Fall of the Hulks Alpha Review: Origin of Red Hulk
Fall of the Hulks: Alpha review: I was just blown away. Holy crap, I was blown away. I had no idea what FotH was going to be about- I figured some stupid Rulk action fest (I stay away from Previews, which molds expectations). Boy, was I wrong. This was written by Jeff Parker (Thunderbolts) and drawn by one of my personal favorites, Paul Pelletier (Green Lantern, Flash). FotH is a one-shot, but it really is a bookend mini-series, since there will be Fall of the Hulks: Gamma.
Okay, enough of that, let’s get to the plot and synopsis- the Hulk isn’t even in this comic book, which is fantastic. FotH features a group of evil super villains- some of the smartest brains in the Marvel Universe. If I was a Marvel villain, this would be my group, and my name would be Overmind the Great. They call themselves The Intelligencia, and they have been working behind the scenes for YEARS in the Marvel Universe, in search of knowledge from Alexander’s Library. The Intelligentsia was comprised of The Leader, Doctor Doom, The Wizard, The Mad Thinker (with Awesome Android), The Red Ghost (with his apes), and Egghead. After Egghead was killed, The Leader recruited M.O.D.O.K. This may sound like a B-Team, but in the Marvel Universe this is a strong team because of their technical skills. If you were scared of The Frightful Four or Masters of Evil, The Intelligencia would destroy them in one panel.
The Intelligentsia used their combined intellect to power a time-displacement shift and teleporter device to steal the various tomes of knowledge and artifacts of Alexander from the Eterernals, Atlantis, and Wakanda. Along the way, this group contributed to some cool retcons in the Marvel Universe- this retroactive continuity did not offend me, like it usually does:
1) Using this stolen knowledge, they created a device that inadvertently attracted The Beyonder (1984 our time). This lead to Secret Wars I and II.
2) The Intelligentsia used a rejuvenation ray to help each other (except Doom) and other non-affiliated villains (like Absorbing Man and other B- and C- list Marvel villains). This explains why so many bad guys keep coming back to life all of these years.
3) They stimulated the symbiote later known as Venom (Spider-Man’s black costume) after it was defeated in Web of Spider-Man #1 to cause major distractions while they continued to plan to steal the artifacts.
4) The Leader had control of Betty Ross’s (Bruce Banner’s dead wife) body in suspended animation.
Anyway, The Leader was the field leader, while Doctor Doom kept the tomes of knowledge in his castle in Latveria to guard them. However, once The Intelligentsia found all of the missing pieces of Alexander’s pyramid of knowledge, Doom turned on them; The Leader ran away while the others got their butts kicked by Doom’s army. They managed to escape, because much later, M.O.D.O.K. eventually found The Leader underground and they teamed up using Alexander’s knowledge of cosmic rays and gamma rays to create RED HULK. Who is RULK? It is not revealed yet, but remember I predicted that Rulk is Betty Ross Banner, with her dad Thunderbolt Ross as #2 choice.
The Good
Well, this felt like an old-school Marvel comic. From the cover to the last page, this felt like a late 1970’s to late 1980’s Marvel tale; The Intelligencia is made up of old-school brains from the 1960’s- no new deconstructed Image-clone villains. This was vintage Marvel- showing how the greatest brains plot something, succeed, but always wind up backstabbing each other. Doom and The Leader? Sign me up with The Intelligencia.
- The continuity: I’m sure some comic book geek can find faults in The Intelligencia’s time-line, but “it felt right” to me. Considering all the liberties Brian Michael Bendis makes every month on his titles, nothing with The Intelligentsia offended me in any way.
- Great scene: The Leader had finally built a bomb that could destroy the Hulk, but Dr. Doom gleefully informs him that Reed Richards and Tony Stark used their intellect to banish the Hulk to another planet.
The Bad
- Not personal bads for me, but I guess if you were looking for the Hulk, you may be disappointed.
- Paul Pelletier’s inker and colorist were not as good as his Kyle Rayner Green Lantern run. In fact, some of Pelletier’s artwork looked like Paul Ryan’s (1990’s Fantastic Four) mediocre work. HOWEVER, I personally enjoyed the old-school feel- no “hot” artist, no anime, and no 3-D CGI.
What this means for the future of Hulk comic books and Rulk is what the comic books fans are more than likely debating on the comic book forums as you read this. (I check them out after I read a comic book). In other words, they once again lose the forest in the trees. Fall of the Hulks: Alpha was a great comic book. Based on a Marvel in-house advertisement, it looks like Red Hulk will get his own comic, while Hulk and Incredible Hulk will still exist (which means Bruce Banner will once again turn into the Hulk) and there’s going to be Savage She-Hulks. It still sounds like overexposure and overkill to me, but it all depends on how much influence Jeph Loeb will have on these comics. If I were in charge of Marvel, I’d have one Hulk comic book, two max, not four.
Also, this was not handled the best way since World War Hulk since the Hulkverse has been awfully weird since that critically acclaimed mega-event.
That being said, Fall of the Hulks: Alpha ruled- “already read it twice” ruled. Not only are the origins of every member of The Intelligentsia told, but The Leader also briefs you on everything that has happened to the Hulk in recent years. This is a great jumping on point for casual Hulk fans. Get it.
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Incidentally, does FotH fit in with MODOK's 11, where MODOK was living in a garage stinking w/cat pee and plotting revenge against his ex-girlfriend?
Does the Betty Banner confirm Peter David's retcon that Bruce Jones' run was all a Nightmare?
Didn't the Red Ghost appear in a Black Panther book before Secret Invasion? Would this tie-in with what Von Doom is doing to Panther now?
The Hulk at least did get an appearance in this HULK book, as the Hulk Robot. (The Hulk Robot is the one from the original Eternals series, so any appearance of the Hulk robot after the initial Eternals run would have been the copy the Intelligencia created in this issue to replace the original they had stolen, which would explain why it was never as powerful in it's subsequent appearances.)
This just seemed like a retcon of all those times the villains reappeared.
I had no idea Egghead was that smart with information.
The issue would've been better if it didnt include continuity additions. I mean, didn't Secret Wars II reveal that it was the accident that turned Owen Reece into the Molecule Man that caught the Beyonders attention towards Earth?
Barry:
Thanks to Marvel's campaign against Jim Shooter, The Beyonder has been retconned so many times, that anything can work at this point.
Back on topic:
Fall of the Hulks Alpha was amazing. I can't tell you how much I loved this. Jeff Parker is a genius for the entire 30 pages+. In one issue he did what Jeph Loeb has been unable to do in two years with Rulk.
Now that we see The Leader and MODOK created Rulk, it gives the Red Hulk story background and credibility, as opposed to the CRAPFEST that is the Rulk comic.
This was totally unexpected and I absolutely ate up every page. I laughed my ass off with Doom, Leader, and the C-Listers.
I loved how it was narrated by the Leader throughout and we see the various changes his HEAD has been through. (Did you see the credits for the issue? Marvel hired special continuity cops for this issue to make sure it fit, Barry.)
Betty Ross Banner was stolen while in her stasis capsule which renders all her appearances in Bruce Jones' run as a creation of Nightmare (as Peter David said in Tempus Fujit).
The Intelligencia was amazing as a group. Too bad it's just The Leader and M.O.D.O.K. now (or is it?) I'd buy an Intelligencia ongoing series.
10 out of 10.
So, let me see if i understand correctly, the ENTIRETY of Jones' hulk run was all just Nightmare screwing with banner/hulks head per the tempus fugit arc, yes? I read and re read those fugit issues to figure it out, but it was, deliberately, vague, especially its lack of a definitive starting point. It implied that some things in Jones' run happened and some didn't, which is far more confusing then just throwing it all out, and I'm ALL FOR throwing it all out.
That thing was such a disaster and since it ended i think Quesada and co have been working to straighten the mess out.
Consider: The first post Jones storyline was tempus fugit, which served to erase the former, then we have some pointless house of M nonsense, immediately followed by shooting the hulk into space, away from this nightmare, giving editorial a chance to fix this disaster. Okay it's taken wayyyyyy too long, but i think there getting there.
Yes, my friend, it appears that all of Bruce Jones run has been erased or is in the process of being erased thanks to the Peter David Nightmare reference (and Thunderbolt Ross mentioning Betty Ross) immediately following Jones.
When you add that The Abomination, Leader, and Absorbing Man all have appeared post-Jones with no memory of the storyline (Absorbing Man actually was reincarnated/reborn as a baby at the end of his Jones appearance!)it ads more evidence.
Nadia Blonksy has not made an appearance yet. She and Betty were actually the most affected by Bruce Jones, so it should be interesting how Nadia is shown in the future.