Here is today's Featured Guest Review by TheAcidSkull for Marvel's Indestructible Hulk #16. I have also added my rating after each review. If you have any questions about my rating or want to discuss anything just leave me a comment.
Indestructible Hulk #16 - Humanity Bomb Part One
"THE HUMANITY BOMB" PRELUDE!
Earth's scientists look to Bruce Banner to solve a problem Hulk can't smash!
Which of Banner's assistants will make it out alive - and unchanged?
Preview
Never Gonna Let You Down.
I've been on the fence with Indestructible Hulk because of the last arc, I wasn't planning to stop reading the series but my expectations have been lowered, still, I'm fairly interested in this new arc as it'll be tied to both banner and The Hulk in some interesting way, not to mention that It promises to explore one of the Banner's assistants which is always cool.
The story itself is just simply a prelude to what is going to happen further into the arc, but still, I'm sure it did a good job of establishing the situation. This time around Banner has been spending to much time as the Hulk, meaning that his promise to come up with something great every Friday is not going to well. Now I'm not exactly sure how I feel about Banners new attitude. In the opening panels we see him basically threatening a Government agent into donating more funds for his projects, I'm sure he was just pretending as he wouldn't let himself transform into he hulk any time soon, but still, it's an abuse of power, which isn't typical for Banner. It could be argued that he's just trying to get more money so he could help the world more, but right now I'm not so sure it was for a selfless goal. When the residual energies at the Mayan pyramids appear, Banner states that partially, his actions are for selfish reasons. It's possible to assume that Banner has been overshadowed by Hulk for so long that he developed an Inferiority complex towards other geniuses, I just hope it's not something that'll stick. Waid drops a couple of hints that maybe Banner is set out for a character arc where he realizes that he should help just for the sake of doing good, which is fine, I just hope that that this is what waid has in store for us. The execution isn't all that bad because Banners assistant, Randall, makes a little comment about being selfish which pretty much foreshadows how Banner will evolve as a character. To some degree it does make sense, which is the only reason I'm okay with it. This is just a prelude so i'm only assuming.
Speaking of Randall, he was my favorite part in this story. It's been a slight gripe of mine that Banners helpers hadn't been getting enough screen-time in the Indestructible series, but this issues made me very hopeful. Randall is an interesting character and I really would like to see where his characters goes. The flashbacks of his young life is quite interesting. It seems to me that Randall has some sort of trauma over the fact that he wasn't there for his parents, which explains why he would never want to betray or disappoint Bruce. The words " I Won't Let You Down" really struck me, because it's possible that waid is building up to a mentor/student or father/son type of relationship between Banner and Randall. By reading the issue, it'll make sense as to why Jessup would associate Banner with his parents. In fact, I think I understand how things could possibly develop, I'm just going to have to wait and see on this one.
There were a lot more interesting things going down in this prelude. The mid transformation effect is quite intriguing to be honest. Last issue, something important changed in Banner life so new elements could be added to the Hulk/Banner dynamic. I liked the fact that during this MID-PHASE you could never really tell who was really talking, Banner or Hulk, Maybe both? like I said, some interesting things were teased here, I hope they are further explored.
Finally, the art is fantastic IMO. I really like hulks design even though it's really more human than it was in issue 14. The Battle with the monstrosity is very cool and well handled. The coloring works well with Asars art and I hope he sticks around for some time in order to avoid inconsistent visuals. I don't really have any complaints with the art aside from the fact that some of the faces were a bit off. specially Hulks.
Overall I'll say that this issue accomplished what it wanted to do, which is teasing us with whats to come. I really do hope that Banner deals with his complex, and I wish we could see hulk smash a bit more. This issue wasn't spectacular, but it was definitely good.
Verdict - 3.5 (7/10)
Images Unplugged Rating
Cover & Solicit - 4
Art, Colors & Inking - 3
Layout & Flow - 5
Story - 4
Verdict - 3.9 (8/10) - (Buy Indestructible Hulk) SAVE 10%
TheAcidSkull is a comic book reviewer at Comic Vine. The use of this review has been authorized by the original author.
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