Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Hulk Raging Thunder #1
Marvel Comics
Parker, Breitweiser & Baumann
As a huge fan of the Hulk you’d really need to leave me baffled for me to dislike a Hulk comic. This one came dangerously close to that point. As such, this comic can only be recommended to the absolute diehard Hulk fans. The story and the artwork weren’t bad, I just couldn’t understand why this was out, where it was placed in time and what is it laying the groundwork to, if anything.
Basically, the future is a dystopian one where men and women are at war. The leader of the women, Thundra is very bored. To fill her time she travels back in time to fight more powerful men. Just as the women are hunted by men in the future, Hulk was hunted by men in the past. Naturally, she travels back in time and battles the Hulk. The dumb Hulk, that is.
Hulk and Thundra battle it out for a few pages. Stupid Hulk thinks it’s a trick being played on him by the army. After fighting for a while Thundra makes a truce because she needs some of Hulk’s DNA. You see, she needs offspring and she needs a man for that, so she picks a powerful one.
There’s your whole story. You also get a reprint of Fantastic Four #133 when Ben Grimm fights Thundra (first appearance?) to help boost the cover price up a buck. No other extras or explanations are including with this comic.
So why didn’t I like it? First of all, why does this issue exist (beyond to make money)? With the movie out in the same week they put a random Hulk story from some random point in time out there, but why? If Thundra is to become a major player down the road then why not put this story in the regular title or in the King Sized Hulk? Another problem is that the men and women have been fighting for years and years so where have the offspring been coming from all this time? I think you get the drift here.
The artwork was good and bad. Thundra looked great. So did the battles, both in the future and in the past/present. But, the Hulk looked awful. He has a god awful haircut and his facial features, especially his ears, appear to be way too small. He almost looks like a green version of Sloth from Goonies in some frames.
Now maybe you are getting the picture as to how this comic is for the diehards out there? Again, I say that this comic isn’t a terrible story or a poor idea, but without some context it feels so random and so odd that I was heavily distracted by this problem. It felt like I reached into a long box and just bought some random old issue with better art.
Between this, the King Size Hulk and the Giant Sized Hulk from last month I am running out of extra room in the comic budget for these one shot, overpriced jobs. Obviously, if Thundra proves to be a major player in the year to come or if the Hulk gets dumb again then this story might play out to be really relevant. For now, look elsewhere to get your mainstream Hulk.
2 out of 5 geek goggles.
 Hulk Raging Thunder #1 |
