Indestructible Hulk #6 Review

Has the Indestructible Hulk become worth?

Indestructible Hulk #6

Thanks to some Uru metal donated to S.H.I.E.L.D. by Thor, Bruce Banner plans to use it as a portal to find some more elements that are only found in some of the other “nine worlds” that make up the Norse mythology.  In particular, Banner is hoping to find some Eiderdürm which should help advance the world well ahead of their dependency on fossil fuels.  They are met by Thor who warns of the Frost Giants who surely already know they are there.  Banner is surprised to not just find Thor dressed in some retro clothing, but that he doesn’t know who he is.  This is broken up by an attack from the Frost Giants.  While Banner’s team escapes, Thor holds off the giants for as long as he can until he’s take out of battle.  When the Hulk shows up, he decides to take on the giants…  With the use of Mjolnir!

I know. I know.  I can already hear some complaining about Hulk being able to lift Mjolnir.  However, it didn’t really bother me.  I’m just as much of a Thor fan that should find this somewhat atrocious that Hulk can actually lift this, but I have two arguments in defense of this ending.  The first is that the Hulk is kind of doing some good things lately.  Yeah, in Fear Itself, he was turned into a monster, but even Ben Grimm became one of those too.  In fact, stating that “Hulk is WORTHY!” is a nice call back to being one of the Serpent’s “Worthy” in that story.  Beyond that, he’s been trying to do some good in the world.  He was recruited by Captain America to help with the whole X-Men unpleasantness, though he didn’t last all that long in the fight.  In this new world that rolled out of AvX, he’s been helping S.H.I.E.L.D. shut down some real bad dudes.  Yeah, you could argue that he’s doing things for them to get something out of it for himself, but his motivation is true and for the betterment of the world.  That makes him a pretty good guy in my book.  Now, is he truly worthy of wielding Mjolnir?  I dunno about that, but at least you can’t say he’s not doing something good with his powers.

The second reason is pretty simple…  Mark Waid tells some damn fun stories.  Is that a really good reason or justification for the last page?  Nope!  But I also don’t care.  One of the things that makes Mark Waid one of the premier writers in the industry for the better part of the last 20 years or so is that he’s simply good at giving stories a nice twist and a great boost to the series that he works on.  Whenever we hear his name attached to a new product, we take notice.  That’s because we know he can get the job done and have fun with it along the way.  That’s what this entire series has been.  Here’s the world’s greatest weapon in the Hulk and Mark Waid is aiming him at bad guys like he’s filled up a super soaker and planning on ambushing children as soon as they get off the school bus.  There’s an almost maniacal fun to this series.  He’s fired banner out of a torpedo tube to turn him into the Hulk.  He’s had him do some really cool, almost James Bond like, spy stuff where he’s placed into a hostage situation only for him to destroy the bad guys from the inside out.  Now, he’s getting to wield Mjolnir…  That not only sounds like a whole lotta smashing fun, but it also seems like he could break the world in two with that much power.  If I were a Frost Giant, I’d probably crap ice cubes over this ending.

As far as the art goes…  Do I need to state that I’m a HUGE Walt Simonson fan?  I didn’t think so.  However, what makes this issue that much more spectacular is to see Thor in his old duds.  It’s a blast from my childhood seeing Thor in those classic threads from the pencil of Simonson.  Every frame Thor’s in, every pose, it’s like I just bought a 75-cent comic off the drug store spinner again.  Simonson’s art is like other artists of today.  It’s different.  It’s more barbaric in nature.  The characters have much more squared off jaws and sometimes that doesn’t sit well with newer crowds or people not used to his work, but for me, it’s just about as it gets to see Thor this way again.  All I need now is for George Perez to come back to the Avengers, and I’d be in comic book heaven, but this issue is almost good enough to propel me there already.

As for this issue, it struck all the right chords for me.  Waid and Simonson can do all the Hulk and Thor comics they want and I’d by one happy fanboy.