Review: Indestructible Hulk Vol. 1- Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Quick Summary

Pros: The Bruce Banner story is well done and provides an interesting start to the series. Organic character interactions and a bit of humor make the comic easier to enjoy.

Cons: The Hulk storyline is lackluster at best.

Overall: In this new and different take on the Hulk, readers will see the start to a series with a lot of potential. Bruce Banner sets himself on a path of optimism and redemption that creates numerous opportunities for unique storylines and fun character moments. However, the book’s focus on introductions causes the Hulk side of the story to suffer significantly and become downright boring at points. The book might not be a fantastic story on its own, but fans looking for the start of a different kind of Hulk story will find its beginnings here.

Story

Indestructible Hulk Vol. 1: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Mark Waid is an introductory piece for a new era of Bruce Banner’s life. Waid takes him in a new direction as a man willing to use his abilities as Hulk in order to advance his scientific work. In this way, readers get to see Hulk and Banner thrust into a variety of situations, while also working toward something bigger. However, as this is an introductory piece, these situations tend to serve only as ways for readers to learn about Banner while also getting in some cheap thrills; nothing too substantial occurs. This means that this volume works as an introduction, but does not do much of anything memorable after that.

(spoilers start here)

The book starts out with Bruce Banner approaching Maria Hill with an offer. He proposes that if S.H.I.E.L.D. finances him as a scientist, he will let them release the Hulk wherever they feel it necessary. As a concept, this presents a fresh and unique take on the typical Hulk stories. This is Hulk with a purpose, guided by good intentions on both sides of the transformation, meaning that about half of the story deals with Banner’s scientific advancements while the other half deals with Hulk smashing up bad guys. This is a delightful mixture and one that has a lot of potential to play out in a number of way as the series progresses.

It also feels unique because of how it takes the rogue individual that Banner usually is and immediately places him as an agent in one of this world’s largest organizations. Then, within that organization, he is given a team of people to work with on whatever projects he desires. Waid is great at writing books that are driven by human interaction so setting up this particular version of the Hulk is a great move on his part. Some of these interactions can be seen within this volume; however the volume is too short to see them played out to their full extent.

Helping along these character interactions is the book’s humor, which is another positive for the series. Banner and company are downright cheerful at times, a sharp contrast to his typical pessimism. In particular, I enjoyed his interactions with Tony Stark as the jealousy between the two lead to a number of funny moments that also manages to feel real and down to earth.

However, while the Banner side of the story is great, the Hulk side of things is where the book suffers. As the book’s premise suggests, about half of the collection’s material is devoted to Hulk working to take down enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. These moments are full of action and see Hulk display the feats of strength that one would expect from him. However, the enemies he goes up against are so generic and devoid of motivation that almost all of his fight sequences feel hollow. Sure there are cool moments within them, seeing Hulk feed a rogue Atlantian to a sea monster is always a thrill, but nothing about them stuck out to me afterword.

Though lackluster moments like these are certainly not a good thing, they are a bit more forgivable in an introductory volume like this. The Hulk moments mostly feel like padding to provide action in a book otherwise devoted purely to building Banner as a character. Hopefully, once readers have a feel for who Banner is, we’ll see the same level of attention paid to Hulk as well.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Similar to the book’s story, the artwork lies somewhere between the realms of interesting and boring. At no point does Leinil Francis Yu’s artwork look particularly bad. In fact, he draws the Hulk and the monsters that he faces with a solid level of imagination and detail. However, there are also few moments where things stand out as being particularly good, especially when depicting normal human beings, who end up looking gruff due to the intense linework found here. The end result is a book that looks passable but doesn’t end up being anything more than that.

Continuity

Technically, Indestructible Hulk Vol. 1: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. takes place right after the events of Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 by Jason Aaron. However, due to this being the start of a brand new series, almost none of what happened in that volume has an effect on this story. Readers can feel free to jump into this book with little to no knowledge about the Hulk’s past.

The story started here continues in Indestructible Hulk Vol. 2: Gods and Monster.

This volume also references stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below:

• Bruce Banner mentions a “war against the Phoenix Force.” This happened in Avengers vs. X-Men.
• Iron Man’s armor is a different color because of the events of Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe (Review).