It takes this pretty well-explored character and finds new, complex ways to look at him, all while featuring some of the most bone-chilling moments and visuals a Marvel book has ever put to print ( the artwork, primarily from Joe Bennett, is both gorgeous and truly disturbing). It’s hard to put my finger on it, just none of it really captivates me or feels fully of consequence.

There are plenty of additional plot lines to keep you interested too: good to see Alpha Flight, Avengers etc all used properly. Why was the One-Below-All trying to escape hell through manipulating and/or possessing Banner’s dad and the Leader. Lots of references to past history of the hulk or characters or superhero teams I didn’t recognize or couldn’t contextualize.Unlike a lot of comic book fans, I grew up thinking of the Hulk predominantly as a horror character. Unfortunately, those first five issues were deceptively good, because the story never reached those same highs in the following 10 issues. I remember reading that they dressed Scully in big suit jackets and shit to sort of downplay her looks, also to age her a little. I'll be reading the rest of the series as it was just hitting its stride and I want to know more about the green door and Hulk's connection to it. Then, however, they take a weird detour into morality, family strife, child abuse, DID personality splitting, 4+ different Hulk characters.

I want to read more of this series, for I have heard from some reviews that the quality dips, but in this volume I noticed nothing of the sort—but my collection stretches from the first issue to the tenth, so I am missing one-third of the total amount. You could argue there’s one, complete, complex narrative, which would make it a rare contender to be an actual “graphic novel”. Aside from the overwhelming sense of déjà vu all over again, the whole thing eventually collapses under the weight of its preposterous, made-up metaphysics.I watched the Hulk TV series as a child, cringed at that awful Ang Lee film, quite liked the Ed Norton one, was impressed by the Peter David collection 'the End' and enjoy the MCU version but this collection is, for me, the perfect Hulk. There’s some very of-the-moment satire around Fox News and Black Lives Matter; alas, Ewing passes up the opportunity for a Green Lantern/Green Arrow “what about the green skins?