Comics Fondle

Byrne’s Hulk isn’t really about the Hulk, unless it’s in the Moby-Dick sense. Half of each issue is devoted to Doc Samson or the Hulkbusters fighting. It’s either each other or the Hulk. What’s worst about the fight scenes, though Bryne illustrates them with competence, is how repetitive they get. A fight scene in the second issue has the same panels, rearranged, as in the first. Apparently there are only so many punches Doc Samson can throw. After the Hulkbusters–who seem like thugs, given they attack Doc Samson without provocation–show up, at least technology gets added to the equation, but they’re still fighting in the middle of the desert. It isn’t until the last fight scene the Hulk gets around to throwing Doc Samson into a building, which isn’t loads of fun, but it’s better than a bunch of dirt.

The other half of these issues deals with Bruce (now separated from the Hulk and coming off like a mad scientist) and Betty’s rekindled romance. As much as Byrne loves repetitive action sequences and Doc Samson acting like a jerk, he loves really boring scenes of Bruce talking about the Hulk even more.

These are big issues too. It’s Bruce and Betty’s wedding so there are guest stars–Rick Jones and Thunderbolt Ross both show up eventually (Ross shooting Rick no less)–but Byrne lays on the obvious sauce. Just before they head off to the ceremony, Bruce tells Rick he’s always wanted his mind in the Hulk’s body. Cue ominous music.

The comics aren’t terrible, they’re just mid-1980s Marvel superhero comics. Though they lack any artistic ambition, there’s a certain competency to them (the art, even with Byrne’s inability to vary human faces, is decent). Byrne understands how to make the issues, regardless of quality or content, compelling enough to make the reader keep going.

And Byrne’s dialogue, which has actually made me stop reading his comics before, isn’t too bad here. His Rick Jones “young guy” dialogue is pretty lame, but Rick shows up in the last of these issues, so I was already conditioned.

D

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