Indestructible Hulk #15
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Aaron Kim Jacinto
Release Date: November 20, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99
Rated T
Time-travel is tricky. Time paradoxes and linear continuity are delicate matters requiring a steady hand and steadfast mind. So it makes perfect sense to send The Hulk on a mission to repair the timestream before all of reality is rendered an incoherent cluster of madness, right? I never thought Maria Hill was too bright either. While they tried to cover that whole mess of an idea up by sending a remote Bruce Banner along for the ride, the concluding story found in issue #15 of Indestructible Hulk just fell completely flat, culminating in a lackluster story and a mediocre comic.
The Good
As time-travel stories go this issue had everything you’d expect, and was full of great moments that hearkened back to the Hulk’s origin story, including some great dialogue from Banner to General Ross. The ish also did a good job of adding a new layer to that long-standing origin, but even that felt a bit forced. The art was consistent throughout, while not really adding anything spectacular to the story.
The Bad
First off, that cover! Seriously? No one wears a watch that way, and why would Hulk give a damn what time it is? The villains used to tell this time-travel story never came off as appealing and they continue their unimportance to the end of this issue. Sure they may come off as dangerous bad-guys in the larger scope, but I need to be shown more and told less. I was told that Chronarchists are badasses, but I never really felt like they were competent in any way. The end of the ish was a big head-scratcher, and meant nothing outside of the feeble attempt to make me care that occurred only three pages prior.
The Verdict
There’s been a lot of time-travel buzz at Marvel for quite some time; like Age of Ultron, All-New X-Men, Battle of the Atom, etc; and the entire Agent of T.I.M.E. story arc seemed like a forced attempt to take advantage of that buzz. A great idea, in theory, unless the story itself is crap and this story was bad! Indestructible Hulk began as a solid start to a new take on the entire Hulk experience, but this arc, besides, perhaps, the last page of issue 15, took the title in directions that are clearly not the same as when this title began. I’m a huge Hulk fan, and was a big fan of Mark Waid’s initial start on this title, but the entire Agent of T.I.M.E. story; stamped with the Age of Ultron: Aftermath moniker; was an unconvincing detour that did nothing but make readers appreciate what came before it that much more. With the future of this title being more event speed bumps as issue 16 ties-in to Marvel’s next event Inhumanity, it may be months before we get any real interactions with Banner’s assembled team of scientists or the alluded to ulterior motives Banner has for joining S.H.I.E.L.D., leading me to really weigh just how important this title is to my pull-list.
Skip issue 15, and the entire Agent of T.I.M.E. story-arc. There’s just not enough there to make for a good story, and, unfortunately, it has left a bad mark on the entire Indestructible Hulk comic book. I have no doubt that Mark Waid will make the book good again, but this does nothing to account for editorial pushing these events on the writer. I just know Waid has a great story to tell here, I’m just not sure Marvel will ever actually let him tell that story without first alienating Hulk fans with events they couldn’t care less about.
Outright Geekery 