The Good
There’s a real tone of “you knew this was coming” that permeates this issue, and it’s directed both at Doc Green AND the reader. Finally, Green can’t delay or put it off: he’s got to hunt down Red Hulk AKA Thunderbolt Ross, one of Banner, and Hulk’s, longest-standing villains and, as of his transformation, likely his most dangerous one. All the strength of a hulk, and while he may not be the brightest bulb in the bunch, he’s got a brilliant tactical mind capable of out-thinking nearly anyone in the midst of battle. Gerry Duggan does a fantastic job of keeping these issues, which really have been a series of fights, fresh and interesting by putting each of the different gamma creatures’ main features front-and-center, thus serving to differentiate not just the characters, but their styles of combat. We get a brief appearance by Matt Murdock, but like other non-gamma characters, he mostly serves as the fulcrum upon which the leadup to a massive fight turns. He also gets to have his own sniping quips and a great moment involving a rather unique use for a pair of chopsticks, but this issue is all about these two giant lugs laying into one another. Another very cool thing that Duggan does is make Red Hulk a legitimate threat to Doc’s well-being, finally giving the book a sense of suspense and allowing Green a moment of pain and even doubt. At least he’s not ENTIRELY unstoppable.
Mark Bagley’s pencils are absolutely amazing on this issue, with the character designs evoking the look of Rulk co-creator Ed McGuinness and making both characters look absolutely, unstoppably cool. As they hulk-up and the battle becomes more vicious and violent, we get a decent sense of pacing, but an amazing sense of motion and action, a critical step to any battle-focused issue. The inks by Drew Hennessy do an incredible job of adding weight and details, as well as a sense of incredible impact as the two giants crash into each other. Jason Keith’s colors are also bold and give the book the look of a classic Hulk story and, despite it taking place at night, the book has a brightness and a vibrancy to it that perfectly suits the epic tone.
The Bad
Setting the book in San Francisco was a strange choice, considering Ross' only real interaction with the City by the Bay is to cause earthquakes with his debut, but he appears to have staked the area out, despite Hulk never having much interaction with it either. While it was cool seeing Daredevil, and he had a neat moment, one of the disadvantages of moving him across the country is that having him “randomly” pop up in another character's book becomes less “random” and needs more justification.
There’s also just slightly too much needless exposition, either of characters explaining what they’re doing or why or other characters flat-out saying things for the benefit of the reader that either could have been inferred or explained without flat-out saying them.
The Verdict
This was, ultimately, a massive brawl of an issue with some exposition on the side, and there’s nothing wrong with that, considering whose name is on the cover. Finding new and novel ways to present characters, particularly characters who have an already extensive history, might not be a challenge unique to comics, but it’s certainly more common in this medium than others. And while the battle between the two main characters in this issue at first seems like well-worn territory, it actually winds up coming off as particularly novel as we’ve got two sentient, thinking Hulks rather than one clever one and one berserker. It’s a small change, but a critical one and it gives the issue a sense of novelty and continues this storyline in an interesting direction while showing Duggan's ability to come up with new and interesting ways to have gamma powered people smash into each other.