Looking back at these stories now, after Red Hulk has become basically an overused joke, they lack some punch and resonance. But at the time this came out–a time when Bruce Banner is imprisoned post-World War Hulk and Hulk’s own comic has been overtaken by Hercules–this was a very, very cool book. It’s told as a “whodunit” and the mystery around who this Red Hulk dude really is buzzed through fandom.
It starts with Doc Samson and She-Hulk investigating the murder of Abomination in Russia. (And killing such a major villain off-screen was a great plot device.) The two characters recreate the scene of the murder, and explain what they believe to have been the killing blow as…
Hulk shooting Abomination.
From there comes lots of misdirection and deepening of the mystery, and lots of good, big fights. She-Hulk and Samson fight the Winter Guard.
And in a book with “sequel characters,” it’s cool to note that She-Hulk herself is a sequel, and half of those Winter Guard members are new iterations of characters. By my count, that’s the TWELFTH Crimson Dynamo!
Rick Jones wakes up in Alaska wearing only torn pants and with no memory of what’s happened to him (but his mystery is quickly resolved in issue #3 when he turns blue and becomes A-Bomb).
The hits keep coming. Literally. Iron Man fights Red Hulk.
There’s another Helicarrier crash. The afore-mentioned A-Bomb fights Red Hulk and gets shot by him.
Sadly, though, Rick Jones survives the gunshots. They fight for most of issue #3, right over Banner’s underground prison, and the resulting quakes break Banner out.
So … Issue #4 will be the big Green vs Red fight.
I’ve often said the best Hulk stories are the ones where he punches things a lot. These issues are pure, big, dumb adrenaline. Liberally peppering in full-page and double-page panels, it feels like the paper is straining to contain Ed McGuiness’ magnificent art. The pacing is breakneck, but without sacrificing a genuine frustration by the reader at not knowing who Red Hulk really is. And by that I mean the good kind of frustration–better known as suspense.
Great stuff.