The cover scene doesn't happen inside this issue, but still got me to buy it: from 2015,
Hulk #13, "The Omega Hulk, chapter nine" Written by Gerry Duggan, pencils by Mark Bagley, inks by Drew Hennessy.
We've seen maybe some of this storyline before, although I just searched my blog for when...yeah,
chapter two, wherein the new, improved? nanotech-altered Hulk as "Doc Green" de-powered Rick Jones/A-Bomb. It took me a second, because I had put Gerry as 'Gary,' had to fix that. Doc Green had by this point depowered Skaar, Red She-Hulk, and the Gamma Corps; but Red Hulk was his main target. Another target might be taken off the board, at least for the moment, as the then-aged Steve Rogers tells Doc Green, that Jennifer Walters was off-limits. Steve floors him with a trick cane, which doesn't seem like the sort of stunt that would work twice; then takes a call from Deadpool, who was currently working for Doc Green, on the trail of the Red Hulk. (This was in a relatively brief window, before
Secret Empire, where Pool was a trusted ally for Steve; also post-Red Hulk's Thunderbolts.)
At the Baxter Building--I'm thinking the FF were gone at the time, huh?--Doc Green's assistants were still trying to find Lyra, who was lost in time and/or space. (I forget her deal; I think she was introduced and written out fairly quickly. I mainly recall her as an
unreleased Marvel Legends swap figure.) The bedraggled assistants are in over their heads, and Doc Green sadly releases them from any obligations to him. But, he also thinks A.I. might be able to find Lyra, except his "Project Omega" had gone rogue and disappeared. Later, Doc Green storms Red Leader's new lab, killing his new gamma mutate (Gasp!
Not Dim!) then depowering him. Doc tells the powerless Sterns to stay out of the gamma business, but Project Omega, under its new name "Gammon," later resets him to his usual green look.
Doc Green then teleports to Deadpool, keeping tabs on the Red Hulk near Yucca Mountain: the Red Hulk could absorb radiation, and Doc Green likens this to "Popeye sleeping with a can of spinach under his pillow." Deadpool says, great, I'm gonna bail, but Doc Green borrows his phone, to call Rick Jones: not to talk to him, though. He knew Project Omega would be monitoring him, and speaks directly to it: find Lyra, and then they can leave each other alone. Pool is amused at Doc Green apparently calling the sky to yell at it, but he has another job for the merc: hit Ross with this special bullet, in the eye or ear, to inhibit his radiation-absorbing ability. Miss or cop out, and Doc Green would tattle, that Pool betrayed Ross.
This still had three more chapters, running to the
last issue of this series. Then was maybe
Totally Awesome Hulk, a bit of
confusing legacy numbering, the traumatized Jennifer Walters
Hulk run, then
Immortal Hulk. All of which somehow feel longer ago and further away than this one, somehow. (Probably because it's the issue next to me right now; mystery solved.)
While I didn’t buy any of these or this run, I did keep tabs on what was happening for the most part. Not a particularly bad incarnation of the Hulk per se, while nowhere near as entertaining as the Immortal Hulk horror run. They can at least cross off The Doc Green idea of different things they’ve tried with the Hulk, right? Still better than the current Hulk as a fleshy mech suit they’re going with.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I think the fleshy mech suit thing might have gone away when Donny Cates' run ended. I feel like Daniel Warren Johnson is doing sort of a horror vibe to his Hulk book, but I've only seen bits and pieces.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Donny Cates and I read a lot of the same comics in the '90s, but came away with wildly different feelings about them.
That feels like the most accurate & perfect summation of his writing style I’ve ever seen. Nailed it. I know he had to try something vastly different from Ewing’s instant classic run, but it was bad, so-so bad. I know he’s capable of doing better, just not on Hulk.
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