Hulk, Vol. 1: Red Hulk

A mysterious Red Hulk--not the imprisoned Bruce Banner, who is green when he is the Hulk--wages violent mayhem from Russia to space to the American Southwest.

Loeb, Marvel’s go-to guy for massive superhero chaos, is the ideal philosophical match for the Hulk. Just as the Hulk’s strength grows more catastrophic the angrier he gets, Loeb’s stories escalate in destruction and guest stars (Iron Man, Thor, and Wolverine, to name just a fraction) with each page. McGuinness’ art is likewise suitable to the scale of the action, given its immense and solid figures, which possess a rounded and bulbous cartoonishness that refreshingly does not conform to the modern manga-suggestive standard. Loeb ostensibly hangs his tale on a mystery, as with his Batman stories Hush (2003) and Long Halloween (2007), as the heroes pursue the identity of the Hulk’s murderous red doppelgänger. What you don’t get here is a solution, as the mystery gimmick must support the numerous battles that are contained in forthcoming entries. What you do get is large-scale superhero action that will please those looking for a widescreen extravaganza without too much story but with loads and loads of energy. Grades 6-12. --Jesse Karp