Red Hulk #10 - Marvel Comics

RED HULK No. 10, January 2026

Despite this twenty-page periodical undeniably containing a pulse-pounding punch-up between Thaddeus Ross’ crimson-coloured alter-ego and the cybernetically-enhanced War-Wolf, there’s probably a fair few readers of “Red Flag” which felt the comic was far from being “this explosive series finale!” Indeed, for many Marvelites who can recall the utterly unrelenting, vice-like grip Victor Von Doom holds his kingdom of Latveria with, the notion of four mercenaries – no matter how super-powered – walking into the totalitarian state and planting the American flag atop the tyrant’s own version of Mount Rushmore is utterly preposterous.

Unfortunately though, that is precisely what Benjamin Percy has the three-star General do in Issue Ten of “Red Hulk”, courtesy of Thunderbolt easily overpowering both Simon Ryker and a cavern full of gamma-spawned monstrosities. So swift a victory really is difficult to digest, especially when just a handful of the treacherous Captain’s incredibly strong mutants quickly defeat the likes of Machine Man, Deathlok and Wildstreak without breaking much of a sweat; “Now put down the gun or your friends die.”

Of course there is a significant difference in power levels between Ross and his fellow comrades-in-arms. But doubtless many a reader would have preferred to see this last edition either lengthened, or possibly even extended by another instalment or two, to better depict the old war veteran matching brains and brawn against Ryker’s misshapen army of monsters. Instead, all the audience gets are the grotesque ghouls meekly returning Thaddeus’ friends to him unharmed, and impotently walking off into the darker depths of Doctor Doom’s hollowed out mountainside without even raising a misshapen fist to him in defiance. 

So strong an aura of the creative team simply just ‘wanting to get the comic completed’ also debatably extends to Gabriel Guzman’s pencils too, with an incredible amount of the book’s backgrounds just being bare, empty spaces rather than providing any suggestion of the rugged terrain within which the story is set. This notion of ‘haste’ is also particularly noticeable when Wildstreak and Machine Man are quickly overcome, with only Luther Manning’s defeat being given much in the way of screen time – an oversight which proves especially infuriating when the artist subsequently spends seventeen panels illustrating Red Hulk’s emotional dilemma as to whether to “claim this country or reduce it to rubble.”

The regular cover art of "RED HULK" #10 by Geoff Shaw & Marte Gracia