PLANET HULK No. 3, September 2015 |
“The Storm” arguably demonstrates both the strengths and
weaknesses of writer Sam Humphries, with a narrative that is not only
absolutely packed full of bone-jarringly good action sequences. But also an
abundance of nonsensical dialogue as Doc Green populates numerous word balloons during a heavy multi-panel theological discussion concerning “the
restrictions of morality and judgement found in Man [which] are absent in
Hulk.”
Indeed having started the twenty-page periodical depicting
Steve Rogers desperately struggling beneath the waters of Gamma Lake whilst
“The Devil” bites chunks out of a formidable-looking, part-octopus, “touch of
shark” Sea Hulk, the subsequent scene depicting the green-skinned scientist
goading the “gladiator” because “Gamma burns away all that is false and impure,
and reveals what is already within us” proves something of a dissatisfyingly surreal moment. Certainly it is evident as to why Captain America “can make no
sense of Green’s rubbish” and describes his Greenland guide’s “prattle” as
“maddening.”
Fortunately however, this absurdly lengthy one-way
conversation is thankfully sandwiched, if not squashed, in between some
incredibly tense and dynamically charged altercations, including a high octane
flashback sequence showing “super-soldiers Rogers & Barnes” battling one of
the four Horsemen of Apocalypse, Holocaust “before the fall. Death and
destruction.” In fact Humphries’ narrative genuinely manages to manufacture an
impressive, almost instant, recovery from its “Hulk is the reality we deny
ourselves” gobbledygook courtesy of an ultra-suspenseful cliff-hanger depicting
the Sentinel of Liberty getting trapped by a party of “Tribal Hulks” within a dark
restrictive ravine and being viciously riddled with half a dozen throwing spears;
“I am Captain America of the super-soldier program! Face me! In the name of--”
The variant cover art of "PLANET HULK" No. 3 by Alex Maleev |
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