Hulk: Hulk No More #1

The Story:  
Hulk has Jarella taken from him and moments later the Grandmaster shows up offering him a chance to fight to get her back. He tells the Hulk to pick teammates so the Hulk choses the rest of his former team members(Silver SUrfer, Namor, Doctor Strange) who made up the Defenders. The Grandmaster brought them from different times in their life, each after they lost the woman they loved. So they were all from the past and some of them hadn't even met the Hulk yet. They had to fight the Collectors team which was comprised of Red Hulk, Baron Mordo, Terrax and Tiger Shark who called themselves the Offenders. 

She-Hulk goes to Ben Urich and asks him to figure out who the Red Hulks identity is. Together, Ben Urich, She-Hulk, Doc Samson and Peter Parker enter the Gamma Base and find out that MODOK and General Ross are conducting experiments there. Later Norman Osborn sends Ares after Bruce Banner to see if it's true that he can no longer change into the Hulk. 

My Thoughts:  
Once again Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness are teamed-up on this title. So far they have done wonderful together. My only problem with the last volume was I felt like the story wasn't progressing. This volume felt the same way at the beginning with the fight between the Defenders and Offenders. While it may have been fun and entertaining, it didn't really serve an important purpose story-wise. However, as we get to issues four and five, things start to pick up. 

I had been wondering what exactly happened to Bruce Banner after World War Hulk. It seemed this series started without any explanation to what Banner had been doing lately. Finally we get some answers to those questions as we find out that General Ross and MODOK were working together conducting gamma experiments. The big event in this volume is the fact that Banner can no longer turn into the Hulk after the Red Hulk drained the "Hulk" out of him. While that's an interesting idea, Jeph Loeb could have written the way it happened a little better. Obviously this won't last and it's only a matter of time until we see the Hulk back but it should make for an interesting story. 

I was happy to see that Ed McGuinness was back again. He wasn't on the last volume but he's back and doing what he does best here. It almost appears that there's two different artists on this book but it's just McGuinness. On issues four and five we have a different colorist and inker. Both styles were highly enjoyable. 

So far the series has been pretty fun and exciting. My only issue has been with the lack of direction the story is taking. Perhaps now that Banner can't change into the Hulk we'll see a story develop which will probably be Banner somehow turning back into the Hulk to stop the Red Hulk and eventually finding out the identity of the Red Hulk. Still worth the read for all you Hulk fans out there. 

Rating: 3.5/5