Hulk #6

If bad comics are more fun to review, then this issue should be a blast.

In case you haven't been following this version of the Hulk, the storyline started after the (somewhat disappointing) end of the World War Hulk miniseries.

Bruce Banner, the green Hulk, was imprisoned by the military, but a new creature appeared - the Red Hulk. Each issue mainly consisted of big Red either killing a character (using a really big gun) or just beating the tar out of someone for no apparent reason.

The story was also set up as a mystery, with the question being: who is the Red Hulk? The goal seemed to be creating more and more preposterous stories and situations. In that, they succeeded.

My personal favorite moment took place in issue #5, as Red Hulk fought Thor, and in the battle Red grabbed Thor's hammer, jumped along with the Thunder God to the moon, and then jumped back again, landing in the desert.

Now, I'm all for suspending my disbelief, but this is so preposterous that I'd have to take my disbelief out back and hit it with a sledgehammer. Jumping to the moon is a stunt you would usually only see in a Silver Age Superman comic (my personal favorite is Superboy standing on his head and moving the Earth slightly out of its orbit). Remember, kids, the moon is incredibly far away. It took the Apollo astronauts three days to reach it, traveling at incredible speeds! (This hearkens back to the Nick Fury issue in the '80s where Nick flew a space shuttle from Earth orbit to the moon "because the moon was closer," landed, fought a monster, took off again, and returned to Earth. It took all my self-control to keep from burning that comic.) So many impossibilities, so little time.

So this issue has Iron Man gathering powerful heroes to fight Red - but instead they have to keep San Francisco from sliding into the ocean. The fight is between the (now freed) original Hulk and Red, with Thor and a few other characters popping up out of the blue to chime in.

I try not to spoil any plot points at this site, but I have to tell you, after teasing the big mystery of "Who is the Red Hulk," the comic manages to top its previous silliness by reaching the end without solving the mystery! All the suspects somehow materialize at the site in the desert long enough to show that they're not Red - but the question still hangs at the story's end.

I should point out that none of the blame for this story should hang on penciller Ed McGuinness or inker Dexter Vines - they turn in artwork that's powerful, energetic and larger than life.

The heat has to go on writer Jeph Loeb (or his editors). I suspect he was just trying to build a big, fun-loving story about a murdering monster, but this one got away from him, lost its sense of internal logic and fell apart at the end.

It will be interesting to see where the real Hulk goes from here, but we can only hope we've seen the last of big Red. I don't mind the Hulk going back to his original simple-minded self, but I hate it when his stories are dumb.

Grade: D