Comic book reviews for Hulk #10 and Hulk #11 by Mariko Tamaki, Julian Lopez, Bachan, and Francesco Gaston
Average rating: 3.5/5 stars
Hulk #10 by Mariko Tamaki
Art: Julian Lopez and Francesco Gaston
Once again, Tamaki’s writing levels this book up. She’s great with climaxes in this series. I just wish the rest of the issues were as strong.
This would’ve been a five star issue for me, except that Lopez’s and Gaston’s art styles are just too dissimilar when standing on their own. Boo on Marvel editorial! And the editorial seemed to make a choice where their art was just mixed in together, in some places, and separated in others. Even with the contrasting styles, I believe my favorite panels were the ones where Gaston draw the characters and main action and Lopez drew the background and minor actions. Mostly, I am looking for consistency. It’s hard to talk about the quality of art in this book when the consistency isn’t there, and I don’t really know who did what. (Even after spending time searching for their respective art.)
I loved Tamaki’s overlay of Jen’s thoughts on Frankenstein. It worked so well as Oliver struggled with his new form. (I hope we get some follow up here.) And as Jen figures out what gray Hulk means to her.
Patsy is right. If Jen was truly “evil,” she wouldn’t have stopped. She seemed to be reacting to Oliver’s pain, not the fact that they were doing battle and she was going to kill her enemy.
Hulk #11 by Mariko Tamaki
Art: Bachan
Did Tamaki just read a bunch of She-Hulk books and discover that She-Hulk can break the fourth wall? (She-Hulk did this before Deadpool, thank you very much.) Because this issue felt like that. Or editorial pushing Tamaki into breaking the fourth wall to try to make it feel more like the other She-Hulk comics. (I do not believe this is a high selling book in Diamond-ordered single issues, which we know Marvel puts too much weight on for success.)
Which when looking at these issues as a collection of a body of work, just feels jarring.
I suppose it was inevitable that there would be some online dating. And a rehashing of She-Hulk’s past romances with other superpowered men. Though the editor seemed to forget that nothing with Starfox is consensual as he mind controls women to want him. She-Hulk put him on trial for this.
The montage of boyfriends I’m sure will highlight for fanboys what a big slut She-Hulk is. Tamaki was not slut-shaming Jen in any way. However, it’s hard to ignore the narrative around She-Hulk’s attractiveness. She-Hulk was introduced in 1980, and was an adult woman, who was at least old enough to have gotten her JD and become a public defender. Being shown, since 1980 as having date/slept with maybe 10 men puts her on the has slept with a TON of people spectrum in comics. 10 men over 37 years, that’s just bananas!
Also, there was not enough Wyatt Wingfoot in that boyfriend montage.
The date itself was okay. I kind of wished the guy had just been a normal human who was terrible. It had more of my attention before he was revealed to be a robot in disguise, with the entire restaurant full of other robots.
Though I won’t ever turn down a Hellcat and She-Hulk team up.