Customer Reviews

Hulk/Wolverine: 6 Hours (Hulk Legends, Vol. 1)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Traditionally, the issues Marvel collects under it's Marvel: Legends banner are stiring, beautiful examples of the series they represent. The only thing Hulk/Wolverine is an example of is mediocrity and what NOT to do with a mini-series.

Reprinting Hulk/Wolverine Six Hours #1-4, this graphic's script is as weak and anemic as Banner at his Ultimates' worst. With yet another boring somehow-this-hero-runs-into-another and supervillians follow plot, it was almost painful to read. Add to that the villain is named `Shredder' and though we've never seen him before or since, we're supposed to buy him as a credible threat to Wolverine. Yawn, but one look at the guy and you know Wolverine will tear him apart in seconds. Also, ignore the fact that there's more plot holes in this than all the multiple universe X-Men continuity combined. Without mentioning who, someone in here receives a blood transfusion from Bruce Banner. The last time this happened, the She-Hulk was created, yet there's no mention of that or any ill effects mentioned. Continuity headache anyone?

The art is interesting in its own right and style for the most part, but again, it isn't breathtaking, or worth the price of admission.

The covers by Simon Bisley are reprinted in this volume and are quite marvelous as is most of Bisley's work, marking one bright point in the volume.

Also, Hulk #181 is reprinted, but it's included in other, more interesting volumes.

Overall, skip this and read Frank Miller and Chris Claremont's Wolverine graphic, ISBN 087135277X, if you're looking for a good Wolverine story, or Hulk: Gray by Loeb and Sale, ISBN 0785113460 for a well done Hulk story.

You bring two characters with such a colorful history and pit them together, you get a good, solid work of comic book art and story. The first time Wolverine appeared was in a Hulk comic some 35 years ago. Though the characters have met one another from time to time recently, nothing can make things click if you don't have a good writer and artist.

Bruce Jones is the regular author on the monthly Hulk comic. He has transformed old Jade Jaws from a superhero into a dark, gritty and very human character. Hulk doesn't fight many costumed villains. He fights the rage in himself and the monster that can break loose at any given minute. Having a literary background in fiction prose, Jones feels right at home in creating horrific real, dilemma for his characters. You feel the Bruce Banner is really the same character played by Bill Bixby in the old HULK TV series. The lone man trying to hide from his pursuers. The main difference is that Jones doesn't want Banner to find a cure for his HULK transformation. He makes relish it and like it in sordid way. Very much like the upcoming summer blockbuster.

Adding Wolverine in the mix, is just like adding fireworks. Logan is a loose cannon. He's highly combustible and ready to blow up on anyone. One thing works for him, he really really makes it happen with the HULK.

The story brings the characters together in a realistic way and pits them against each other, then together and then against each other and then together again. You know how it is when you have two powerful characters, the adrenaline just starts rushing. Both Banner and Logan try to help a little kid that is on the verge of dying from a snake poison. Throw in the mix, a couple of drig dealers, a whacko called the Shredder, a sexy plane pilot and you have a jolly good time.

No one really cuts loose in this comic. The major treat, however, is seeing a reprint of the first appearance of Wolverine in HULK 181. That's what the makes the whole comic worth reading. Reference to 6 hours is also a smart way of coonecting the present graphic novel to the old reprint. In the end, HULK will always SMASH puny, hairy human with claws.

The idea behind "Hulk/Wolverine: 6 Hours" is to take advantage of the summer movie schedule in 2003 which say the first Hulk and the second X-Men features hit the big screen. The main problem with this trade paperback, which collects the first four issues of "Hulk/Wolverine" written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by Scott Kilins, along with the first appearance of Wolverine reprinted from issue #181 of "The Incredible Hulk," is pretty much signified by the cover. First, the cover, indeed the very title of the book suggests that you are going to see too of the baddest dudes in the Marvel Universe go after each other. It takes pretty much the entire story to get to the point where Bruce Banner turns green and Logan springs his claws and the two start tearing into each other. But the fight ends up being a minor aspect of the story, which has Banner and Logan lost in the Canadian wilderness with only six hours to rescue a woman and a sick boy from two desperate drug dealers after a plane crash. The idea is that these two old foes, with the two worst tempers in the Marvel pantheon, control themselves long enough to save the two innocents.

The second problem indicated by the cover, which was done by Simon Bisley, is that it is a lot more interesting than what you will find inside. In fact, each of the original covers for the four issues are more interesting visually than what Kilins provides, which is okay and works fine for most of the narrative until the big fight, at which point it leaves a lot to be desired. But then you have the reprint of the first Wolverine story, which revives the age-old question, who was your least favorite Marvel artist: Don Heck or Herb Trimpe? For me the answer was always dependent on who was inking Trimpe, whose art always looked better inked by a Severin as opposed to Jack Abel as it was here.

Consequently, the big irony here is that this is really a Bruce Banner/Logan story, not only because those two are who we are watching for most of "Six Hours" but also because the interchanges between the two are the most interesting part of the story. The strength of the story Jones is telling is in the characters rather than the action, and the plot is just an excuse for these two to do their own macho routines for as long as possible to put off the inevitable fisticuffs. This is a decent enough story until the big fight scene, at which point Kilins fails to go deep.

Hulk/Wolverine: Six Hours, a four issue mini-series, finds the green goliath and the 'ol Canuck-le head becoming reluctant partners as they trek through the Canadian wilderness to rescue a sick, young boy from a pair of drug dealers. Those who expect a knock down drag out fight between the Hulk and Wolverine will be disappointed here. Written by monthly Hulk scribe Bruce Jones, Six Hours focuses more on Bruce Banner and Logan than their counterparts. In Jones' current run, he's made Banner the focal point instead of the Hulk, allowing a more human story to be told. He does the same thing here, offering plenty of great interaction before the two eventually do drop the gloves and tear into each other. The art by Scott Kilins is the book's only downside, Jones' regular Hulk partners Mike Deodato or Dougie Brathwaite would have been a much better selection. As a bonus, this TPB also includes the classic Incredible Hulk #181 which includes the first appearance of Wolverine and the first square off between the two Marvel icons.

I love it when they team up The Hulk and Wolverine--they are two of my favorite characters. And they usually manage to keep it an interesting story, which they do here. They've got six hours to rescue a sick boy from drug dealers. I will say the artwork is real uneven. And as an added bonus, they've tacked on the issue of The Hulk where Wolverine makes his first appearance. Don't that just take you back.

As I liked the run that Bruce Jones had done on the Hulk line previously, I had very high hopes that this would be a quality miniseries.

My hopes were not even CLOSE to realized.

The story starts out with dialogue that skips back and forth amongst the groups of people that the story revolves around - the technique of picking up whatever sentence/phrase used in the last scene for the new scene got old very quickly.
And then it was all downhill from there.

The events that occur to get all the characters together are implausible even for comic books, the interaction between Banner and Logan is flat, the secondary characters are pretty much just cardboard cutouts and the BBG... Man, I don't know who to lay my scorn more heavily upon, the writer (for the concept) or the artist (for the visualization). Just terrible.

I can't believe I had to go to the trouble of getting this reserved through the library system, and I feel like I deserve the 50 cents I had to pay for that privelege back.

Bruce Banner is on the run, and Wolverine is doing a bit of getting back to nature. Banner scams his way on a plane, and sits next to a boy. The boy is sick, because of a mixup involving his glasses, and two pet snakes, the poisonous one bit him because he couldn't tell which one it was.

To further complicate things, two drug dealers are on the plane, looking to get rich. They make Banner mad, which makes him green.

The mafia throw another factor in when they hire a superhuman clawed hitter in to look for the drug dealers, and Wolvie has tangled with him before.

In the back is a reprint of the first appearance of Wolverine, fighting the Hulk, with a Wendigo around for fun. A nice bonus, that one.