Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Comics, hulk, jason aaron, marc silvestri, marvel, MVL

Advance Review: The Incredible Hulk #1 by Jason Aaron and Marc Silvestri

Published Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:00:16 -0500

Last updated Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:00:58 -0500

There are some who loved Greg Pak's Planet Hulk. Who wish that the exiled Hulk had never returned to Earth. That he had continued his world conquering, fighting, ruling exploits in some Game Of Thrones-esque fashion forever, well away from the confines of the Marvel Universe. That he had never gone back.

And there are some who wished the Hulk had never left the planet, that he had got nuts deep involved in the Civil War, and that Planet Hulk was an aberration and one that still infects the book, to its detriment and what the Hulk should be about is mixing it up with the rich history of the Marvel Universe, and beating it to a pulp.

Looks like both groups will have a lot to like in Incredible Hulk #1 by Jason Aaron and Marc Silvestri. As well as people who like those high shadow contrast stubbly faces that Silvestri specialised in so well.

The Hulk, post Fear Itself, is an abandoned monster, a Conan The Barbarian figure, who has holed himself up in the subterranean tunnels of the Mole Man's ingeniously named race, The Subterraneans. It's a primitive but rich society, Hulk is their hunter and gatherer and he is slowly, surely trying to find a place here, to be loved, to be welcomed, despite all his misgivings and fears.

So naturally that cannot be.

We have a separated Hulk and Bruce Banner, you may have picked up Fear Itself #7 to find out more about that, and while the Hulk may be seeking a sort of peace, Banner has become a Doctor Moreau type trying somehow to reclaim and recreate his missing monstrosity.

It's a big change for the book, though this time round it seems to be Banner who is suffering more than Hulk from their separation. And even though th two are as far apart as possible, events are conspiring to bring them back together again.

Jason Aaron writes two characters, intrinsically bound, with their own special, comparable obsessions, yet at diametric opposites, and Silvestri creates a rich, dense, textured world from the tunnels beneath the Earth's crust to

The Incredible Hulk #1 by Jason Aaron and Marc Silvestri is published tomorrow, 22 pages of story for $3.99. Advance copy courtesy of an anonymous retailer.