"The Incredible Hulk: Crossroads" by Bill Mantlo

            The following is a review/critique of the graphic novel “The Incredible Hulk: Crossroads” by Bill Mantlo as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format.

            Doctor Brian Banner worked as an atomic researcher. His wife Rebecca Banner and Brian conceived a child together. Brian figured that this baby would take the focus of their marriage, being rather narcissistic, turning Rebecca’s attention to the baby and no longer to Brian. This created Brian to have great resentment towards the baby. Rebecca had a difficult pregnancy, and had to have a C-section to birth the baby, a situation where Brian would rather have his wife survive than the baby. Fortunately, Rebecca survived, and named the baby Robert Bruce Banner. Brian, having been exposed to radiation, believed this baby to be a monster and gave Bruce absolutely nothing but contempt. Brian hired Nurse Meachum to babysit Bruce, but Meachum was too strict. Bruce perceived Nurse Meachum to be a goblin. Bruce had a stuffed toy that was Bruce’s only friend, a guardian. He also had a star mobile, which emitted a glow, Bruce’s only light as a child. Brian grew to resent not just Bruce, but also Rebecca, who, as Brian predicted, turned her attention more to Bruce than Brian. A family tragedy turned custody from Bruce to Rebecca’s sister. As Bruce grew up he developed an aptitude to science, but at school paid little attention to his classmates, absorbed in his schoolwork. When he was an adult, he was hired to Desert Base to build the gamma bomb for the United States military, answering to General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Bruce met Ross’ daughter Betty and immediately fell in love with her. The General, however, thought little of Bruce as a human, but as his ticket to give the United States military an advantage in world power and respect. Bruce gained the assistance of Igor Sklar, who disliked Bruce and became rather ambitious to gain Ross’ approval. When Bruce completed the gamma bomb, Ross wanted to see a test in its application. During the countdown, teenager Rick Jones decided to impress his friends but sneaking into the military compound and unknowingly entered the test area. Bruce saw Rick and rushed to his rescue, instructing Igor to hold the countdown. Igor saw his opportunity and did not follow Bruce’s orders. Bruce was able to push Rick into a trench, but took the full brunt of the gamma explosion. Because Bruce had a genetic mutation, he was able to survive the gamma radiation, a fact that none but Brian Banner knew. However, the gamma radiation saturated Bruce, and triggered a transformation, becoming the monster Brian predicted. Bruce’s transformation was somewhat temporary. Bruce would be a dominant personality, but in times of stress, fear, or anger, this transformation turned Bruce into a creature who would come to be called “Hulk.”

            Over the years, the Hulk caused a lot of destruction, both in property and living creatures. Ross would go on to issue a manhunt against the Hulk. Banner grew to fear the Hulk, seeing him as a curse. Bruce always wished to be free of the Hulk, but never succeeded. Then, the demon called Nightmare struck. Hulk went up against Nightmare, who offered separation. Bruce took the demon up on the deal, but instead, Nightmare purged the Bruce Banner persona entirely, eliminating Bruce and turning the Hulk savage. Savage Hulk became a true menace, and a danger to the world. Feeling that there was no other choice, Doctor Stephen Strange used a spell to banish Hulk from the mainstream reality into an interdimensional place called the Crossroads. This gave Hulk access to many other worlds, except for the one he was born in, giving him free range to travel to a place where the Hulk could not harm other people and could not be harmed by other people. Doctor Strange enacted the fail-safe spell. If Hulk came to a world that scared or dissatisfied Hulk, he would be returned to the Crossroads to try again to find a new world to visit. In the Crossroads, Hulk encountered the Puffball Collective, a being exiled to the Crossroads, but unlike Bruce, the Puffball Collective was unable to leave the Crossroads. The Puffball Collective did all it could to befriend the Hulk, but Hulk was unable to return the desire for friendship being totally savage and uncomprehensive. The Puffball Collective tried to restore a sense of self into the Hulk, trying to bring back memories and changing form to try to please the Hulk and create a friendship, with the ulterior motive of finding some way to escape the Crossroads, but each attempt ended in failure.

            Hulk traveled to many worlds, never finding satisfaction. He found himself embroiled in all kinds of situations, siding with and against other beings. The super villain team the U-Foes, comprised of Ironclad, Vector, X-Ray and Vapor, were unexpectedly sent to the Crossroads. Hulk had had several battles with the U-Foes in his original reality, and attempted revenge against the Hulk.

Hulk, meanwhile was learning to comprehend basic instincts, particularly friendship, but his friendships always failed to last.

Hulk teamed up with a space pirate team against the energy devouring Klaatu and joined the crew aboard the Andromeda.

Hulk was soon joined by the Triad, the creatures Goblin, Guardian and Glow, the beings from Bruce’s childhood personified. From then on, they attempt to restore the Bruce Banner persona and to get Bruce back to his home world.

 

I have to say, I found read this book to be a relatively enjoyable experience. I found the story to be mostly interesting. It has coherent and cohesive and consistent. I feel this is mostly due to the fact that this book only had one author, which doesn’t happen very often in Marvel Epic Collections. I have read other works by Bill Mantlo before, and his work usually satisfied me. I will say, however, that this book felt a little too drawn out. I felt like some stories were longer than needed, and some stories should have been given more time to develop. Savage Hulk at times felt dissatisfying, as there was little character development, and as the character was unintelligent, to me it rubbed off a little bit much in the story. The complexity of the Jekyll and Hyde theme and the Bruce Banner and Hulk dual personas not coexisting made Hulk feel two-dimensional to me. There have been times where Hulk and Bruce had been merged, and to me that held up pretty well, but Savage Hulk didn’t feel complex enough to me. Also, the lack of superhero/super villain conflict, replaced by minor opposition felt a little flat to me. All that said, I was still able to enjoy reading it. Also, lest we forget, this was a graphic novel, and the artwork is just as important as the story. An amazing story in a graphic novel can be ruined by shoddy artwork, but stellar artwork doesn’t hold up as well if the story is just not compelling. We have to remember that comic book art has changed style over the decades. Each time period seems to have relative standards. I must acknowledge that the issues contained in this collection ranged from the years of 1984-1985. I have to say that while I felt this was top quality artwork at the time, I don’t feel it holds top quality anymore. I particularly disliked Hulk’s facial expressions. I know he was supposed to be unintelligent, but to me it just seemed to be taken too far. I’m not saying I thought the artwork was bad, it just didn’t consistently appeal to me. Also, consider that the issues contained in this collection were released before I was born and I didn’t become a regular comic book reader until 2001, so my likings of art styles are somewhat tainted. That’s not to say I don’t like retro comic book art, but this book didn’t stand out to me.

But all said and done, I was still able to read and enjoy it, despite all of my perceived flaws. I know I’m expected to give this book a numeric score, so I’ll do that. When I score a prose novel, graphic novel, or comic book event, I work on a scale of one-to-ten. One means I felt like this book was terrible, ten means that I felt like this book was outstandingly incredible, I score it at a seven. I think if he story and art could have been tinkered with a little by today’s standards, I could possibly have given this a nine. As it was, I felt like this was a good effort at an incredible Hulk story, but it just wasn’t incredible enough for a higher score.

Now, some of you might be intrigued by this book just by reading this review. But, it should be taken into consideration that I’ve been reading Marvel comics for twenty-one years, so my knowledge might not align with yours. But, I think if you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but have never read a Marvel comic book before and are looking for a place to start, and you really like the Hulk, I feel like this might be a good jump on point for you. To me, it seemed very self-contained and the narrative was consistent and linear, all just one continuous story progressing with each issue. Like I said, the issues in this book were released before I was born, and my Hulk knowledge doesn’t go back that far, so this was new territory for me. I also liked the issue where Bruce Banner’s origin was discussed as it was a story I didn’t know of prior to reading this book, so that was worth it right there. If you’re a long-term Marvel comics reader and haven’t read this book but like the Hulk, I’d say this might be worth a read for you. (It should be noted that everything in this post is my own personal opinion and I will not outright expect you to agree with me, and even welcome disagreement, and if you want to discuss this with me, I invite you to contact me by commenting on this blog page or on Twitter. I’m not giving you my personal e-mail however, so reach out to me on social media.)

So now I’m going to wrap this post up. I usually post on a frequent basis, I’ve had to take some time off because of an injury, but keep checking back, see what else I post. While one of the primary focuses on this blog are book reviews, I also write short stories (I’m going to write one in a few days and will post it when I’m satisfied with how it turns out), I write editorials such as my continuing complain series B’ings (which I’m in the process of writing one now), I write poetry, and I write essays, and other kinds of content, so if you read this post and like it, I’ve done over one-hundred posts, so I think you might find something else you might like, so feel free to keep browsing this page and come back for more. And so, until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!