Hulk: Fall of the Hulks #1

The Red Hulk seeks out Bruce Banner for an unlikely team up. Their first plan of action is to kill General Ross. Members of the Intelligencia begin to go after the eight smartest people in the world for their own evil plans.  

Series writer Jeph Loeb continues his run on Hulk which after 21 issues now, we have yet to find out the true identity of the Red Hulk. I understand building anticipation but I'm very quickly losing the little interest I had in this series. I love Jeph Loeb but his work on this series has been nothing impressive so far. 

Loeb attempts to deliver some shock value and grasp readers attention quickly when after only a few pages he reveals that General Ross has died at the hands of the Red Hulk. While that was shocking and sort of cool, the rest of the story doesn't fare so well. The Intelligencia begin to go after the eight smartest people in the world. Loeb relies on a lot of action which isn't enough to make this story arc worth praise. Part of why I may not be enjoying this is due to the fact that I think MODOK is by far one of the stupidest characters I have ever seen. His appearance does nothing whatsoever to invoke any excitement within me. I kept waiting to see the "fall of the Hulks" and was disappointed when not a single Hulk fell. Talk about false advertisement. 

The art is by John Romita Jr. and Ed Mcguinness. When I first got into comics I liked Romita, now I find his style annoying and a little played out. I'm just not a fan of the way he draws characters faces. All those excessive lines feel like overkill. Thankfully he only drew one issue and the rest was done by Mcguinness who is someone I really like. He's been the best artist on this series so far. His work is what usually makes this comic worth enduring. The variant cover gallery and sketchbook at the end were a real treat and nice edition to the trade paperback. 

It's a quick read that leaves you feeling a little disappointed. They labeled this the "Fall Of The Hulks" but I didn't see any Hulk fall. General Ross dying was the biggest thing that happened in this story. Aside from that the rest feels a little boring and thankfully it ends fairly quick. It's hard for me to say I would recommend this comic when I'm not a fan of all these Hulks.