What did you think of the Bruce Jones run of the Incredible Hulk?

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

The Pratt story should have been a two-issue arc, but the goddamned "writing for the trade" mandate/mentality...
With more Banner, yet focus on villains/supporting characters and less Hulk...my interest wanes.
I did want more follow-up with the Samson backstory...which was pretty much a void up until this volume.

[Mister Mets]

The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #45-49
A beautiful woman with a mysterious past takes care of Bruce Banner as he recovers from injuries and an illness. During his recovery, Bruce seems some weird things. The cops arrive and it seems the woman’s been dead for weeks, so Bruce Banner with his fake IDs is charged for her murder. And then the super-powered Agent Pratt returns, along with Sandra Verdugo, who is starting to use her healing abilities in interesting ways.

Immonen has a creepy sense of atmosphere here, balancing conspiracies and a sense of horror- He’d have been a great artist on a X-Files project. Pratt and Verdugo are interesting enough recurring characters. Pratt's just having fun with the whole thing which is different from the usual grim mystery agent. The mysteries here have some decent answers, as we get a solution to the new questions that plays fair with what we know before. There is a swerve at the end that bothers me, as one mystery that seemed to be resolved (Where is the kid whose death the Hulk was blamed for?) turns out to be a red herring. At this point in the run, they should’ve wrapped up the Verdugo arc (maybe shuffling the schedule so there's a trade's worth of stories that aren't as connected to the big conspiracy), but so far this run is decent.
B+

[Tien Long]

I enjoyed the series when it started. As a fan of the Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk TV show, I could enjoy the Hulk making just an occasional appearance in an issue. I remember the series seeming very X-Files in a way, with lots of conspiracies, mysteries, "Mr. Blue," and "who you can trust?"

And oh yeah, lots of people coming back from bullets to the head. And metronomes. And women in bikinis .

One of the interesting qualities of the stories at the time were the covers. They were these clever, off beat homages to different styles of art.

There was the Norman Rockwell cover:


And there was the "Where The Wild Things Are" cover:


I could also remember that Edward Norton spoke highly of the series too.

However, towards the end, the series was losing steam. I remember those last couple of issues felt rushed and ultimately the reveal of the main villain pulling the strings was a letdown. Really? Him? Again?

When Peter David took over the series, that felt fun. I liked Hulk just doing Hulk things, like fighting monsters and smashing stuff. Even one of the readers in the letters section expressed how good it felt to see the Hulk in full view for a majority of the issue.

So there were interesting, different elements found in Bruce Jones' run, ones that I appreciate. But yes, it could have been better.

[Mister Mets]

There seems to be a change in direction at this point, with multiple TPB-length stories featuring familiar characters.




Hulk VS Wolverine: Six Hours #1-4
Scott Kolins comes on board for a mini-series pitting Wolverine against the Hulk.
I don’t like big coincidences in serial fiction, and this story is chock full of it. A kid is accidentally bitten by a snake, and gets sick on an airplane, which needs to be diverted to a hospital. Bruce Banner is on the plane, because he’s a fugitive and knocked out some guy in the bathroom to steal his ID. This is a year after September 11, so that takes me out of the story a bit, since I’m aware of how seriously people take airplane security since then. Drug dealers are on the plane as well, and they hijack to avoid delays on a major shipment. Again, this is shortly after September 11. The plane crashes into Canada, near where Wolverine was hunting. And associates of the drug dealer hire an old enemy of Wolverine’s to take him out.
Shredder is a generic violent lunatic with sharp weapons. I like the idea that he encountered Wolverine once in the past, and won that fight. But he’s way too similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder.

The sick kid and his family are interesting enough, especially when an effort to teach a teenage boy to be neater really backfires. Logan and Banner have a nice sense of camaraderie, and the Hulk/ Wolverine fight is brutal, but it doesn’t justify everything else.
B-

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

I completely forgot about his one.
I remember the Sam Kieth mini, but that was later on, wasn't it?

[Mister Mets]

The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #50-54
The agents chasing the Hulk try to make a deal with the Abomination to get him to join them, and he’s motivated when they realize that Bruce Banner is staying with his wife, who has her own agenda. The agents of the conspiracy also discover some secrets about Bruce Banner’s online ally Mr. Blue.
Mike Deodato takes over. He’s been on the Hulk before, but his work pops with digital coloring. I get why he’s the one artist to come back for multiple stories. He could sell the conspiracy, while also making the superhero elements seem they fit with the grounded parts of the narrative.
The conspiracy is over the top but I appreciate that they’re driving the story rather than wild coincidences, and I like how their over the top murderousness causes paranoia among the workers.

Nadia’s the most compelling character here, and she has her own agency. This series has been light on continuity, but the Abomination’s history with the Hulk adds some weight. And when the battle comes, it is suitably impressive.
The story is padded. The set-up to the fight with the Abomination goes on long, with several issues spent with Bruce Banner staying at Nadia’s unaware that anything unusual is going on. The in-fighting within the conspiracy gets kinda grating. It’s a bunch of people we know little about fighting over DVDs. It’s hard to care about them if they don’t have much of a personality, though there is a decent scene with a disguise.
B-

[Mister Mets]

The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #55-59
Bruce Banner has found his way to New York City, befriending a woman whose friend died under very suspicious circumstances, perhaps because an imprisoned Absorbing Man seems to have gained the ability to take over people’s minds. And he’s decided to use it to control the Hulk, while taking advantage of his prison’s office politics and a fight between the warden and head of security, to effect an escape.
The reason for this story was a character who used elements of the Absorbing Man was used for the Ang Lee Hulk movie, and Marvel wanted something in the comics for movie viewers looking for a fight between the comic book Hulk and Abomination, even if they didn’t have much of a connection. But it works okay. I like the specifics of the story, like how Absorbing Man threatens a little girl to get Banner to work with him. The one-off characters have layers.


It is a bit distracting that Absorbing Man seems so different from his appearances in other comics around the same time. We're going to have a more distracting version of that in the Iron Man story.
Leonardo Fernandez has a different style than the previous artists. It’s a bit more cartoony, reminding me a lot of Phil Hester. He makes arguments between middle-aged prison supervisors or sequences with an evil little girl seem dramatic.
B


I dropped the book in the middle of the next story, so I don’t really know much about what happens after. I think I was planning to wait for the trade, but then lost interest by that point, due to the reviews at that point.

[Mister Mets]

The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #60-65
Deodato’s back, while the Hulk’s sticking around New York City. Various stories intersect as Verdugo hunts down Doc Samson (whose little buddy Kevin is taken hostage to use against him) while an injured Mr. Blue makes it to Nadia, and Bruce Banner meets with an agent of the conspiracy trying to help him. The conspiracy has a new weapon: The Krill, reptilian androids using the Hulk’s blood trying to get more of it to bring back home. Then all of it intersects.
There are some parts I like about the story. Some sequences are inventive. The Krill are a decent challenge. A clone of Bruce Banner is interesting, and while initially his role seems brief, he is part of a later story.
There are some parts I do not like. There is a dumb scene where several women take their tops off, and it just feels disrespectful. The conclusion just isn’t satisfying. The reveal about Mr. Blue (It’s Betty!) is big, but it’s almost over the top. And then it gets to soap opera love triangle stuff as Betty realizes that Nadia’s in love with Bruce too.

After all the swerves, this is the ending of Verdugo’s story. It comes across as definitive, but this is a series with so many fake-outs. I’d rather have a happy ending, even if the whole series isn’t going in that direction. And it may get to a major difference between people who like the run and those who don’t. If you like noir stories, where people trying to do the right thing can die horribly, you may respond to this differently than someone who wants something more optimistic from Marvel comics, or who is willing to tolerate darker comics if it’s on the level of the best Sin City, Eisner Spirit or Brubaker Wildstorm comics (which is probably where I am). It’s also unsettling that Verdugo’s been used as eye candy throughout the run, and then they kill her off in such a nihilistic and nasty way.
C-

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

One of the biggest irritations I had during this part of the run; is this the Hulk or King Kong?
He's.
Not.
That.
Big.
And the Hulk sniffing Nadia??
Geez...

[Mister Mets]

Getting close to the end.


The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #66-69
Doug Brainthwite draws this arc set shortly after the last one. Bruce and Nadia bury the Hulk’s clone, but weird stuff is happening. Betty seems to be going through some things, and tries to seduce Samson who is traumatized by recent developments.
The romantic triangle stuff actively annoys me, as do the references to the larger conspiracy now that Betty’s back. I don’t care who else she’s really involved with. Putting all these characters with history together highlights a problem with Jones’ continuity-lite approach. They just don’t feel like the characters from John Byrne or Peter David’s run.

Then there are new developments with the clone of Banner which pose an interesting moral question, although I’m not sure I buy the actions of the characters. Bruce’s paranoia is fine, but it leads to a reckless and risky decision, which all the characters quickly realize was a bad call.
B-

The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #70

A dying telepath helps Bruce evade cops, and warns him about a future crime that they’re going to be unable to stop but that he can.
I mentioned earlier that the lack of single issue stories was a problem, and this issue highlights it. This run works really well in small doses. The sense of atmosphere is effective. I like how the telepath gives an update on a character from the first story. I wasn’t surprised by a twist, but it fits very well with the new character and reveals something solid about Bruce’s character.
B+

[Mister Mets]

The second to last story is my least favorite so far.

The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #71-74

Tony Stark’s latest fling commits suicide, allegedly as a wake up call for him to clean up his act. He’s been working on a new gamma project, and he wants Bruce’s help for that, as well as investigating why a promising young woman killed herself. Her brother seeks revenge, leading Bruce to hulk out in Tony’s headquarters.

I’m not very familiar with Tony and Bruce’s history in the 616 comics up to this point (Off the top of my head, I know about their silver age interactions and Iron Man #130-131), and it’s probably different in the other versions of the story (Heroes Reborn, Ultimate, MCU) where they haven’t spent decades in their own titles, but it does not feel right here. Tony should know Bruce better, and while part of what he’s doing seems to be an act, he’s too callous about drinking for a recovering alcoholic the public knows to be Iron Man. This would be okay if it’s in a separate world than the regular Marvel Universe introducing a version of Tony Stark who hasn’t been humbled, but it definitely does not feel like the Tony Stark of the regular comics.

A major player in the story is an associate of Tony’s who just doesn’t feel like he’s been part of Tony’s life, or at least in the other Iron Man comics I’ve read. There’s a twist which explains why the story can’t use someone who is part of the Iron man comics, although I kept partially expecting more of an explanation about why Iron Man’s so out of character.

Mike Deodato draws the first two issues. Doug Braithwaite does the rest. This is easily my least favorite story of the run so far, but that’s not due to them.
C-

[Mister Mets]

And the grand finale.




The Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #75-76
Darick Robertson draws the first part, and Doug Braithwhite handles the second. In the final story, Bruce Banner awakens in what appears to be the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse. He encounters the Leader who reveals himself to have been responsible for the secret conspiracy chasing him for the last 40 issues. And now he needs the Hulk to get a time machine and stop all of this from happening. Unless it’s all an illusion.

Tonally this story feels rather old-fashioned after a run where most arcs were TPB-length. I wonder if there’s a meta-point with Bruce Jones, a writer who had been in comics since 1970 and had a comeback with grounded decompressed stories, responding to readers and editors frustrated with his sprawling narrative by going with more panels in the page, a classic design for the Leader and a bronze-age style supervillain plot.
And then it all ends in a really unsatisfying way.
Nadia dies. Bruce freaks out and hurts Samson. Betty freaks out and tells Bruce that she wants nothing more to do with him. There’s a version of the story where she’s under a lot of stress, and tells Bruce the last thing he ever wants to hear, as all his nightmares about hurting the people he loves come true. But I’m just not sold on it here.
D



I’m going to give the larger run a “B” but my recommendation is to go up Issue 49 and stop there. The Absorbing Man story and Issue 70 are worth checking out, but the Wolverine team up and all the stories with Abomination’s ex-wife are just not my cup of tea. If you include those it’s a “meh” run, especially from my perspective, but I can’t call it that since there is quite a bit that’s worthwhile. Even if it does end badly.

[kcekada]

Deodato's moody artwork was a huge part of this run. The stories didnt' work as well with some of the artist. I don't have any of the Stuart Immomen issues, but even back then, I think he was surpassing Mike D in regard to art.