Straight Outta Bannerville
Last issue was a little flat, and this one's better, but it does feel like this series is already starting to get formulaic. We start out with Banner being Banner, and the second half of the issue has The Hulk smashing. Mark Waid's been building Hulk's status quo, but he's going to need to start crafting an ongoing plotline and some recurring villains with personal touches if he wants to keep things going strong. Hopefully this is the end of the setup, and once this story is resolved, we can start moving into a bigger story.
The issue starts off very well, with a sort of day in the life of Bruce Banner. His daily routine of checking his vitals, and his commute from his home in 'Bannertown,' a former nuclear testing facility. One of those ones that's designed to look like a 1950's average neighborhood. It's kind of brilliant, and then we also get to find out he has some outside contact who handles his leverage over Maria Hill. Bruce Banner is brilliant as a scientist, and a strategist. We also get a great scene where he meets his new co-workers and gives them a bit of test. Their interactions are a bit stiff, but in a good way, where they're all not sure exactly how to approach him yet. I'm looking forward to seeing this group develop into distinct characters.
The second half of the issue feels a little rushed. Hulk gets a mission, so they put Banner on a sub, stress him out, and put him in a torpedo tube. And then Hulk smashes giant sea creatures. This is the beginning of something a bit more interesting, however, because unlike the Quintronic Man last issue, Bruce Banner has a personal investment in this mission, in an interestingly indirect way. This issue is the first to end with a real cliffhanger, but it's clear theres a bit more to this mini-arc than the straight up battle.
Little needs to be said about Leinil Yu's artwork, it's magnificently gorgeous as always, but the underwater fight scene is a little hard to follow. Most panels have Hulk just flinging himself through the water, we don't see a whole ton of the physical punching and whatnot.
In Conclusion: 4/5
Mark Waid began this series with a mind-blowing bang, but the most recent issues have been a little flat. Banner does stuff, then Hulk does S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff. But this issue feels more well crafted than the last because Hulk's S.H.I.E.L.D. mission is actually tied into his Banner life, and because this issue actually ends with a cliffhanger. Waid's got Banner and Hulk perfectly nailed, he just needs to fine tune the balance a bit. But the art is pretty much perfect.
