Hulk [2016] #6 - Marvel Comics

HULK No. 6, July 2017

As conclusions to scintillatingly scary six-parters go, Mariko Tamaki’s script for Issue Six of “Hulk” must arguably have been a major disappointment for this magazine’s 20,482 followers, with the periodical’s opening half seemingly stalling the inevitable change from Jennifer Walters into the ‘gamma green goddess’, and its latter pages overcomplicating what should have been a cataclysmic fist-fight by having the titular character not only battling a sentient building, but also trying to rescue a suddenly suicidal Maise Brewn; "I'll burn this whole place to the ground before you take me." In fact, compared to the tight, orchestrated writing of this adventure’s previous instalments, this particular twenty-page publication’s storyline appears awkwardly paced and choppily plotted. 

For starters, any pretence that Brewn’s apartment building merely contains a lethal non-human killer lurking within its shadowy hallways and corridors, is completely thrown aside in favour of the accommodation block visibly manifesting itself into a multi-storey homicidal creature of brick and mortar. This change of tact at least provides the Canadian writer with an opportunity to detail how the monster looks to the general “Hey! We have a right to be here!” public, yet somewhat ruins the mysterious claustrophobic atmosphere of the piece which the script has previously tried so very hard to maintain.

Likewise, just as soon as Walters is encircled by the building’s tendrils it is obvious what is going to happen next, so just why Tamaki decides to waste several frames trying to implicate that Jennifer’s transformation was fear-related appears rather nonsensical. Surely, the “lawyer” could simply be shown to have been motivated wholly by anger at her first client’s misplaced belief that the She-Hulk’s alter-ego had somehow betrayed her? Why the utter injustice at Maise’s indignant, self-righteous delusion that Walters is the monster, and by horribly mutilating innocent people she is simply protecting herself, would certainly warrant Stan Lee’s co-creation losing her control in my book, especially when the human mutate is next of the murderer's list… 

Artist Nico Leon similarly appears just as confused as to where this tale is heading, with the freelance comic book illustrator’s drawings becoming increasingly undisciplined (and rather sloppy) as the action progresses. Indeed, inconsistent artwork would appear to be this edition’s biggest downfall with the building’s living embodiment harkening back to the appearance of the Sub-Mariner’s rival, Orka, and the Hulk disconcertingly suffering with a bright green vein which quite ludicrously runs right across the bridge of her nose.

Writer: Mariko Tamaki, Artist: Nico Leon, and Color Artist: Matt Milla