That also explains why Jeph Loeb continues
working with Rob Leifeld, but that's for comics historians
to uncover after the Onslaught ends.
By this point, you can tell that I found
the book a bit underwhelming. Opening with Doc Samson and
She-Hulk behaving utterly unlike either have in years, the
story follows their efforts to recreate the murder of the
Abomination. Though Marvel has been trying to re-establish
Samson's psychologist cred, the adventurer/detective mode
still fits.
What doesn't fit, and perhaps McGuinness
can't be blamed for this, is a re-design of Samson with
short green hair. Maybe others have drawn him this way,
but since the guy's hair length is actually linked to
his name, it seems jarring and out of character.
But that problem runs rampant through the
book. While Dan Slott and Peter David have been laboring
hard on She-Hulk's personality, Loeb and McGuinness ignore
it to present an angry woman resentful of playing second
fiddle to Samson. Even the lines of dialogue that could
be jokes don't match the frown and tight lines McGuinness
puts on her face.
Then, of course, comes an obligatory fight
with the Red Guard, because the Gamma Team has ventured
onto Russian soil. Here again, everybody acts the way they
need to in order to ensure people hit each other, not bothering
with rationality.
At the center of it all should be the title
of the story, "Who is the Hulk?" Nobody actually seems to
wonder that, though they've all assumed that Hulk killed
the Abomination while knowing perfectly well that Bruce
Banner couldn't have done it. Either they know more
than Loeb wants us to know they know, or it's just bad writing,
especially since the color of the character on the cover
is news to them.
Not that he actually appears - though that's
just a by-product of pacing, understandably setting up a
mystery. Loeb also possibly answers his title question in
the second of three "rewrites" of World War Hulk's
denouement. It couldn't be that simple, though, because,
well, it couldn't be that simple. Left unexplained for now,
and annoying that I'm trying to come up with Marvel Universe
science explanations for it, is the shift from green to
red.
Whatever the answer is, I'll find out eventually.
Unfortunately, Hulk #1 doesn't leave me dying to
know.
