"Incredible Hulk" Stays Angry With Jason Aaron

[poneley]

What is the consensus on the first arc? Yay or nay? I'm interesting in grabbing all of the issues and reading them in one sitting but I haven't heard anything definitive on its quality.

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

I'm honestly really disappointed with Aaron's run so far.

Filling Greg Pak's shoes was going to be a big job, and I honestly think Marvel picked the wrong guy to do it. To be honest, I think this is the one character/book besides Invincible Iron Man where Matt Fraction could excel. That's just me, though.

Aaron is hit-or-miss with me: his Wolverine was a miss, but Wolverine and the X-Men is a hit. Go figure.

The whole "Banner's really insane" plot didn't sit right with me, especially when Pak wrote a fantastic Hulk-less Banner who, you know, wasn't psychotic. I'll stick with it for a little while longer to see if Aaron can sell me, but, in the meantime, I'll keep reading Jeff Parker's Hulk for a great gamma-powered book.

[Hulk_Is]

What is the consensus on the first arc? Yay or nay? I'm interesting in grabbing all of the issues and reading them in one sitting but I haven't heard anything definitive on its quality.

If you like quirky humour and monsters you'll probably like it overall.

[aNamored]

Hey this arc guest stars Wil Wheaton as the Punisher!

Thanks for the laugh Enigmanaut. I am not of a fan of Steve Dillion's art but your comment was priceless. I am going to pass, especially at that price-point.

Have to say I love the panel in IH 7.1 of the Hulk relaxing in an active volcano. That's fun.

[PympMyQuinjet]

I LOVE Dillon's Punisher work. It's perfect for the character.

Not so much for Hulk, however.

[Joe Franklin]

If Palo were the regular artist on the Hulk, I would buy it each month for the art alone. Too bad he's not though.

[DrHerbertWest]

What is the consensus on the first arc? Yay or nay? I'm interesting in grabbing all of the issues and reading them in one sitting but I haven't heard anything definitive on its quality.

The script is A-OK and a lot of fun, but the whole thing gets dragged down by real iffy artists with the first 3 issues a hack job by Silvestri backed up with a whole slew of ghost- and fill in artists, and then by Portacio where the same thing happened giving a the whole story a very jumbled, inconsistent feel with real issues in flow and storytelling. Hopefully they can fix the regular artist problem soon and fix this series, the art for 7.1 looks awesome and very fitting for Arron's scripting style, hope they enlist him as the series regular after the Stay Angry arc!

[CTpitch]

The script is A-OK and a lot of fun, but the whole thing gets dragged down by real iffy artists with the first 3 issues a hack job by Silvestri backed up with a whole slew of ghost- and fill in artists, and then by Portacio where the same thing happened giving a the whole story a very jumbled, inconsistent feel with real issues in flow and storytelling. Hopefully they can fix the regular artist problem soon and fix this series, the art for 7.1 looks awesome and very fitting for Arron's scripting style, hope they enlist him as the series regular after the Stay Angry arc!

I actually quite enjoyed Silvestri's art on the first 3 issues, Steve Dillon is getting a lot of crap here but the guy is an amazing storyteller through art
Renato Guedes is coming up soon in an stay angry arc

[Predabot]

I'll echo the criticism on the art-side. Silvestri, and PORTACIO in perticular, have produced some of the WORST art of their entire careers.

Shameful.

The story wouldn't be half-bad otherwise, actually. There are some neat ideas and some action to each issue.

As for the upcoming story, Stay Angry, the way I see it, there are two possibilities:

1. When Banner was blown apart by the gamma-bomb, he was actually broken down on a molecular level, and absorbed back into Hulk. Therefore, he may be resurfacing, which means Hulk has to stay angry to not become Banner.

2. Without Banner, the Hulk is deteriorating physically, whenever he's happy. The Hulk isn't meant to be glad, he's rage personified. Without the adrenaline-rush of rage, he reverts to a lower power-level, since as you can see in some of the pages, he actually looks SMALLER, more human. The difference is, now there's no Banner, so there's nowhere for him to go. If he doesn't keep at a certain level of anger, he'll die, since he'll keep losing mass when the gamma-rads that increase his mass go away.

Some interesting story-possibilities all in all. It may end up that Hulk is going to have to do the decision to recreate Banner in some way, or see himself perish. How delicious a situation created by Dr Doom!

It's the stuff of life-long enmity, I say.

[ian33407]

IF there hadn't been so many ups and downs with the artistS CREW, I would have been almost FORCED to buy this book and to give my money to Jason Aaron.

Because if Marc Silvestri was still Marc Silvestri ( I used to WORSHIP this guy y'know, his X-MEN and WOLVERINE runs are precious memories, and excepted for a few artists who really have "a" style -like Romita Jr or Walt Simonson, his runs hadn't been matched still today) this book could have been a dream.. Steve Dillon is a nice idea, Jefte Paolo doesn't works for my tastes IMHO, he takes all the gravitas away of the story.. This book needs Richard Corben or nothing.

Aaron gots me with the "Island of Dr Moreau" 'touch of the first issues, which is my Achille' heel. We will have Doom, Sasquatches, a lot of guest-stars, the guy knows what to do.

But I can't give my money to someone who is claiming to "fuck Alan Moore" anyway..

[horshbox]

I'm a little confused as to where this matches up with Fantastic Four where Doom is concerned. Just seems like bad communication between writers to have the character be the villain in this book. I don't want to ruin FF for anyone but did I miss something that explains it?

[Movieartman]

Steve Dillon is a nice idea

NO! Steve Dillion is a Nightmarishly Horrific Idea

this book needs Richard Corben or nothing.

this book Needs Carlo Pagulayan or nothing

[The Imakandi]

Doom can match Hulk in terms of sheer battle strength, that's just funny to me, and it makes me think this interview was done in jest.

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

...this book Needs Carlo Pagulayan or nothing

You know Carlo Pagulayan is doing the current arc on Jeff Parker's Hulk, right?

I know I'm pimping that book a lot, but it really is one of my three favorite Marvel ongoings (Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men being the other two).

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

As for the upcoming story, Stay Angry, the way I see it, there are two possibilities:

1. When Banner was blown apart by the gamma-bomb, he was actually broken down on a molecular level, and absorbed back into Hulk. Therefore, he may be resurfacing, which means Hulk has to stay angry to not become Banner.

2. Without Banner, the Hulk is deteriorating physically, whenever he's happy. The Hulk isn't meant to be glad, he's rage personified. Without the adrenaline-rush of rage, he reverts to a lower power-level, since as you can see in some of the pages, he actually looks SMALLER, more human. The difference is, now there's no Banner, so there's nowhere for him to go. If he doesn't keep at a certain level of anger, he'll die, since he'll keep losing mass when the gamma-rads that increase his mass go away.

Some interesting story-possibilities all in all. It may end up that Hulk is going to have to do the decision to recreate Banner in some way, or see himself perish...

Now these ideas I can get behind! Aaron can make up for what I thought was a disappointing first arc if he goes in one of these (or a similar) direction. But we'll see...