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Savage Hulk #1
Marvel Comics, $3.99, 28 pages
Released: June 25, 2014
Story Grade: C+
Issue Score: 73.75*
SAVAGELY, IF SLIGHTLY, RECOMMENDED
"The Man Within"
(20 pages / 77 panels / 1,149 words / 7:50 read time)
Writer/Penciller: Alan Davis
Inker: Mark Farmer
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: VC's Clayton Clowes
Editor: Mark Paniccia, Wil Moss
Honestly, this book feels a lot less like a new title featuring the Hulk than a continuation of John Bryne's old X-Men: The Hidden Years series.
The X-Men are taken from that same time frame, more or less, and it's really unclear why. The intro page does a nice job of bringing the reader up to speed on where things stand at the start of this issue. However, apart from the opening "Years ago," and the inclusion of the cover to X-Men #66, there's nothing to clue the reader in to the fact that this story takes place in the past. Oh, sure, if you're a hard-boiled comics fan, you'll know right away. But if you happen to be a casual reader, maybe even one who's walked into a comics shop for the very first time, and you're drawn to this issue by the Hulk, the big "#1," and the awesome art of Davis and Farmer, you could be excused for your confusion. After all, the "Years ago" could easily be interpreted to mean events happening years before this story, not that the story itself happened years ago, while the X-Men #66 cover might convey nothing to you, even if you happened to notice its 15¢ cover price.
So, it begs the question, why does this book exist at all, and therein lies a major, major editorial failing. A new reader should not be confused by a story, but neither should a longtime fan be left scratching his or her head. In the old days of letters pages, the column might have been taken up, there being no letters yet, with an introduction to the creators, some background on why they wanted to do this story, and why the publisher just knows you'll dig it. But none of that here, and I'm left with nothing but questions.
Why is story being told? Does it have any bearing on the current Marvel universe? Why is this story a good idea now, with the original X-Men currently running around Marvel NOW style over in All-New X-Men? Does this title intimate that the All-New X-Men will eventually get back to their original timeline, and that their adventures in the present had no impact on the course of events? What are we to make of Xavier's comments that he'll never rest until the Hulk is cured, when we know he later found LOTS of other things to do with his time? Are the X-Men permanent co-stars of this book? If not, when this adventure is over, will Savage Hulk continue to be set in the past? And, if so, why?
The answer could be as simple as Alan Davis loving the story in X-Men #66 as a kid, and wanting to complete the tale, having always felt there was more to it than published. That's certainly a valid enough reason for Marvel to put out this book, given a creator of Davis' stature. Davis could pitch an entire 12-issue series based solely on answering why the Hulk's purple pants were miscolored blue in one issue of a Marvel Two-In One cameo 30 years ago, and I'd buy it. Still, I wish I knew if this book is meant to be an ongoing title, or a limited series, or what, exactly. And, again, WHY it's being done.
Now, that said, I love the art, although you probably could have guessed that by now. Still, I am slightly miffed that this issue can be read in under eight minutes. At $4, that's a mighty quick read, no matter how faboo the pictures are. Some of that could have been solved by truncating the five pages of Hulk-smash-puny-missiles. The ground covered there could have been accomplished just as easily in three pages, or even two, if the very nice double-page splash had been a very nice one-page splash.
That said, I will say this — the two pages of Hulk mellowing out in the desert are absolutely necessary just as they are. The first page sets up the next, which features something I believe to be wholly original, never before done in the 80-year history of comic books. We see the night sky through the Hulk's eyes and, as he reverts to his Bruce Banner form, the amazing starscape his gamma-enhanced telescope vision sees slowly blurs out into an image closer to what you and I would recognize when we look up. I'm not sure if it's ever been suggested that the Hulk's vision is just as enhanced as his musculature, but it makes perfect sense. Kudos to Davis for thinking of it. And while he must have suggested the idea of how to portray that heightened vision in his script, what colorist Matt Hollingsworth does with the scene is just incredible. The effect is amazing, especially when one considers how fake and distracting photoshop techniques usually look when shoehorned onto a page with comic book art. But here is all works together, creating a meta-textual commentary on how it's not just Bruce Banner's form that is ordinary compared to the Hulk, so, too, is the way he experiences the word around him. That adds a whole new level of pathos to a character who's been absolutely dripping with the stuff ever since that day Rick Jones first wandered onto the testing range.
In fact, this scene is so utterly amazing and original, I have to believe it will be stolen and used should that Mark Ruffalo Hulk movie ever gets made.
(UPDATE: I sent Hollingsworth a note of praise over the Twitte transom for his work. His reply: '@MDHollingsworth: Thanks, but Alan did that and I dropped it in. I cannot claim it as my own work.' So, extra kudos to Davis then, and +2 karma points to Hollingsworth for being so forthright.)
My only other comment is on the Leader, who factors into this issue's pre-title prologue, then disappears. He'll be back, of course, and the whole thing will work in the collected edition. However, and this is a failing of many modern comics, the sequence fails under the covers of this one book. After all, something is set up, leading to certain reader expectations, but then never followed up on, leading to a less than complete reading experience, which could easily turn off that casual reader. The problem could easily have been solved, in my opinion, simply by including a single panel of the Leader on the next to last page, in which he is continuing to monitor the X-Men's movements. Depending on what's to come in future issues, he either presses a button that sends in the character who arrives on the final page, or else he expresses as much surprise as anyone else at what the reader is about to see.
So, while this book is beautiful to behold, I am bemused by these new adventures in the past of our favorite behemoth. Who knows, maybe this book will lead into that 2015 Marvel universe reboot we all keep hearing about, only instead of starting from scratch, everything will get reset to 1970? Stranger things have happened.
*[COVER: 8.25 — PLOT: 7.0 — SCRIPT: 8.50 — LAYOUT: 9.0 — ARTWORK: 9.25 — EDITING: 4.50 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 9.50 — DOLLAR VALUE: 4.50 — COLLECTIBILITY: 7.0 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 6.75]
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