Hulk, Volume 1: Red Hulk Review (Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness)

You know how the latest footage of next year’s flopbuster Captain America 4: We Keep Changing the Title But It Definitely Has “World” In It got smeared like you-know-what across our screens and we got treated to that amazing footage of Harry Ford as Red Hulk, and we collectively didn’t go “gross” and immediately try to forget we saw it, but pre-ordered our tickets (and probably popcorn buckets of Red Hulk’s… hmm, head)? Glad we’re on the same page.

Well, it got me a-pondering. I’ve never read a Red Hulk comic before. You know, that imaginatively-named character that you’ll never guess - oh you have - that it’s Hulk. But. Red. Maybe now’s the time. Maybe it’ll even be… ok? You know, so when I totally see that movie in the theatre and not at home, months later, half-asleep, playing a game on my phone, I can go “Oh yeah - that guy. He’s uh… zzz…”

This book is Red Hulk’s introduction to the Marvel Universe. Red Hulk’s killed Abomination - with a gun, for some reason. The totally-still-relevant “mystery” is: who is… Red Hulk? And we aren’t told in this book, and instead watch as he fights various Marvel characters (including A-Bomb, a different kind of Abomination - and Marvel unironically calls itself the House of Ideas) until the book ends and we presumably find out in another book that Red Hulk is Thunderbolt Ross.

That isn’t a spoiler by the way, this comic is yonks old - it’s back when Jeph Loeb was writing comics and not must-watch TV like Hit-Monkey and MODOK (this might be some people’s first time discovering, yes, there IS a MODOK TV show! And it’s as good as you’d think).

And this “mystery” is a bit of a cheat, in this comic anyhow. I’ve read later Thunderbolts comics where Red Hulk has Ross’ Flanders-tache, which only makes sense - it’s not like Hulk went bald when he transformed from Banner, so why would Red Hulk lose the facial hair when he transformed? But Loeb is such a great writer that he needs to resort to cheating like this to throw readers off the scent that Red Hulk is Ross.

Besides the blood red colouring, Red Hulk (that name) is different from Hulk by being able to talk normally and not like a caveman and he gives off radiation for reasons. Great. Visionary characterisation. Ed McStout’s art is what it usually is: shiny polished beefy meh. (Mebbe he should pick another brand then - Ed McDonald’s?)

Well I’m certainly ready for the character’s appearance in the MCU now. This lousy comic at least sets expectations at rock bottom for what will probably be a lousy movie too.