Hulk [2016] #1 - Marvel Comics

HULK No. 1, February 2017

For a comic which sold an impressive 89,810 copies in December 2016, and, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors”, resultantly became the ninth best-selling title of the month, Issue One of “Hulk” contains very little in the way of action. Indeed, Jennifer Walter’s “sensational alter ego” doesn’t even make an appearance within the twenty-page “Marvel Worldwide” periodical, unless one counts the “razor-sharp” attorney’s momentary break-down within an elevator when she buckles the lift’s control panel, or her subsequent collapse whilst listening to a baking video; “Said she couldn’t cook but believed the art of cooking could soothe the savage beast?”

Luckily however, Mariko Tamaki’s omission of penning a dynamic, pulse-pounding plot focusing upon ‘Shulkie’ and her super-heroic exploits doesn’t mean for a moment that the Toronto-born graphic novelist succumbed to the “amount of pressure that goes with writing” so beloved a character as She-Hulk. But instead, simply scribed an incredibly engrossing story which digs deep into the consciousness of Bruce Banner’s cousin, and brutally reveals all of the non-green woman’s everyday fears to the reader. It’s certainly hard to recall such a “meek and mousy” incarnation of Stan Lee’s co-creation since she was first infused with gamma radioactive blood way back inside the first edition of Eighties “Savage She-Hulk”.

Equally as fascinating as Jennifer and her anger management issues, is the Joe Schuster Award-winner’s depiction of the mysterious Miss Brewn. Terrifyingly timid, and imbued with “restorative powers… so nothing hurts me”, the pasty-skinned punter immediately attracts incredible sympathy with her desperate desire to avoid being evicted from her flat by an unseen landlord. Indeed, the petite woman’s need for Walters to promise her that she won’t “lose my home” is wonderfully childlike and is only surpassed by the unease caused by this comic’s cliff-hanger when it is revealed the 'mutant' shares her abode with a dark, potentially malignant presence…

Unfortunately, far less successful than Tamaki’s script for "Deconstructed" are Nico Leon's breakdowns. The Argentinian artist can undoubtedly pencil even the most sedentary of panels when he seemingly wants to, as his detailed drawings portraying the dispirited lawyer’s life within her condo attests. Yet every now and then, the freelancer’s work appears to be either rushed or badly overblown; most notably a double-splash featuring the reception area of Ryu, Barber, Zucker and Scott, which contains several sketchily-drawn ‘super-powered’ clients.

The variant cover art of "HULK" No. 1 by Skottie Young