Hulk: Gray by Jeph Loeb Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hulk: Gray
Book Review: Another Awesome Color
Summary: 5 Stars
Gray, Yellow, Blue - I can't wait for the next color! Really hoping for a Captain America book. The Hulk book is awesome and if I have to compare, my second favorite, Spider-Man: Blue being the absolute best one - hands down! Whereas in the other two books, the main character is talking to a deceased loved one, here, Banner is talking to his psychiatrist friend and reliving his ordeal of how he became hulk, his battle with the army, his battle with Iron Man, that's right IRON MAN! And lastly, his relationship with Betty. A very deep, emotional book with just stunning artwork. The illustrations are so good, I would not even call it a graphic novel, it's just a work of art! Huge fan of this team and pretty much hooked on whatever they churn out.Book Review: Gray Matter
Summary: 4 Stars
Gray is a well written, well drawn reexamination of the Hulk's origin.
Using a Sopranos psychiatry session narrative device, author Jeph Loeb explores the rise of the Hulk and the complex relationship the gray giant has with Bruce Banner, Betty and General Ross.
Tim Sale's artwork is its usual "brutish beauty", employing Milleresque linework and mood. Matt Hollingsworth's coloring is fantastic and really compliments Sale's minimalist style.
Bruce Banner's end of story epiphany is sobering and kind of depressing. An excellent work and well worth the ticke price.
Book Review: Incredible art highlights this origin retell!
Summary: 4 Stars
Origin stories are beaten to death but this is a pretty good retelling of the Hulk's origin with some new wrinkles and amazing Tim Sale art. The plot is light, as most Hulk plots are (so many panels filled with smashing), but there are some interesting new twists to the classic origin without mauling what Lee & Kirby did before. As I said before, Sale's pencils are so eerie, they're fantastic. The Hulk is bursting out of panels and off pages. Its so good. Loeb and Sale never disappoint. Good stuff.Book Review: Loeb & Sale's colorful look back at the genesis of the Hulk.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a long time fan of the nostalgic Marvel Essential series (click on my "See all my reviews" button if you don't believe me), I also made sure to pick up Loeb & Sale's well-regarded "color" books (Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, and Hulk: Gray). These three series replayed moments in Marvel's past which primarily centered around the heroes' lost loves Gwen Stacy (the Marvel universe's original slain girlfriend), Karen Page and Betty Ross while offering new philosophical or psychological angles about why their loves began and continued under the stress and difficulty of the heroes' secret double lives. In the first two books, the stories were updated or "ret-conned" in order to be relevant for the modern era (Flash Thompson signs on to the Army as opposed to being drafted to fight in `Nam) and some new scenes were added (Mr. Slade, the man who pulled the trigger on Matt Murdock's father, received the death penalty), but generally the proceedings didn't stray too far from the classic tales from which they were based. This is not true for Hulk: Gray, the third book I read. It is more of an original than an adaptation and, despite my craving for nostalgia, it is also my favorite of the three.
Hulk: Gray revolves around the always embattled Bruce Banner meeting with long-time friend Leonard "Doc" Samson for a late-night impromptu therapy session to discuss Bruce's grief over the loss of his first love Betty. Bruce goes back to that fateful day when he saved young Rick Jones life, only to be rewarded with a Gamma-radiated curse, and how he then tried to avoid trouble and express his love for Betty in his confused, clumsy, and supremely powerful Hulk persona. In the final chapter, the aptly named "F is for Father," Bruce comes across a hypothesis as to why the frail and timid Betty learned to accept him as an unpredictable monster. I'm not certain if the idea had ever been discussed before, but if true then it is profoundly tragic, even when compared to all the other moments of profound tragedy which the Hulk is famous for.
As I mentioned before, Jeph Loeb spins a mostly new tale surrounding the Hulk's origin and I maintain that the book is all the better for it. The Hulk was the first "superhero" series begun after the Fantastic Four and it only lasted a meager six issues mainly because Stan Lee, "the Man" that he is, severely mishandled the character. New powers and traits of the Hulk were introduced and dropped within the blink of an eye; for example, the Hulk could originally fly and Banner transformed at dusk and turned back at dawn. He's not a vampire, Stan! Also, I was happy not to see any of the early super-villians show up, like the deformed Russian Gargoyle or the subterranean tyrant Tyrannus (he's like a handsome Mole Man) or the Toad Men from Outer Space or the Metal Master (he's like Magneto except not intimidating in the least). The Hulk just doesn't need much external conflict to make his stories interesting; his worst enemy has always been himself. Lastly, Iron Man is called in to stop the Hulk in a scene that boldly flies in the face of established continuity (in the pages of Avengers #1, Tony Stark himself says, "I've always wondered whether the Hulk really existed"). Regardless, ol' Shell-head's "untold" appearance made for a hard-hitting brawl the likes of which the historical Hulk wouldn't see until he met the Abomination, and so I think you'll be pleased that it's there.
All three of the Loeb/Sale modern retrospective books for Marvel are worth reading, but I'd recommend Hulk: Gray the most. It combines the fascinating emotional layers of the green Hulk of today with the sheer power and mystery of the gray Hulk of yesterday. It's the origin of the most powerful creature on Earth the best way it could be told.
Book Review: Loeb & Sale... how can they ever go wrong!
Summary: 4 Stars
Loeb & Sale have consistently giving us gems with the Batman series Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory
Batman: Haunted Knight, Superman for All Seasons, Daredevil Yellow, Spiderman Blue.....
From the styled Art work to the amazing story lines these 2 have brought a lot to the table.
More Hulk: Gray reviews:
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