We
begin this issue, as with all issues, with a conversation between Uatu and
X-51. This time around though, it’s not
much of a conversation as X-51 has apparently deleted his personality circuits
as Uatu requested of him. The focus of
this issue then becomes clear as the origin of The Hulk presents itself, all
expertly rendered by John Paul Leon and muddied up with colors from Matt
Hollingsworth. Before we head back down
to Earth, which is pretty customary after these origin stories, we stay on the
moon and see that John Jameson has been exiled there, and as he transforms into
a werewolf, we get an indication as to why.
Apparently, John has been monitoring space and sees something large
heading toward the Earth. Not being a Watcher, he feels it is his duty to warn
Earth about this coming threat.
Down on
Earth, Reed has teleported from the X-Mansion to Ben Grimm’s doorstep,
surprising him in the middle of the night.
Ben doesn’t mind as it seems like it’s been awhile since the two have
seen each other. Leon does a good job
through the acting of the characters to show Ben going from sleepy-eyed
annoyance to excitement in a couple panels.
Reed is not just making a friendly visit though as he requests some
schematics that he left with Ben for safe keeping. What are these schematics, you ask? Oh, just the schematics of Charles Xavier’s
brain, that’s all. So what does Reed
do? He stretches his brain so that it
resembles Xavier’s, giving him Xavier’s telepathic abilities. This is odd as it makes mutation into a
physical, not necessarily chromosomal “gift”, but it fits the story and doesn’t
stretch things too much.
Back at
Clea’s Sanctum Sanctorum, Hulk is about to journey to the land of the
dead. He begins his descent and we
eventually see all of the Marvel heroes that have died, and they are fighting
all of the villains that have died. The
crazy thing is that the heroes and villains not only do not realize that they
are dead, but they think that the living heroes and villains have
perished. Within the realm of the dead,
Hulk encounters the spectre of Dr. Strange, who is neither alive nor dead in
either reality. Strange tells Hulk that
Loki has allied himself with the being that killed Strange. Back in the land of the living, we learn that
if the candles burn out, that Hulk will be stuck in the land of the dead (it’s
a magic thing, I guess). To prevent that
from happening, Thor travels into the land of the dead to bring Hulk back,
leaving little Bruce all alone with Clea, who turns out to be the individual
that killed Strange and allied herself with Loki.
We end
with Cap and Daredevil arriving in New York along with the Skull’s forces. He shows up at Ben’s door with the X-Men, to
recruit him to the cause.
The
appendix in this issue deals with member’s of Hulk’s extended family/rogue’s
gallery. There’s not much to be said
about them really, but Alex Ross’s pencil illustrations that accompany the text
are as beautiful as you would expect.
Next Issue: Cap’s
recruitment drive continues, does it include a bake sale? I hope it includes a bake sale. We learn more about the fun little relationship
that Loki and CLea share, and what happens to Hulk and Thor?
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