Hulk #10

As past reviews have shown, I'm not a big fan of the Hulk comic book as written by Jeph Loeb.

The stories have been very poor, with shaky logic and little in the way of plot or characterization. Of course, they've mostly suffered in comparison to the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk stories that preceded it.

Instead, we get long, dumb battles between the green Hulk (with varying degrees of intelligence) and the evil red Hulk (who has become Marvel's equivalent of Superboy Prime).

What the comics have enjoyed is terrific art by Art Adams, Frank Cho, and back again with this issue, Ed McGuinness.

With the latest issue, we again have a silly story. The Grandmaster, a powerful Elder of the Universe who enjoys playing games, invites the Hulk to take part in a fight to the death, and in return he'll get a miraculous prize.

The Hulk is asked to assemble a team to fight at his side, so he chooses the members of the original Defenders team (the Silver Surfer, the Sub-Mariner and Dr. Strange), although thanks to some time-traveling trickery, they're meeting for the first time - sort of.

It's all a set-up for next issue, and while the story's mighty thin, it at least gives McGuinness plenty of chances to draw big events and impressive splash pages.

Of the 10 issues in the series so far, this one is the least offensive, if just because of the fun of seeing the Defenders back together again. But it's still a silly story.

Grade: B+