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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Best the Hulk Has Been in a Long Time, March 24, 2003
This review is from: The Incredible Hulk: Dogs of War (Paperback)
The Hulk has been far from incredible in quite some time. He has been victim to some very poor writers and awful retcons and has often been trapped in the "Hulk Smash!" rut by careless writers. Luckily, Paul Jenkins manages to deal with both the Hulk and Banner in a careful, emotionally driven storyline. The nine issues within this collection feature some very stronge stories using several different Hulks. Bruce Banner has been stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease and must confront his fractured psyche for help. In the process he uncovers several incarnations of the Hulk, ranging from the well-known child-speaking Hulk to a gangster-like gray Hulk to an arrogant and intelligent incarnation. The villain in the story is John Ryker, a Cigarette-Smoking Man character type who, as his motivations are revealed, becomes a surprisingly human man. He tests and torments the Hulk for his own goals, but his provocations serve more to cause more torment to Banner's psyche than anything else. All in all, the Hulk's conflict is an internal one. With wonderfully dark writing and terrific art from Ron Garney, the only problem that this series of tales suffers from is a few continuity issues. The Hulk as a character has been around for over 40 years now, and he has a monster of a history. While Jenkins does wield that history well, the story is rooted in enough of it that it can be cumbersome to those who know very little of who the Hulk really is. And, on the other end of the spectrum, a few minor gaffs and retcons on Jenkins part will keep nitpicky fans up at nights complaining about it. However, if you are willing to deal with the sticky point of comic character history, this is by far one of the best comic book collections published today. Jenkins' time on the Hulk was all too brief, but these early stories of his are well worth looking into.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Return to Greatness for the Hulk, July 16, 2001
This review is from: The Incredible Hulk: Dogs of War (Paperback)
When Peter David left as writer of the Incredible Hulk, fans feared that the title would never again achieve the extraorinarily high quality of writing that characterized the best issues of David's long run on the series. For a while, they were right. But renowned writer Paul Jenkins' first major story arc, Dogs of War, collected here, gave them a reason to hope. Rather than simply dismissing the character's past, as many a "bold new" writer is wont to do, Jenkins builds on themes and plot points that were prevalent in David's run and makes them his own, offering a new, compelling, and frightening vision of the Hulk/Bruce Banner relationship. Jenkins' clever writing combines with some of the best art of Ron Garney's career to create one of the great comic stories in recent memory.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
One Of The Hulk's Most Underrated Runs......., June 21, 2007
This review is from: The Incredible Hulk: Dogs of War (Paperback)
......as well as a new villain in the form of General John Ryker, a shadowy figure and conspirator who, according to Nick Fury and the government, does not exist. To paraphrase Fury, "I ain't afraid of anybody. But if I were, I'd be afraid of him." Strong words. Ryker was, is, and still could be, a major presence in the Marvel Universe if written correctly.
And Paul Jenkins did just that.
His run on "The Incredible Hulk" was truly (and literally, with the title of the book reverting back to "Incredible") underrated. It was an all too short run, but he gave the book the shot in the arm it needed. Personally, it stands as one of my favorite runs of the series. But it wasn't perfect. The situation between Hulk/Banner and General Ryker was not, and still isn't resolved. I'm hoping it will be soon, as Ryker will be returning to the pages of the Hulk in the coming months. His is a character which is still largely unexplored, with his full reasons and motivations still remaining unknown. So I'm hoping for more insight to this (so far) compelling character.
Really, the only problems I had were Paul Jenkins' run on this title being entirely too short. This was some of the best work he had ever done, in my opinion. Also, the lack of story resolution kept from making this book nearly perfect. But other than that, it's one of the best runs of "The Incredible Hulk" I've read, ever, particularly the "Dogs Of War" storyline.
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