By: Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Bettie Breitweiser (colorist), Ed Dukeshire (letterer), Jake Thomas (assistant editor) & Mark Paniccia (editor)
The Story: The big battle between Rulk and Omegex is upon us, plus a look back at Thunderbolt Ross’ life.
What’s Good: Let’s start with what a nice issue this is to look at. It seems especially appropriate to start with the art since this is Gaberiel Hardman’s last issue on Hulk and is off to do Planet of the Apes comics at Boom! (which should be great since he can actually draw apes very nicely). This issue really shows what a diverse artist Hardman is. You’ve got scenes of families around the Christmas tree, women with 40’s era haircuts, old cars and planes, babies, young boys who actually look like children, naked women, Hulk & Omegex fighting, female Watchers, etc. and it all looks great. Working with an artist like Hardman must be great because Parker can probably put anything in his script and it’ll turn out fabulous.
Another great thing that Hardman does in this issue is function seamlessly with colorist Bettie Breitweiser. I don’t know the technical term for this, but most of Hardman’s work is what I’d call fully rendered. By that, I mean he’s already inked in a lot of the surface texture, musculature and shading. And, that gives Breitweiser a nice canvas where she doesn’t have to waste her talents on making sure that Rulk’s pectoral muscles have the appropriate sheen on them. She can work with Hardman’s inking to make a beautiful finished product. But, what they do on the Zero/One villain is wholly different. She is colored in this two-tone gray in a circular pattern that looks kinda like a bullseye pattern is being projected onto a nude woman. Here Hardman adds almost no surface details to the character at all and allows Breitweiser do her thing. It’s a shame to see these two broken up, because they have a wonderful partnership.
The scripting is great too. Again, Parker makes a LOT happen in a single-issue comic. Part of the way he does this is that he isn’t afraid to write a lot of words. I’m sure if you put his script on a word count, he’s just got more content than a lot of other comics. I know some comic fans recoil when they think of a “wordy” comic, but lots of words are only a problem if the writer can’t string sentences together and Parker is a very good writer. It was very touching to see Thunderbolt Ross’ life flashing before his eyes. I also loved the resolution to the Omegex problem, which allows the two to meet again if some future writer wants to revisit Omegex. Between Omegex, Zero/One, Black Fog, Annie, etc. Parker has established a nice supporting cast for Rulk.
Oh, and we finally learn what happens to the mustache!
And, what a great cover. Amazing what can happen when you let the series artist do the cover and he actually knows what the story is about rather than getting some stupid generic cover from a cover artist. This is a cover that actually takes on new meaning after you read the issue.
What’s Not As Good: It’s a little slower paced, so adrenalin junkies may be a little disappointed when the text above the title on the cover promises “The FINAL BATTLE with Omegex!!!”. I’m sure none of the creators had anything to do with that and somewhere an editor should be ashamed.
Really, not much else.
Conclusion: I’m sure Jeff Parker has written stinkers in the past, but he’s got his two Marvel books humming along now. He’s transformed Rulk from a scorn worthy character (Really???? A red Hulk??? How creative….) into a fully fleshed out and very compelling character. Huge kudos to Hardman and Breitweiser for helping him to tell the story. The new artist has big shoes to fill!
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell
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Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: Bettie Breitweiser, Ed Dukeshire, Gabriel Hardman, Hulk, Hulk #41, Hulk #41 review, Jake Thomas, Jeff Parker, Mark Paniccia, Marvel, review
