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Hulk #1
Title: “The Gathering Storm”
Writer: John Byrne
Penciller: Ron Garney
Inker: Dan Green
Colors: Steve Buccellato
Editor: Matt Idelson
Emma Tolliver lies on her living room floor coloring. Suddenly the tornado alert siren goes off. Emma runs to the window. Her father, the sheriff, comes running in. He grabs her and runs out of the house just as an eighteen-wheeled tanker crashes through the roof. The sheriff holds Emma in one hand and he tries to pull open the storm cellar door, but the door is sticking. The sheriff puts Emma down because he needs both hands to open the door. He tells her not to move, but Emma starts wondering where Bruce is. Emma runs off looking for Bruce. Jonas, the sheriff, starts to chase after Emma, but the tanker that went through his house explodes.
Flashback to two days ago and Bruce Banner sits on a bus bound for Kansas City. Bruce is very tired as he hasn’t been getting any sleep. The bus pulls up to the bus terminal in Faulkner. The bus driver announces that there will be a fifteen-minute layover if anyone wants to stretch their legs. Bruce isn’t sure why, but he gets off and takes his bag with him. Bruce walks until he sees an elderly woman sitting on her porch. She has a room for rent sign on her fence. Bruce asks about the room. The old woman says that it is forty dollars a month in advance. Bruce explains that he doesn’t have the money, but asks if she will put him up for one night and that he will have a job tomorrow. The woman says that she doesn’t usually do that but there is something about Bruce that makes her take him in.
That night the Hulk rampages through the town of Faulkner. He throws car, destroys buildings, and rips up the railroad tracks.
Bruce wakes up in the morning as if it were a dream. He gets up and washes his face. Bruce gets dressed and decides that he will find a job before eating. He opens the door to his room and finds that the rest of the house has been destroyed. Bruce walks outside and as far as he can see there is destruction. Mrs. Hopper, from the night before, calls out to Bruce. She has a few guys with her. One remarks at how miraculous it was that the monster stopped right at Bruce’s threshold. Bruce asks if they saw the Hulk. The guy says that the only people who saw him are now in the hospital. Another asks how Bruce knew it was the Hulk. Bruce says that he just assumed it was the Hulk when he heard “monster”.
Sheriff Tolliver drives up in his Jeep to see if everyone is all right. Bruce introduces himself and says that he is looking for work. The sheriff says that there is plenty of work to do now cleaning up the mess. He tells Bruce to get in and he will drive him down to central clearing station at city hall. As they drive along they talk about the Hulk. The sheriff says that he has been reading about the Hulk for years, but never thought he would show up there. The sheriff asks Bruce if Hulk wasn’t an Avenger once. Bruce says that Hulk was a founding Avenger and though he didn’t last long Bruce wonders what would have happened if Hulk had stayed with them.
At city hall
FEMA has shown up and the mayor asks everyone to cooperate with
them. Bruce works very hard cleaning up the mess that he made. At
the end of the day Jonas tells the mayor that there seems like
there were no fatalities. The FEMA guys say that it almost seems
like the Hulk was purposely avoiding killing. The mayor invites
him for soup, but the sheriff says that he has to get home to his
daughter. Jonas says that he has been hearing good things about
Bruce and that he did the work of ten men today. Bruce asks Jonas
if he knows of anyplace he can sleep. Jonas says that he is
probably the only one with the room. Bruce accepts.
Kitty, Jonas’ housekeeper and Emma’s nanny, cooks them a meal. After they eat Jonas and Emma go to do the dishes. Bruce stands out on the porch thinking about all the good lives he is ruining. He thinks about when he used to think that he could control the Hulk’s power and to use it for good, but each time the madness returns and it seems worse than it did the time before. Bruce must’ve forgotten that had tried to kill himself because he thinks that he could do that and end the threat he poses to others. Jonas joins Bruce outside and remarks how odd it is that the night is so beautiful when the day was so terrible. The sheriff is forced to smoke outside by his daughter. Emma invites Bruce in for pie, but Bruce says that he thinks he will pass and just go to sleep.
The next morning, Kitty hasn’t shown up so Bruce volunteers to stay behind until the sheriff can send someone out there. After a few hours Bruce takes a moment to himself and walks into the backyard to think. Suddenly something comes over Bruce and he collapses to the ground.
A moment later at the sheriff’s office one of the FEMA guys gets a burst of low level gamma radiation. Once the sheriff realizes where the coordinates are he runs out of the office to his house.
Back in the present, Emma screams for help. Jonas tells her to stay away from the flame and that he is going to try and find a way around to get to her. Emma looks over and sees that the barn is the only thing that hasn’t been destroyed. She runs towards the barn hoping to free the horses before the barn catches fire. Emma is blown off her feet as the barn collapses. Emma gets back up and looks up to see the Savage Hulk looking down at her.
No Excuses Rating: 4 out of 10
The art is fantastic, easily the best since Adam Kubert left the book or possibly since Gary Frank departed, but there isn’t very many dynamic pictures in this double sized issue.
The story is abysmal. Take out of the equation that as a Hulk fan since the firing of Peter David that there has been no clear message about what version of the Hulk we have been reading, and that this issue does nothing to assist in those efforts. But then the story itself has giant plot holes in it. This is a small town where everybody knows everybody. One day a drifter named Bruce rolls into town and the next morning the town is destroyed by a giant green monster. The sheriff admits to reading about the Hulk, and yet makes no connection between the Hulk and the stranger named Bruce sitting next to him. Nobody is suspicious at all that the entire house Bruce was sleeping in was destroyed except his room. And then the next day the sheriff leaves his young daughter at home with a homeless drifter he met the day before, and yet when he realizes that the Hulk is at his house he still doesn’t make the connection between Bruce and the Hulk.
Back up story: NOTE THIS STORY TAKES PLACE AFTER HULK #10
Title: “Everything you wanted to know about the Hulk (but were afraid to ask)”
Writer: John Byrne
Penciller: John Byrne
Inker: John Byrne
Colorists: Steve Buccellato
Editor: Matt Idelson
Nick Fury sits down John Byrne and Ron Garney and shows them the history of the Hulk. Fury says that this footage is taken from security camera footage, news clips, home videos, and when no other options were available they used a recreation of the events.
He shows them Bruce working before the gamma bomb explosion. He shows Bruce saving Rick Jones and then gamma bomb exploding. He shows them Bruce turning into the gray Hulk for the first time. He shows Banner’s cave where he used to trap the Hulk. He shows Bruce controlling the changes with gamma ray exposure. He shows them Hulk fighting the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. He shows them Hulk battling Namor, and then the time Hulk fought Thor while he was with the Defenders. He shows them Hulk falling to Earth from orbit and surviving. He shows them a compilation of Hulk’s villains. He shows them pictures of Doc Samson and She-Hulk as examples of the good that has come from gamma radiation. He talks about the times when Bruce Banner was cured and that a few times he chose to go back to being the Hulk himself. He also completely misunderstands the concept of the merged Hulk.
Now Bruce Banner sits in his cell and won’t say a word in his own defense. Nick Fury asks them to make a comic book about it. Fury walks out with them and I assume goes back to pounding shots of Southern Comfort….
No Excuses rating: 1 OUT OF 10
This is nothing you wanted to know about the Hulk, and a few things explained poorly to boot. The art looks rushed and unfinished. Not up to what one would expect from Byrne. This gets one point because Byrne did pick a few cool examples to show about the Hulk
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