Grey Hulk vs. Incredible Hulk
I've always wanted to write a review on this story line leading to the transformation from the Grey Hulk to the Green Monster we see nowadays, which is marked as a very significant character evolution; and now that I actually have the time to do so, I'll start of with the goods of it all.
The Good
I believe Peter David did an exceptional job setting the plot for this story line and building on such character evolution like this one. In the beginning of the issue, we see Grey Hulk aka Mr. Joe Fixit depicted to be inside Banner's unconscious mind jumping through a barred door to fight off the Green Hulk; which I thought was a great prologue to start off the story line, "Personality Conflict" and lead to the initial battle. We get to see the relationship Bruce has with the Grey Hulk and the thought of when Joe goes out to fight Green Hulk, they'll most likely kill themselves; having Bruce to be left alone and "normal" again. Rick Jones makes an appearance as a supporting character and seems to be Bruce Banner's best man throughout the issue. We also get to see the controversial relationship Betty and Bruce had at the time as she tries to hold onto the man she loves dearest without losing him in the crossfire of the brute battle along the way; from the relationship Marlo has with Bruce to who's actually the monster inside of him, Betty wants answers and she wants them now! If you haven't heard already, Rick and Marlo are going out, an ex-girlfriend of Joe Fixit, which will stir up lots of curiosity amongst the four love birds, specifically coming from Betty. While having their conversation in Rick's apartment, an intense battle is taking place in the mind of Banner as the Green Hulk smashes the Grey Hulk through the barred door he jumped in; during this time Bruce is morphing into both, the Grey Hulk and the Green Monster, but is having a difficult time completing the transformation. As the fight goes on, the most memorable panel of this issue took place when Grey Hulk says, “You’re just making me mad! And the madder I get…” Green Hulk finishes, “…the stronger Hulk gets!”. At this point Grey Hulk is thrown in the air by Green Hulk and says, “Crud. He’s right. I hadn’t considered that.” Shortly after in the mind of Banner, they are depicted choking each other to death while Banner is trying to break them apart. In the real world, Betty sees Bruce, half mutated, choking himself and seemingly encourages him to be the stronger man that he is and try to settle the dispute of the two Hulk's. Agamemnon made his first appearance in the beginning of this issue, as he ordered Prometheus to capture the Hulk to recruit him onto the Pantheon. We also get to see an appearance from Doc Samson in the last couple pages and will play an important role during the transformation of the Hulk in the next issue.
The panels of this issue was penciled by none other than the talented Dale Keown and polished up by Bob McLeod & Glynis Oliver. They do an outstanding job with almost all the panels and imply great amount of emotional expressions in the artwork done. I think Keown does a good job working with the 3 environmental settings he had to depict; the past, Bruce Banner's mind, and the real world, also elaborating on the individualism of each environment to point out where the story is taking place at the time. Keown’s pencils are very strong and his storytelling between what the fight looks like inside Banner and what it looks like in the real world is an amazing work.
The Bad
One of the main problems I had with this issue at first was figuring out what timeline they were actually in; having the story been maneuvering around three different settings, it was kind of difficult to depict where the real world stands. However, Peter David and the casts behind THE INCREDIBLE HULK do a great job differentiating these three settings and can easily be depicted after they've explained more in the panels and scripts. The colors that were filled in was somewhat lazy on some panels, but the pencils and overall story picks up the slack given.
The Verdict
If your a Hulk fan like myself, then definitely go out and find this issue. There's more Hulk talk than you can ever think of in a single issue and is probably one of the greatest story lines in Hulk mythos. When will you ever get to see a Hulk vs. Hulk showdown, besides the 2-part story arc, 'Future Imperfect'? This issue leads to the transformation of the Hulk in THE INCREDIBLE HULK #377 and is mandatory to pick up after reading issue #376. 4.5/5 stars and definitely a recommended issue.