Indestructible Hulk Agent of T.I.M.E. #11

Indestructible Hulk Agent of T.I.M.E. #11 – alright that was a very fun read.  The story continues the trend of Hulk / Banner stories being smart.  The timeline / universe has been broken for a number of reasons related in no small part to the Age of Ultron storyline.  S.H.I.E.L.D was trying to make a fix but failed.  It turns out that only the Hulk can survive this journey through time.  We are introduced to Zarrko a time traveling villain who wants to help in no small part because this is the Zarrko before he became a bad guy fighting the Hulk and Thor.  Zarrko has provided technology from the future to try and help fix the timeline.  While I agree sending the Hulk out to fix something as breakable as time is a bad idea this would not be a Hulk comic without him.  So there was some smart sounding dialog along with some nifty art.  The issue ends with the Hulk entering the time stream with a robot version of Bruce Banner along for the ride.  They emerge from the timeline at the feet of some cowboys who do the only smart thing when faced with the Hulk, RUN!  But when the camera shifts we see that it was not the Hulk who scared the cowboys but it was a T-rex.  If I was not clear I enjoyed this comic and thought it was not just entertaining but good.

Indestructible Hulk #10

Indestructible Hulk #10 – showed that the Hulk while a wild mess of destructive powers, if he likes you things can still work out.  This issue continued the story from the previous issue where Daredevil and the Hulk were hunting down a powerful weapon lose in New York City.  Things go from bad to worse and in the nick of time Hulk saves the day.  The story was told from Bruce Banners point of view with what he was told about the adventure.  It was all very interesting and continues the really good story telling of this renewed Hulk comic.

Indestructible Hulk #9!!

Indestructible Hulk #9 continues being very entertaining.  Apparently as part of his agreement with S.H.I.E.L.D. Bruce Banner must make a phone call once a week to ensure S.H.I.E.L.D. has not do something bad to Banner or the Hulk.  It turns out this special person is Daredevil and his lawyer alter ego.  I think Banner is starting to get on his handlers nerves because in this adventure they drop him while still Banner at a ship they are attacking.  The ship was being used by smugglers carrying super level weapons.  One of the bad guys gets away and this leads to an interesting Daredevil and Hulk team up entrance.  In the end the bad guy gets away and meets Baron Zemo.  This could be interesting.

Indestructible Hulk #8!!

Indestructible Hulk #8 continued the expedition into Jotunheim the realm of the Frost Giants.  There is a bit of story development and talk about how Thor’s Hammer was able to keep the unworthy from picking it up.  Then the portal home reopens and the Frost Giants attack.  Agent Coulson and Director Hill hold the portal while Hulk and Thor fight to thin the crowd of Frost Giants.  Being a comic book eventually everyone makes it home safe and sound.  It was a fun comic to read.  I like how even the Hulk shows some of his animal smarts when saving Thor. 

The Fearless Defenders #4AU (Age of Ultron)!!

The Fearless Defenders #4AU (Age of Ultron) was interesting.  Unlike the other comics based in this alternative timeline the creative team did something interesting with the setting.  The story is based on Hippolyta getting revenge on the person who killed her and her people the Amazons.  We get to see Latveria in this timeline and it is interesting.  I especially liked seeing the Destroyer (the Asgardian super weapon) laid out dead across part of the capitol.  The story goes that for some reason Doom has been holding gladiatorial games since the end of the magic technology war.  It turns out this was a distraction as the real power behind the thrown was Aries God of War.  Lots of interesting otherworld stuff happens and the good god wins and rallies her Amazons to fight.  Though I don’t know what will become of this since these issues tend to be one shot stories.  I am starting to think this Age of Ultron minus Pym is going to be the next world / timeline that will dump characters onto the main marvel timeline.  Oh I should mention that Wolverine, the Hulk and Colonel America have interesting Cameos along with other characters from the regular Defenders story line.  So I give this comic a good rating.

Indestructible Hulk #7!!

Indestructible Hulk #7 was interesting.  Lots of stuff happened.  It appears the Banner and the team has travel back in time before Thor had met the Hulk and the Avengers.  The fight with the Frost Giants continues but sort of just fizzles out.  One Frost Giant manages to put an arm through the portal and makes a mess of things.  The people at the base are forced to disable the portal and that creates a problem.  One of the Frost Giants using magic is impersonating one of Banners Assistants.  Thor’s dialog is very entertaining.  Overall this was a good entertaining comic.  

A + X #7

A + X #7 was another excelling amazing and fun issue pairing members of the Avengers and X-Men fighting to save the day.  The first issue has Iron Man (Tony Stark) and the Beast working together to prevent the corruption of an anti-Hulk weapon by a computer virus.  The dialog was well written and sharp with Tony completely on target with his wisecracking and genius.  The Beast also had some great dialog.  In the end Iron Man fails to prevent the computer virus from taking over the power armor that was meant to fight the Hulk.  The now rogue armor is winning the fight when the Hulk shows up returning from a mission and destroys the anti-Hulk armor accidentally.  It turns out this was all set up by Bruce Banner as a way to remind Tony Stark and the Beast who was the smartest of them all (in the Marvel Universe anyway).  The second story stared Iceman and Thor.  They are fighting against a new Frost Giant whom had entered our human world to destroy it.  He had a new weapon that was all power full.  Thor was doing the traditional trying to smash the bad guy with his hammer while Iceman quipped at Thor’s bad luck, because frankly Iceman was much outclassed.  Also Iceman was enjoying mocking Thor.   Thor manages to power the Casket of Ancient Winters an object that could destroy the world.  One side effect of the onslaught of a powerful winter blast was to increase Iceman’s powers.  Iceman manages to take down the Frost Giants where Thor had failed.  The humor in this story was really good and in the end even Thor got the joke.  As I said above both stories were very entertaining and if you have not checked out this team-up comic you should.

Indestructible Hulk #6

Indestructible Hulk #6 was entertaining.  At some point Thor had given S.H.I.E.L.D. a sliver of from his magical hammer Mjolnir and with this small piece of uru metal Bruce Banner and his team create a portal to Jotunheim realm of the Frost Giants.  They meet Thor who strangely does not seem to remember Bruce Banner or the Hulk.  The Frost Giants arrive and a big fights start, Thor is tossed from the battlefield and a Hulked out Bruce Banner in some type of armor picks up Thor’s Hammer with the words “Hulk Worthy!”  This was a good and interesting story to read.

All New X-Men #8!!!

All New X-Men #8 was a good issue.  I was glad the Angel finally got some face time and better yet he got to do something with his future self.  The fight at Avengers Tower was great and Hydra needs help as attacking an empty Avengers Tower is just wimpy.  There are a number of great lines in this story including Captain America saying “Why are there two of you?” and even the Hulk has a quizzical look on his face.  Having Ice Man and Kitty Pride narrating the talk between the current Beast and Captain America was well done and amusing.  But having the original Scott Summers come out and give his little talk was great, though I am getting a bit worried about Jean Grey while she is learning all her new / old powers.  Overall this was a great issue!

Indestructible Hulk!

Indestructible Hulk #3 – That was another good story.  I am really enjoying this version of the Hulk / Banner world.  People get to be smart and clever while working with or around the Hulk.  The reader is also reminded that A.I.M is really twisted and will to do just about anything to get technology.  I almost feel sorry for the Recording Observation Bot I hope they are cheap to make S.H.I.E.L.D is going to use up a lot of them.  I was thinking R.O.B. looks a lot like the recorder in the Last Hulk Story published previously – interesting or hopefully clever.

Indestructible Hulk!

Indestructible Hulk #2: And now for Tony Stark / Iron Man to stick his nose into the situation and make it worse.  Well Iron Man made it entertaining anyway, this Tony Star is not the good guy movie guy.  This Tony Stark is the one who had people killed and essentially took over the Super Hero world for his own power grab.  So needless to say I enjoyed seeing Hulk Smash!  I am still liking this comic I hope they keep up the good work.

Comic Books!

I am going to cover four Marvel Comics here.  First up is Captain Marvel #7, this issue is an improvement over the last story line that was just a little over the top time travel silly.  Most of this issue is mostly story and character development between the current Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and a previous Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau).  Their dialog is witty and well written.  The artwork for this issue was excellent and the underwater scenes were properly creepy.  I was happy to see the Monica Captain Marvel return as she was the first Captain Marvel I really remember from the pages of the Avengers.  I am looking forward to the next issue more than the previous story line.

Next was Hawkeye #4, this issue had a decidedly more serious turn in the story.  Though I am not sure if the writer wants Hawkeye to become the next Deadpool or Wolverine with this story, I still have issues with trying to take Hawkeye seriously as some super assassin.  I am happy with the story but will avoid a spoiler filled summary.  I still have problems with the artwork for this Comic Book.  I realize that they are going for a “style” but comics are supposed to be four colors and I would like to be able to tell the characters apart.  The cover is very different from a traditional comic and at first I thought it was a variant cover issue.

Then comes along the Indestructible Hulk!  I was somewhat dreading what was going to happen to the much misused Incredible Hulk.  Turns out that this reboot was well thought out and written, I even liked the art.  Not a fan with the Hulk’s haircut but can’t have everything.  I had enjoyed the previous attempts to make the Hulk smart or at least make Bruce Banner non-whiny.  So as I read I liked this story more and more.  (Spoilers)!

The Hulk or at least Puny Banner working with S.H.I.E.L.D. has great potential.  Quickly deploying the Hulk against security threats could be a great way to solve a problem if you do not wish to learn more of the villains after the fight. 

(End Spoilers) - So I am very interested in seeing how this comic turns out in future issues.

Then finally comes the comic Captain America #1 another in the string of Marvel Reboots.  We see that Steve Rogers comes from a broken house.  Then we jump in time for a short story.  Then we get the main story that has Captain jump dimensions.  This comic is weak; the story is stupid so far.  The artwork is good.   Disappointed and not looking forward to what is going to happen next.

I bought a copy of the new Marvel Comic book A+X because it was a variant cover of issue #1.  I knew nothing about the comic except it looked like another tie in to the A vs X super cross over extravaganza of the year from Marvel and was not expecting anything special.

But what I ended up with was a really good and well written team-up comic book.  I am a sucker for books that team up characters from different books.  I used to get the Marvel Team-Up book and the old school Defenders because it was so cool to see how different comic characters acted and were written by different people.  It could give you a whole new view on old stories and characters.  A+X gives me that cool team up action in the Marvel Universe.  The stories were a little short and really could use a few more pages each.  I think the Hulk and Wolverine story was cool and I hope it does get its follow up.

Ultimate Wolverine VS. Hulk

I have been waiting a long time to see this mini-series finally get published. I had to listen to my friend rant and rave about the comic all this time. The first two issues were good, interesting even. Then came the long wait for the rest of the series to get published. Not forgetting the fact that the fall out from this epic fight is given away because both characters show up in other comics before this one finishes - kind of kills the suspense. I was really hoping that since everyone knew the final outcome the writers would use this as a chance to have a really cool story.

Warning! Possible Spoilers below!

Like I said above the first two issues were interesting, the setup with Wolverine is interesting. Showing what happened to the Hulk / Banner is kind of cool. The chance to see the Hulk in a giant room filled with "naked" / bikini clad women really made me wounder what did the Panchen Lama say to Banner? What happens is that nothing is detailed. The fight just starts and we hardly even get to see the women diving for safety as the Hulk and Wolverine fight. While I would be perfectly happy to then see a long fight between the two titans, what we get is pages of closeups (mind you the artwork is excellent). The addition of the She Hulk while interesting kind of came out of left field story wise, the She Hulk herself is a cool character. The ending of the series was seriously disappointing, we were promised a fight and we got a Casablanca ending (literally).

Considering the cost and current limited number of pages in modern comic books I really can not recommend someone actually paying for this series issue by issue. It might be worth picking up in a trade paper back, especially if you can get it at a discount.

So let me finish up here with things I liked about the comic.

• It is the freaking HULK VS WOLVERINE! Nuf said.
• We get to see the disadvantage of being the ultimate regeneration character. I loved seeing Wolverine recover from nukes, missing limbs and even losing his head. Having Nick Furry describe what they did to Logan was fun.
• The twist of not having Banners cousin become the She Hulk was cool. At first I was disappointed but really it worked in this comic.
• "HULK NO ANGRY!" Says it all.
• Hulk & She Hulk sex causing a 8.9 earthquake.
• The Hulk shown where he really is out of control.

Enjoy!