Hulk, Vol. 2: Red & Green

Hulk (2008) (Collected Editions) #2

by Jeph Loeb, Arthur Adams (Illustrator), Frank Cho (Illustrator)

When Bruce Banner sets out to find the Red Hulk he doesn't expect his search will lead him to Sin City, Nevada. And imagine his surprise when he arrives to discover the unbridled carnage a pack of Wendigos can unleash! Las Vegas buffets will never be the same! Plus: no matter what size, shape, color, or sex, Hulks don't take kindly to being on the wrong side of a beating. Armed with an arsenal of advanced S.H.I.E.L.D. weaponry and itching for payback, She-Hulk's Lady Liberators have one goal: Subdue the Red Hulk, and make him pay in the process. All this plus a special KING-SIZE spectacular with MORE smashing, bashing, trashing, and clashing than should be allowed by law! Collects Hulk #7-9 and King-Size Hulk #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction, Fantasy

120 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2009

About the author

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

Reviews

[Nicolo]

In the middle of his run of the Hulk relaunch in 2008, Jeph Loeb collaborated with three of the comics industry’s best artists, Ed McGuinness. Art Adams and Frank Cho. Though immensely talented, this trio has had troubles meeting deadlines and the title’s monthly schedule dictated that an artist must be able to produce pages regularly in order for the book to ship on time.

I believed that Loeb and his editor managed to create a novel solution. McGuinness would be the regular artist, since of the three; he was the last to handle a regular monthly title. But would breaks in between story arcs in order to prepare his next assignment. His art graced the first six issues and then he took a break. This way, the first trade of the new Hulk title would have a single uniform look. The second arc was handled by Adams and Cho, two artists who had a nice detailed finish to their pencils but were so slow that the only way they could handle six issues would be to have a sufficiently long lead time, probably at least a year. The only way they could do a regular monthly title would for them to get together on one title which did on Hulk. Adams did a story that was half an issue, while Cho would do the other half. It was a workable solution; still they only managed three consecutive issues for their arc.

Adams is known to have a penchant for monsters and Loeb wrote for him a script where Bruce Banner turned into both his grey and green Hulk alter egos and fighting a pack of Wendigos. On the other hand Cho is known for his cheesecake interpretations of Marvel women, so he drew a revenge story, where She Hulk assembles a dream team of voluptuous Marvel heroine on a mission to take down the Red Hulk. That is not all, they even got classic Hulk artist Herb Trimpe to draw a back-up flash back sequence and Chris Giarrusso of Mini Marvels fame to draw Audrey Loeb’s mischievous little stories of multicolored little Hulks.

Loeb did a great job of tailoring his scripts to the artists’ strengths and preferences and it shows. This is the best work I’ve seen from both Adams and Cho from that year. This is a great read, full of fight sequences between monster and monster, though the Red Hulk may have gotten the best deal.

[Readingismyonlyhobbyyy]

This was super messy, the storyline was all over the place. The Wendigo storyline was pretty out of the blue and the only cool part of that whole mess was Joe-Fix it and Moon Knight appearing. But other than that, Red Hulk just being an asshole the entire time. Also the way the women were drawn was a joke.

[Connor]

This volume was just okay. It had a lot less intrigue than the first book. There's a bunch of pieces in this book, but it's not a full story. At first, the Red Hulk fights a Wendigo in Canada.
Then Bruce Banner as Joe Fixit fights a group of Wendigos in Las Vegas. Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Sentry join in. Then She-Hulk and some of her friends try to take down the Red Hulk as revenge for the first time he beat her up, but they aren't very successful. Then it talks about the history of the Abomination before he was killed. I don't know why they keep trying to call the Red Hulk "Rulk." I hope that doesn't stick.

[Quentin Wallace]

This was a good if somewhat disjointed volume. The art was pretty as always, as we had Art Adams as well as a story featuring several female Marvel heroines drawn by Frank Cho.

We start out with a Wendigo invasion of Las Vegas that features appearances by Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, The Sentry and Brother Voodoo among others. Bruce Banner appears as Joe Fixit, the Grey hulk before morphing into the green hulk. Then, he somehow becomes wendihulk. Yes, it's a little silly.

Then we have She Hulk gathering some girl friends (too many to list, but Thundra and Valkyrie are the main two) to take the Red Hulk down.

There are a few shorter stories as well.

Overall I enjoyed it, but it does seem like this book is used just to put in big fight scenes. Having the women heroes team up came across as an excuse just to get Frank Cho to draw sexy women.

A good volume, but didn't do a whole lot to move the story along.

[Alex E]

Man, what a mess this volume is.

And I'm not even talking about the story or art yet, I'm talking about how the stories are presented. It seems that Loeb or the artists may have had problems with deadlines. Which, ok thats' annoying if you are reading the series issue by issue. But you would think they get it right when collecting the volumes. ...nope!

The volume begins with issue 7 and it feels like we jump in mid story. At the end of this volume, the king size issue fills in the gaps missing before issue 7, but man is that a bad move. Just put the king size at the beginning! The way this books jumps from storyline to storyline, coupled with the beginning of the story being at the end is just way too convoluted to make this enjoyable. Its a mess and Marvel should have caught it.

The story is ok, I mean, more hulk goodness with Rulk vs Wendigo. Also She Hulk and her Lady Liberators take on Rulk for some payback... which is all well and good but its horribly presented in the collected edition. The fact that the stories are presented out of order just, really took me out of the story.

The art on the other hand is top notch. This book is gorgeous to look at, even when Frank Cho is going nuts with the the "porniness" of his female characters. Still, every artist really brought their A game, so awesome job by the art team.

Recommended for Hulk fans but be prepared for some confusing timelines.

[Malum]

3.5. This volume was actually a lot of fun. It didn't take itself too seriously and had great artwork.
Like the last volume in this series, it also had a lot of fun cameos. Here we get Joe Fixit, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, Sentry, and a whole host of female heroes led by She Hulk.

Weirdest part: Red Hulk gets all rapey and threatens to kill She Hulk unless Valkyrie and Thundra agree to--and I quote--"Make a Red Hulk sandwich with them as the bread". Ummmm.....ok.....

[Shannon Appelcline]

Semi-comprehensible writing. I think part of the problem was that these stories got cut and pasted together from multiple issues, but I still don't know what Banner was doing out of his cage. And beyond that: big, stupid fights. Loeb's really lost it if this is his idea of good writing.

[c wylie misselhorn]

It was pretty good. Does he have to say "I am Bruce Banner. I am the Hulk." 12 times a day by contract?

[Alana]

The art is so bad for the poor women characters. Breasts bigger than heads, babyfaces, and sameyness. :(

[Emmett Spain]

Big, disjointed fun. Lots of vignettes all stitched together. Enjoyable enough.

[Rick Ray]

A marginal improvement over the first volume which introduces the Red Hulk, this second arc continues on with She-Hulk leading the way towards finding a way to take down this new antagonist. Opening initially to a Wendigo invasion of Vegas, where Banner is back in action as Joe Fixit. A clash between Joe and several heroes like Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, Sentry and Brother Voodoo leads to havoc on the strip, with Banner turning into a new form of the Hulk - the WendiHulk. Meanwhile, She-Hulk recruits the help of Valkyrie and Thundra to deal with the Red Hulk. Though the identity behind the Red Hulk is now established, this second volume further fleshes out the story behind Red Hulk. Nothing particularly revolutionary or even really good for the Hulk, but solid stuff overall. It's a little disjointed, but fun enough for what it is.

Ed McGuinness is off for this volume, so instead Art Adams and Frank Cho handle the art duties, and they fill in well. The goofy action looks good in their capable hands, and allows for the visual storytelling to flow easily.

[Arturo]

"Worlds Finest"!? I Just realized Sentry, Moon Knight and Ms.Marvel are being used as analogues for Sups,Bats, and WW in this story. The Mystery is finally solved for me. It just never made sense, WHY Moon Knight. Its usually power houses (or Spidey or Wolvie) taking on Hulk. But Moon Knight??
(Hulk even calls Sentry 'S-Man' and I never saw it!)
Anyway, this volume is a type of Showcase for the artists. Letting them do what they do best (Monsters and Woman), and they do great. Unfortunately, I cant forgive the simple plot. Unlike the previous volume where you could practically look at the pretty pictures, not even read and follow the plot. These 2 stories are brawls with little meaning. Its even a volume that can be skipped as it has no plot progression to the overall Red Hulk story.

[Jesse Baggs]

I enjoyed the first volume of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness’s Hulk, but this second volume isn’t really a continuation of that story. Instead, we get a side tale about the Red and Gray Hulks in Las Vegas, drawn by Frank Cho and Art Adams, apparently to give McGuinness time to stay on top of his monthly pencilling schedule. Unfortunately, I don’t know enough Marvel lore to follow what was going on here with all the different colored Hulks, guest stars, and wendigos.

In a different Goodreads review, someone mentioned Cho’s “cheesecake” approach to drawing superheroines, but Cho is downright restrained compared to some of the backbreaking proportions Adams gives the ladies. Yikes.

[Lavell]

Artwork: Fantastic to ugly. Story: Average. Well, this would be a forgotten piece of hulk history. Just the artwork stood out. Ranging from Arthur Adams to Frank Cho witch was beautiful to the ugly shit Herb Trimpe drew.No real story with the minor exception of the she-hulk brigade which made it worth a read.

[Angela]

She Hulk goes after the Red Hulk. Meanwhile, Bruce goes to Las Vegas to stop some Wendigos. It's nice to read a She Hulk centred storyline again, and this is quite a decent one. The Bruce storyline has a few unexpected twists that are nice. My only problem is that it is too short. A good read.

[Ian Raffaele]

A short but fun collection of Hulk comics. She-Hulk gets her revenge by calling in The Lady Liberators to gang up on the Red Hulk. A satisfying fight with a cliffhanger ending. The volume also has a backstory to the Abomination at the end to catch up readers unfamiliar with his origin story.

[Chad]

Terrific art but those stories felt like complete filler. Plus could this new Red Hulk be any more misogynistic. Art Adams and Frank Cho draw some great looking comics with very little story substance.

[guanaeps]

Some great art here from Art Adams, Frank Cho and Ed McGuinness, but otherwise an unfocused romp, with a bit too much plot convenience.

[Omni Theus]

3.5 out of 5 stars

[Eric]

Art was great, story was just okay. A fun quick read.

[Daniel]

I loved the art and the stories.

[Doctor Doom]

Not as good as Volume 1. Half the stories are okay and half are better than okay.

[Martin]

This book is a mixed bag and is divided into three separate stories. Each should be reviewed individually:

(1) Bruce Banner is in Las Vegas and fights a bunch of Wendigos in a Casino. Guest-starring Ms.Marvel, Sentry, and Moon Knight. No real progress is made in finding out the Red Hulk's identity and the mystery surrounding it. Hmmm... let's round this one up to 3 stars.

** Of note in this story: Hulk temporarily gets infected by the Wendigos and becomes (wait for it...) WendiHulk! (eye roll) Terrible, isn't it? It is a preview (of sorts) of the Marvel heroes getting hit with gamma radiation and becoming hulked-out versions of themselves (see Hulk, Vol. 6: World War Hulks and its many tie-ins).

(2) She-Hulk gathers up some of her lady super-hero friends to capture the Red Hulk and discover his identity. Fighting ensues. This story is actually relevant to the Red Hulk mystery and has a direct link with Hulk, Vol. 4: Hulk vs. X-Force Art by Frank Cho and snappy dialogue by Loeb. 4 stars.

(3) A short story entitled "The death and life of the Abomination". Padding, pure and simple. Thankfully it's only 8 pages long. 1 star.

[Jon M]

The Hulk is back, and this time he has a whole army of Wendigos to beat up! You're either thinking, "Wendigos! O! this'll be a fight worth seeing!" or "What in the name of Galactus is a Wendigo?"

Well, a Wendigo is a very hideous, very creepy, very dangerous monster-human thing that is born from canibals. The Wendigos start their attack after Red Hulk shoots one in the wild and eats it. All of the Wendigos leave and head for Las Vegas, where Bruce Banner is doing his research.

Hulk starts beating up the monsters and Ms. Marvel, Sentry, and Moon Knight come to help. But the four aren't able to fight all of the Wendigos and wanna know what's worse? The Wendigos team up and go for Hulk and chew on him, transforming him into a WENDIHULK! Luckily for them, a magic guy comes and cures all of the Wendigos and they turn into humans once again. - Except, they're naked. I know, I didn't like this part either, but that's what happens when you read modern-day comics.

After that, She-Hulk tells you a little about what happened in the last volume of this great comic series. She-Hulk decides to get some revenge on Red Hulk for threatening to kill her and almost killing her too for that matter. She calls some of her superhero friends and they all come over to beat up Red-Hulk with her, but, can they manage to defeat Red Hulk, or is he just way to powerful? Find out in this fantastic comic book!

[Laurielle Laurielle]

Este cómic se las apaña para ser de lo peorcito que he leído en meses pese a su espectacular dibujo.

La primera historia, que va de wendigos atacando Las Vegas (con una marginal aparición de un Red Hulk de barbacoa) tiene un dibujo de vicio y a Joe Fixit, Moon Knight y el Vigía haciendo el gamba, lo que normalmente daría puntos, pero también tiene cuadros de pensamiento de Banner lloriqueando que matan mucho la acción.

No obstante, el problema es la segunda historia: va de Red Hulk humillando sistemática e innecesariamente a Hulka y otras superheroínas. No en plan "se enfrentan y las derrota". No. En plan "estaba tan asustada de él que no fui capaz ni de decir algo gracioso". En plan "si no aceptáis ser el pan en un sandwich de red hulk, le rompo el cuello a hulka". En plan "venid a jugar a la botella conmigo". En plan "jo, nos está tirando de un lado a otro como si fuéramos barbies". En plan, en suma, que sólo le falta darles de pollazos en la cara para dejar clarito que es un macho alfa y ellas, pobres, no están a su nivel.

No he sido capaz de llegar a la tercera historia.

[M]

Jeph Loeb continues his Red Hulk saga in this second collection of the relaunched Hulk series. The actual comics issues collected here reflect the split time given to both Hulks in every issue; halving the story to offer two tales at once. On the Bruce Banner side of things, a Wendigo invasion in Las Vegas leads to a brawl amid casinos. The Sentry, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel offer cameo appearances to help garner readers' attentions. Red Hulk slugs his was through the Marvel Universe, eventually being confronted by Marvel's leading ladies - the Lady Liberators - and escaping with his secret identity intact. Despite the build-up from the initial volume, the sequel does little to move the main plot along. Marvel's two-for-one editorial decision also hurts the book, bogging it down into a decompression nightmare. Still, if you like your Hulks doling out the black and blue, check out Red and Green.

[Lloyd]

This second volume of writer Jeph Loeb's run on the Hulk is much like the first. Plenty of good, fun action. Banner changing into the Hulk (both gray and green in this one!) when he gets angry. Plenty of guest stars to both aid and mix it up with the Hulk. But nothing to really further the intrigue of this new Red Hulk that we were introduced to last volume other than we still don't know who he is.

Much like in the first volume, it was the art that saved this one for me. I love the styles of both Arthur Adams and Frank Cho, who were the artists featured in this volume. Truly, the art in this one was impressive. Much more so than the story, in my humble opinion.

Recommended for Hulk addicts, lovers of great comic book style art, and those looking for a light, yet fun, superhero comics read.

[Fizzgig76]

Reprints Hulk #7-9 and King-Size #1. The Hulk goes to Vegas and battles Sentry, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Wendigos while the Red Hulk battles the Lady Liberators. The writing on Hulk is bad, but this collection and the decision of the writers to jump around (splitting up issues and meshing the King-Size which was short stories) was a bad one. The characterizations are really off-base and wasted, and the stories are too short to get into them. If there was a mystery about who the Red Hulk is, it has gone on too long for people to care.

[Jeff]

Loeb's writing of the Hulk doesn't tray far from his formula, and if you are a fan of fighting and smashing this won't disappoint. But that's about all you'll get from the plot. Also, seriously? A bar on top of Abe's head on Mount Rushmore?

The real saving grace here is the art. Arthur Adams and Frank Cho are two of the best artists in the genre, and their work here is phenomenal.

[Rohail]

Terrible plot and writing by Jeph Loeb, it's still such a tragedy that Marvel thought it was okay to dumb down the Hulk to this after giving us a deep and sophisticated one in Planet Hulk...

On another note the artists here are incredible. A 10 out of 10 for them and the only thing rescuing this volume.