In my opinion, Bruce Jones wrote one of the best Hulk runs of all time. And Jae Lee is a comic art rock star. So this series right up my alley.
Frankly, I’m not sure why this wasn’t released as part of that series—perhaps it was deep inventory, or perhaps it didn’t fit with Jones’ overall (very extended) story arc. When he wrote Hulk, it was almost as a horror book. Hard Knocks is not horror. It’s much more personal.
The story starts with the characters meeting at a diner, and Thing wants to tell Hulk a story…
It’s the story of the first time the F4 met Doctor Doom—one of the greatest single issue comics of all time.
Actually, I’d argue that Fantastic Four #4 is THE greatest comic book of all time. In fact, I made that argument already here. It’s also one of the top 10 Dr. Doom comics of all time, according to this objectively accurate list.
Thing’s retelling of FF#4 is told with a revisionist bent, a little bit anyway, but the main thing is, Thing wants to tell the story to Hulk, not Banner…
Thing repeatedly compels Banner to transform back into his mean green alter ego.
Why is he telling the story? And why does he only want to tell it to Hulk? It’s unclear for most of the book, to add the suspense, but much of the interplay is about who is stronger: Hulk or Thing.
It’s the age-old question for Marvel fans. But remember how I said it was a personal story? It is. It’s really about Thing coming to grips with the fact that he can never be Ben Grimm, even when he’s a hero. Even when he saves the world. But Hulk breaks shit and is a force of pure destruction, and he still gets to be a human from time to time.
This gets 5 stars from me. A fantastic miniseries well worth hunting down, and one of the top 10 Thing/Hulk fights of all time.