of The Incredible Hulk have been subtly playing with the relationship between Banner and The Hulk since the start of this new series.
It all begins coming together at the end of issue 7.1 and where the writers clearly subvert the mantle of “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”. Of course, any Hulk fan knows we would, I mean what’s not to like about a big green beast who smashes things, has been to outer space where he became a father, came back to Earth and got his old adversary so mad he became the Red Hulk?
Incredible Hulk Vol. 4 #8
Aside from all of that, issue 8 and 9 of The Incredible Hulk is where it begins to bring it all together and tantalises us with what’s to come. Jumping a couple of pages in the issue it’s the prologue that hints at the change when it tells us that The Hulk has to “Stay Angry! This is all thanks to The Hulk and Banner occupying ‘one body’ again. Again? You might well be asking that very question, and if you missed that little journey I’d go back and see the first seven issues, which brings up a few treats, from seeing Banner’s erratic state of mind turning every living creature he can find into a ‘hulked’ up version of itself. Even better is the unlikely person The Hulk teams up with to get him out of his predicament with Banner.
Back to these issues though, the ‘Stay Angry’ is to do with The Hulk’s state of mind and how Banner still controls him. We start with The Hulk waking up in a room, not knowing how he got there, surrounded by Dog-Men, and a couple of smashes later meets The Punisher. The Hulk is now trying to figure out what Banners up to and teams up with The Punisher to find Pitbull, leader of the Dog-Men. During their journey and to stop Banner from appearing, The Hulk asks The Punisher to do something that I found a humourous slant on the plot device that’s being developed and works only because it’s The Hulk. Eventually they catch up with Pitbull and after some coercing The Hulk is led to a storage unit and left wondering what Banner wanted with what he finds inside. Unfortunately he doesn’t have long to think about it as he wakes up in Atlantis …
The Hulk asks Punisher for help...
In Atlantis, The Hulk wakes up to the figure of an attentive nurse, which would be a good thing if Banner hadn’t put you there for a reason. Oh, and as he discovers quite quickly there’s something glowing in The Hulk’s chest, he wants it out and so do the “angry fish people”. The chase ensues and it has to be said some of the best ‘smashing’ that there has been known underwater, which aids The Hulk and his nurse to escape. On the surface we find out again that this is another stage in Banner’s plot and at the end leaves us wondering why he’s floating around in space.
I’m no expert on illustrating comics but so far with what’s been in these issues and former issues, along with the action sequences have been brilliant. I can’t really say much more on the art than that because I just find it fits the comic brilliantly and complements the story and arc as it should do.
Can we really empathise with Banner’s plight anymore?
What The Incredible Hulk is doing at the moment is setting up a whole new war between Banner and The Hulk, and feeding us some snippets of what Banner is up to along the way. The changing balance between The Hulk and Banner is an ingeniously brilliant twist by the writers, with the whole idea of who’s controlling who or who’s keeping who buried now, I like a lot. Even more compelling is the way that while I’ve always been a fan of The Hulk, I always empathised with Banner’s plight of wanting to separate in the early comics but ultimately as this story is driving home, these two are inseparable.
You can follow Jon on twitter at @palmerjono
Posted on June 25th, 2012
Category: IN THE BLACK HALL, REVIEWS
Tags: comics, comics review, hulk, Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hulk Vol. 4, jason aaron, Jon Palmer, marvel comics