Review: Indestructible Hulk Vol. 4- Humanity Bomb

Quick Summary

Pros: The Hulk is as fun as he always is. Bruce Banner’s assistants get some much needed character development.

Cons: Most of the stories told here range in quality from average to mediocre. The narrative relies on miscommunication too often.

Overall: The last volume in the Indestructible Hulk series is a bit of a disappointment. It offers a few cheap thrills here and there, mostly centered around the Hulk’s energetic actions. However, as a whole, the volume fails to develop serious levels of interest, as most of the storylines are interrupted by some sort of negative aspect. Those who have read the series thus far may find portions of this volume to be entertaining, but it isn’t a volume for new fans to jump into.

Story

Indestructible Hulk Vol. 4: Humanity Bomb, by Mark Waid, is a moderately fun ride that fails to do anything significantly interesting or special. It features plenty of fun Hulk moments, where the green monster shows off his ability to take on any challenger. However, an intrusive crossover and a heavy reliance on miscommunication hamper the narrative and make it harder to become sufficiently captivated by the story. The end result is a collection that feels mediocre, especially considering the collection’s place as the conclusion to a series.

(spoilers start here)

After just recovering from the Age of Ultron crossover in the previous volume, Humanity Bomb starts out by dealing with the fallout from another comic crossover. The Inhumanity issues here are average and have Hulk do some cool things that only Hulk can do. However, they also distract from the Indestructible Hulk‘s central plotline and leave very little time for the narrative to get back to normal.

These chapters also rely entirely on miscommunication to drive the plot forward. It starts with several genius level intellects deciding that rushing and aggravating the Hulk is a good idea. Then, they refuse to gather information about his creation and make the already bad situation even worse. These decisions don’t make much sense coming from these characters, which makes reading the fallout from these decisions more difficult.

The rest of the book reads a bit better, but it still isn’t great. It gives some additional character development to Banner’s woefully underdeveloped assistants, even though most of this comes too late. This portion of the book also includes an annual that presents a great picture of the rivalry between Bruce Banner and Tony Stark. This annual has plenty of entertaining moments and ends up being one of the best stories in this collection. However, none of these positives generates significant levels of interest on their own, so they do not have a large, positive impact on the volume as a whole.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Humanity Bomb ends up being decent but not remarkable. There are a few standout moments, such as a few of the splash pages in chapter seventeen, but these standouts are rare and only found in a few choice places. Instead, most of the volume features artwork that suits the book well but does not look impressive on its own. These chapters preform well in highlighting the Hulk’s ability to bring action to every page but perform less well when it comes to depicting the average humans on these pages. The end result is a book with an adequate quality level, one that looks alright but not great.

Continuity

Indestructible Hulk Vol. 4: Humanity Bomb continues the story from Indestructible Hulk Vol. 3: S.M.A.S.H. Time (Review).

The story here continues in Hulk by Mark Waid & Gerry Duggan: The Complete Collection.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Issues #16-19 of this collection are tie-in issues to the Inhumanity event. This event is part of the fallout from the issue #4 of the Infinity (Review) event.
• References are made to past events surrounding the Enclave and the Beehive. These events are told in Fantastic Four #66-67.
• Iron Man mentions Hulk being sent into space previously. This happened in the Planet Hulk storyline.