Incredible Hulk: End of the Aaron Era

Issue 15 of Incredible Hulk marks the end of the rather bland run Aaron had with the character, there was supposed to be a shocking earth shattering change at the end which according to the press would change the way we read the character from now on and what was it?...Hulk and BAnner share the same body once again, like this merger isn't common place in their on again off again relationship , this has been happening since the smart hulk of the nineties.

So what did he do not a lot the whole vs crazed banner was long and drawn out then a feud with dr doom of sorts and then the whole stay angry arch which where really did that go but wrap the story started 15 issues ago. Sure the thing, wolverine, punisher and kraken the hunter put in appearances as well, it broke up the whole hulk family mess, though I liked the issue Red She Hulk appeared in I had the feeling he did not have a good grasp of Betty Banner and feel he avoided the use of the characters most crucial to the Hulk Mythos as he was not familiar with and was afraid to write them as this would show up in his inability to write in their proper voice.

Pak and David despite their faults contributed to the mythology and left behind the pasts the built where , Aaron just played in the sand box too carefully tolerate a mark, while the positive of this is he didn't create an absurd mar on continuity where we would be ashamed it happened in continuity, his contribution in the fifteen issues was almost non existent aside from creating a feud with dr. Doom, which just happened previously in Thor so now Doom has not stone un turned in the marvel universe ,as smart move for a monarch.

So looking ahead we know , the Hulk in marvel now will be working for Sheild and answering to Maria Hill, wearing some sort of a suit so Banner can control him and the little ball floating around him in all the picture I wouldnt be surprised if thats Banners camera to keep an eye on him.

The best Hulk book going now is the Red She Hulk, it continues the red hulk Hulk series numbering. She is an anti hero going up against general Fortean and the army, this is going to put her at odds with the avenges, so will be a hulk vs the world theme which is where any Hulk works best... that is not working for sheild, the art is alright and story is action that still tells a story and moves plot along un like the Everything burns arch with Thor which fet jumbled like a d/c book. Thor make second favorite superhero is going to now be written by Jason Aaron, so I am cursed to read his books, doubt he will do much better.

Catching up on comics July

Cruising the comic forums , I can see the fall out among fans is Avengers vs X- men like a child game of pretend being played out caress with action figures as they go along. To many cooks n the kitchen, a common response to the piece meal plot lines dying out from left field.as they say in the movie spinal tap


There's a fine line between clever and stupid.


This should be the slogan for marvel now. Why am I leaning. Towards skeptical on this well look at the even it's springing from. D/ C seems to be going back to their old ways post reboot, with stories to obtuse to care and every panel epic godlike fights and no one has a reason to care. I find myself starting to cre less about aqua man with every passin tissue two of my favorite d/c characters swap thing and hackman have been rendered unreadable , this week I'm going to give swamp thing another shot for this rot world

We did learn Thor and hulk who is now going to be the indestructible  hulk are both getting new writers, mark wadi whose work I really only know from daredevil is going over to hulk, on daredevil his grasp of super powers is we'll nt on the scale of hulk but anything gold be better than what we have now which is me wishing for Greg paks return.

incredible Hulk- the stay angry arch needs some work, Kraven and some yetis making mischief , yeti shaman can make trouble for the Hulk and none of this really explains much of anything , lets just have him wake in random situations, the next issue he fights Thing and Wolverine so if that gets fucked up then I don't know what to say , the end game we have seen coming before the reboot is a showdown with Dr. Doom.

Avengers # 28 - Ross Hulk goes in to black ops mode to assassinate Cyclops, and runs up against other Phoenix forcers who arent having it. He has a better showing against them than most though in continuity are we saying this is before or after the Namor arm break? Or does it even matter as his healing factor is that fast? The art was fine Siminson seems to be dialing it these days , why don't they just go ahead and give him Thor ? Avengers academy #34 - I think it this book isn't making it to marvel now, feels like they are taking their time to wrap up loose ends, the de powered Mettle and Hazmat, Reptil getting his gem ripped out, this spoiled brat of a villian whose power level or even powers don't seem to be established what is he the son of count neferia? Seems like things are going south here . Defenders # 9 - if they are fighting Hydra then this book is really flying blind in the wrong direction and the writer would do well do go back and actual go read some defenders comics from the eighties to find out what this comic is about. Need some plot threads how about vs the vampire nation, throwing them into the weird inter dimensional time mess the thunderbolts are in, or the whole Mayan reign thing, va the alpha flight would be cool as well, but silver surfer could take out hydra with one hand. Dark Avengers # 178- well this lacks direction and seems to be chasing its tail, I love the concept of the dark avengers to thrilled about this line up,but really what's the point here? Sorry to see skaar caught up in this waste, it's like watching the dead letter office for c list characters , which luke cage should be numbered among if it wasn't for bendis fleshing him out so in his books, but not a lot is interesting about him to get this much Cage. Invincible Iron man #522 - the trend here is marvel is making mucked up messes with a lot of books this one just happens to be a pretty mess. Got stark is a prisoner of the Mandrain, and just when pray tell is this occurring while he is figuring out the Phoenix force? Now every one has armor so what's so special about it toney? Rescue throw her on the west coast avengers too many iron people . Now some new guy with the tRon mach 1 design. X- men legacy # 271 - ms mArvel and rouge team up to clean up this mess rogue hs allowed Majick to make with her hell prison, normally like the art in this but it didn't wow me, we see rogue gets removed from the chess board as she was going to cross party lines and I'm guessing this is what crosses her over in uncanny avengers and legacy goes bye bye.not that there aren't already enough x books. X-men # 33 - it was an improvement on all fronts, the best out there not so much, while I like me some  x-Ladies , the female heavy team isn't my first pick it could use some balance though after the re-boot it won't matter. Colossus feel much more like him self than in AVSX, this issue did balance the action and story which the previous issues had been dragging a bit ,

Wolverine # 311-oops I saw this is coming out next week, but thanks to the crafty ways of the inner webs I went ahead and found it so here we go , Sabertooth is back, though it seems he has already been back so how many times he is going to get killed and brought back I dunno this one and others came of of test tubes. Romulus has a hot twin sister who makes herself known and the art work is great one of the better books I have read this month.

Dectective comics # 12 The art saved this one as the action and story got pretty muddy. The villian twirled his mustache a little much and the tone of the book descended into what looked like a marketing ploy for a Batman in his new anti toxic armor. Action Comics # 12- one of the better D/C books , largely in part to Grant Morrison , who tackles the sacred cow that is Super-man , he doesn't follow the normal formula used with Clark, and takes full advantage of the reboot, thrown into an established Super-man , I am not sure how he would fare as it feels like he had to show up with his own sand box to play in. He art is ok, the story I like how it's handled but gets obtuse in portions but that is how they like to roll at d/c .

Swamp-Thing # 12- it feels like it wants to be Sand-man on almost every level, this book along with Animal-man is getting critical acclaim for reasons unknown to , me the change in Swamp things appearance still doesn't work for me, and this rot has being going on for 12 issues now give it a rest .    

Comics for 6/27/12

Wolverine and the X-men # 12 was a little bit of a diappointment , more Avengers fighting but the typical no clear cut winner aside from Wolverine taking Kid Gladiator out with a pressure point so no big points score for either team but with the Pheonix Force Five...not  the shitty christian nu-metal band, the powered up X-men, there has been no real fighting in a arc that has vs in the title. Makes alot of sense I know. The art in this book is annoying better served for new mutants.

Mighty Thor #16, it's been awhile , maybe even a year since I have read an issue of Thor I have really liked , so it's good to see it moving in a better direction the art is where it need to be , having Thor chanting hail Satan how could I not like that ? He was caught in a dream, the Keep concept seems cool now Thor's awake it didn't take the cover of the next issue to let us know what is going doing , but we want to see Thor hit things witha hammer right, ok if this gets screwed up theres a problem

X-men Legacy # 269  I mean look at that cover alon is worth the price, great book a fight like these fights should go, though Ms  Marvel gets immobilized not knocked out so it's a draw against Rogue, though at her strength level she should be able to break out of ice don't mind going back to re-read why this isn't the case, and Majick is the first of the 5 to go bad ...how far behind can Colossus, Namor and Emma Frost be? Two of those three have been villians before.

X-men # 31 however was a boring disappointment and the under use of a cthulhu thing which just blew up from the jet ? really? the team is a little weak, could do with out pixie and domino,


Amazing Spider-man #688- the classic amping up the villians profile to coincide with the movies release. the writing is not bad just bogged down in some  stylistic choices in the story telling which could have been handled differently. Over all a good book with heavy credit going to the art.

Incredible Hulk # 10 like the previous issue , this one isn't really doing much for me , cyborg bears and they can hurt him how ? he seems to be at likea Mr Fixit strength level in this is drawn rather puny looking , and how is Kraven in the same league as the Hulk, ...um yeah , don't think so

FF #19- This should now stand for Fantastic Family rather than force or foundation, bascially every issue is some sort of feild trip for the Baxter building kinder care, there's potential but currently no action which character are fine and should drive the story but some violent conflic is need , and technically there was a little here but too little to pay three dollars for.



Justice League # 10-Not a bad book most interesting exploring the group dynamic and the writer gets what makes them tick, though wonder woman feels a little flat , howwever this Graves guy I'm not too keen on , maybe it's the abstract nature of of his power set. The art work it great theres a classic one page team shot.

The Flash #10- did nothing for me on any level granted I have been following this books the least nothing about it has any appeal, I think the character is handled in a much better context in Justice League

Teen Titans # 10- this was at first one of my favorite books of the 52 , now closing  in on a year later , not so much though the art work is still the best in the business, the tron like colors are pretty cool as well, Bunker still doesn't do much for me he's like a Lantern of sorts. Nothing really happened in this book,

Super-man #10- turned back the clock all the way to the early 90's all the way to disco mullets that cropped up, in the  the background characters like it was the cast from miami vice. This Anguish character I guees is in some ways like a female version of  a non-anadroid Vision.It ended like one of those hottess commerical foun in the first five pages of comics back in the day . Seems like the next arc might be intresting I'm not sure Clark is really benefitting from the 52 re-imagining as he doesn't seem to have any more of an edge in this book.

Aqua-man # 10- the uh oh Arthur has a dark secret feels forced. The art is great and there is action even if i'm not big on Black Manta, how does he do so well against Aqua -man when he doesnt have any powers?
The book moved alot better than some of the other titles and is this weeks best d/c title.


Comic of the Week - X-men Legacy