About Heroes

Author: Jeph Loeb
Penciler: Ed McGuinnes
Inker: Dexter Vines
Colors: Comicraft

Judging from the reviews of Jeph Loeb’s Marvel work and listening to our podcast you can probably tell I am not his biggest fan. While I appreciated his wonderful stories such as Long Halloween, Hush, and his run on Superman; his work on Marvel has always left me wandering why he just doesn’t stay at DC. Anything from his run on X-force, Cable, Gambit & Wolverine to the recent Ultimates, Wolverine, and Onslaught Reborn were nothing short of craptacular. Be that as it may, I always like to judge a new book base on the story it manages to tell, not the creative team’s past works. That may all change when Daniel Way starts his Deadpool book though.

In the aftermath of World War Hulk we partake in a crime scene investigation with She-Hulk, Iron-Man, Thunderbolt Ross (who still has the fucking coolest non-superhero name), and Doc Samson. It seems the victim was none other than the Hulk’s old nemesis Emil Blonsky aka Abomination. However, it seems that the Winter Guard (with a new Red Guardian and Dark Star) want the body to stay in mother Russia…..so there is a pointless fight and a revelation that it was a “red” Hulk that killed Annihilation and destroyed a town. So who do Samson and Ross turn to for help? Well, none other than Bruce Banner….so who is the red Hulk?

Since this is the first issue I was not surprise there was no mention of the events that followed WW Hulk and to be honest I really don’t know if we are going to get any. It seems that the great minds of She Hulk and Doc Samson believe that Hulk killed Abomination with a big gun. I repeat a gun. Loeb writes a bratty She-Hulk and a not-so-bright Doc Samson that for no reason starts a fight with the Russian super-team. The identity of the red Hulk seems to be Rick Jones, or at least that is what we are led to believe. Rick Jones appears in an Alaskan frontier about 100 miles from anything…funny thing was he takes two steps and there are about 20 people trying to put out a fire. Good catch editors!

While I’ve never been the biggest McGuinness fan his pencils are good enough to see what is happening panel to panel. His oversized characters could work on a book whose character happens to be one of the bulkiest characters in comics. However, the art doesn’t save the book from just being a mediocre title. The dialogue seems out of character and the revelation that Bruce Banner is already out of his comma and back at the end of the first issue kind of kills the momentum built in WW Hulk…and I really don’t see Ross going to Banner for help so early. It’s a first issue and as all first issues they are hard to judge, but I hope Jeph at least answers all the questions left open from the last pages of WW Hulk to the beginning of this book. C+