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INCREDIBLE HULK #34
"The Morning After"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Bruce Jones
Pencils: John Romita Jr.
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Studio F
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Axel Alonso
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
Clearly, I need to seek out more of Jones's past work, because his Tangled Web issue and his inaugural issue of the Hulk are some pretty incredible stuff. Jones has created a whole new Bruce Banner in this issue, one that ties into the scientific genius, fugitive on the run and guilty conscience aspects we've seen before, and suddenly I'm interested in the character again. It doesn't hurt that John Romita Jr. is enjoying a creative renaissance, with his work both on Amazing Spider-Man and here picking up considerably in
the past year or so. There's an element of the television show here, in that we
may see Bruce wandering from town to town and encountering plots, and it turns
out that in the hands of a talented creative team, that's not such a bad premise
at all.
I'm actually reminded somewhat of 100 Bullets in this issue, and that's no
bad thing. Jones paints a vivid and believable portrayal of a rundown urban
neighborhood, and seeing Bruce Banner, former star physicist, reduced to cheap
motels and thugs is a jarring and intriguing picture. Most importantly, while
Jones and Romita paint Banner's situation as bleak, he doesn't come across as
overly mopey or hopeless. His setup of nifty gadgets and calm outward demeanor
mark him as someone who is trying to learn from his journey, and I'm very
intrigued by the code words and computer communications that indicate someone is
helping Bruce stay hidden.
The actual story of this
issue is Banner interacting with a smart kid who is threatened by the
neighborhood he lives in, and may be forced to abandon his potential just to
survive. In untalented hands, it would come across as a clumsy afterschool
special, but Jones does a fantastic job of establishing Jerome as a likable and
intelligent character and building a bond between Jerome and Banner. It's also
interesting to see Banner developing into someone who can survive, disguising
himself to avoid capture and dealing with burglars and thugs with relative ease.
Beyond the strength of the
story, we have some incredible artwork by John Romita Jr. and Tom Palmer, and
the usual fantastic coloring job by Studio F. This issue is light on action, in
fact it's almost entirely lacking in action, but the tension and character
interaction is top notch thanks to this creative team. It's a quiet sort of
story, one where a lot of the action is going on in the characters' heads, and
the artistic team does an incredible job of conveying that. Their performance is
one of absolute subtlety, with a key moment being conveyed simply through a
flash of color in a character's eyes.
I really didn't expect to
like this title as much as I did during Peter David's run any time soon, if ever
again. The Hulk has never been a favorite character, and while I enjoyed the
work that Jenkins and McKeever did on the book, it still wasn't really on my
radar as a favorite book. Jones and Romita Jr. seem to be on the right path with
the Hulk, and I think they may pull in fans of the character as well as simply
fans of good comics if they keep doing issues like these.
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