When it came to opening Hulk: Season One and reading it for the first time, i was unsure what to think or expect. like many of our hero’s the Hulk has evolved over the years, given both a deeper background, and understanding then what was possible in the early issues.

What I hoped to get what a good taste of that depth from over the years, but I knew it would come with a cost; the real question would be, if that cost would be worth it.

if you like you can go back and read the start of my review for Fantastic Four: Season One to get an understanding of how I decided to go about reviewing these volumes, or you can just dive right in, and see what I think.

The Story

The Dialogue

the way the Dialogue of this story was written had a strong impact on me. it was witty, and funny, but also deep at times, and combined with the artwork able to invoke emotional responses.  the Dialogue of this peace is what I feel many writers should strive for, and I also feel it was true to what I would expect for a hulk retelling. three such examples are:

“your Friend said, you will help my brothers and me or — and he’s making me say this — or he will smash you.

-The Seedling

You Didn’t “save” me from the stupid robot. we’ll never be “even.”

-The Hulk

Coffee! Black!
newspaper! Today’s!
And I want that Useless hippie milksop Banner in my office before either gets cold!

-General “Thunderbolt” Ross

but that is just a few of the good points that I feel had an effect, and I feel in the case of the hulk, and General Ross is quite true to character.

The Plot

The plot of the story was far from my favorite, and I feel that there could have been one that would have served as a better launching point for new readers while offering great value to the book for long terms fans.  However the plot was well written, and read like a fine movie script. In fact I feel this would have made a better hulk movie then any we have seen so far.

also one of the things that was good, was how this tale ended; offering a conclusion with the realization that this is just the beginning of something much more, much greater.

The Artwork

The artwork of this volume was charged with deep emotion; and that is above all else what I feel made it good.  for example the scene where the hulk realizes how ‘Them'(not a grammatical error, Them is a group in the marvel universe)   in any case when he realizes how ‘them’ are using the children; the look on his face, the sadness, the heart, and that pre-building of anger starting. it is all there on his face, and in the eyes. but that is far from the only example of the hulk’s emotion; and he is far from the only character in this graphic novel.

Emotion in the people is just one thing this issue got write, there is also emotion in the overall art style. the panels being a bit more chaotic , not being well formulated squares but instead made of angled lines. and at points braking behind or in front of other panels, this all adds to the effect and feel of the issue.

Lastly, the use of colors, often as I read the book, i felt like a page or a set of panels would be primarily tinted a given color, to the contrast of another set of panels. while this often happened with the shift of scenes, it also seemed to embody a shift in focus, and feeling. something more than just the setting is changing, and the colors let us feel that.

In-continuity

this is the part of the story, that I feel deep down may have been hurt the most; it just did not feel as true to me to the early stories as it could have been.  I do not feel it was done badly;  but I feel it was a bit off; something that I wish was done better. this may be what was sacrificed the most, for good character depth as well as to create a tale the modern reader could relate to.

Character Depth

oh, the Dialogue and the artwork worked quite well together to give the character’s a depth that I can harbor no complaints about.  you feel quite quickly that you know Bruce Banner, and Betty Ross.  in the first scene with General Thunderbolt Ross, Betty’s father you can feel how strong-willed he is.  all the peace fell together in this to give us deep and believable characters.

this has been the strength of the season one titles I feel; something they all have aspired for, and I feel so far have achieved

Value Added

I do not feel that a long running fan would have had much value added by this story as much depth has been given to the hulk and his emotion over the years.  perhaps more than any other hero due to how tied to emotion he is.

that is why, I suspect they resorted to introducing a new  villain n this tittle; this however I feel is  gimmicky and may be part of what hurt my feeling of a strong continuity with the classics.

New Readers

this may be a great start for new hulk readers whom do not have the time, money or energy to invest into many of the classic hulk stories over the years.  and I would encouraging them to read this if nothing else.  but I also must recommended at least Incredible Hulk #1 and #6 if not the original run from 1 to 6.