Comics I Bought: August 16, 2007

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 2 new comics plus a hard cover collection:

Rex Mundi (v2) -7

Zed- 8

>Conan (Vol 2) The God in the Bowl and Other Stories

Yes, I add another of Dark Horse's Conan HCs to my collection. I need just the first volume now. And as for last weeks number one issues I bought:

Bad Planet - 1

Nicely drawn but nothing happened in this first issue! We were treated to scientists bickering over what this giant thing coming toward Earth was. For twenty pages or so. Finally on the last page we get to see what the thing is. That should have been the first page. I'll pass not because it was bad but because it pissed me off.

Ghosting - 1

I think this supposed to be a horror book but I'm not sure. It's about college frats that aren't allowed to physically haze their pledges anymore so they scare them instead. The art and writing were okay but it didn't wow me and I have no idea where the story is going. I might pick up the second issue if I see it and its a slow week (most are for me).

Drafted - 99¢ Preview

Again not much happens here but it's a preview issue. Earth is about to be invaded and we will all have to hang together. Nothing to write home about but I'll check out the actual first issue when it appears.

And here's a review of one of my birthday presents

Planet Hulk - Hardcover Collection.

When I was a kid the Incredible Hulk was my favorite super hero. I grew up with the Sal Buscema drawn Hulk but managed to get quite a few issues of the older Herb Trimpe drawn Hulk. Back in those days the Hulk had a child like personality but was constantly treated like a monster. That was his story for many years. That Hulk is now referred to as "The Dumb Hulk".

I lost interest in the Hulk as I grew older. He was a hard character for writers to come up with ideas for being that he was so strong but stupid. The Hulk was really a kid's character but as comics began to be written for a slightly older audience writers had to reinvent him. I wasn't much of a fan of that reinvention.

A lot of people like Peter David's years of writing the Hulk. He added a bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo (my perspective), some humor, and smartened the Hulk up. This period left me cold though. I didn't read much Hulk anymore.

I checked out a little of Bruce Jones' run on the Hulk a few years ago. It was generally pretty good but it centered mostly on Bruce Banner. The Hulk's presence was felt but not often seen. A Hulk comic without the Hulk? It didn't sustain my interest for long. I needed more "Hulk Smash".

So now we come to "Planet Hulk". The basic concept is the same as Harlan Elison's "Jarella" story line from the 1970's. The Hulk gets shot into space (in Ellison's story Hulk was shrunk down to a microscopic world) and lands on a planet where he is forced to be a gladiator and then lead a rebellion. Sci-fi, barbarian Hulk. A fun idea that got me to check out this book. It helped that I was nostalgic for the 1970's story too.

I can describe "Planet Hulk" in three words: sloppy but fun. The fun refers to the balls out giant monster and military fights that happen constantly as the story moves along. There are lots of crazy aliens and beasts who are both allies and enemies of the Hulk. And they are always killing one another. Yes, since this is a story that doesn't use regular Marvel characters the writer is free to kill off whatever characters he wants to (except the Hulk of course). So the violence has consequences in this story. A nice change of pace in a super hero book. The writer and artist were having fun with this story and it shows.

The sloppy comment refers to the story telling. The artist can draw well enough but is not a very good story teller. The storytelling was clumsy and confusing at times and drawing aliens don't seem to be his thing. That's tough in a book full of aliens. And plot is driven by convenient coincidence and things happening out of nowhere. I went "Huh? What?" a few times. They cover some of this with a bunch of "prophecy" nonsense. I hate when writers use that as a crutch to explain characters' motivations. They are just following prophecy. Yawn.

The main problem I had was the Hulk. He was the least interesting character in the book when he was not fighting. He's the "Smart Hulk" now but he didn't do many smart things. He wasn't even very heroic. The Hulk mostly was just angry at the world and seemed to be motivated by nothing until the plot needed him to do something and then he just did it. He was boring a lot. Baffled me.

Overall I did like this book but it is flawed. I'm glad they came up with a fun idea for the Hulk even if it was based on an old idea. Check it out if you haven't read any Hulk in a while.