Books – MPC#8 Hulk : The End

Writer :
Peter David
Artist:
Future Imperfect – George Perez
The End – Dale Keown

This Volume of Marvel Premiere Classics is made up of two Hulk Prestige Comics (do they even still make Prestige format comics? Cant remember the last time I saw one…). The book contains The comics Future Imperfect and Hulk : The End, both of which were written by Peter David.

I never really cared for Peter David’s work with the Hulk on the regular comic. In these two stories he does right by the big green guy.

FUTURE IMPERFECT :

Future Imperfect is a alternate time line of the Hulk’s. Many years after the humans have destroyed themselves via war, the Hulk survives. Not just surviving he has thrived. The fallout radiation from the war has given him new strength, the bad thing is that it has also driven him insane.

The Hulk, now referred to as the Maestro, has rebuilt a society ruled over by himself. A rebel group led by the great grand-daughter of Rick Jones go back in time and bring the modern Hulk with them to fight the Hulk. A battle of course follows soon after his arrival in his future that ends with the Hulk wounded and the prisoner of the Maestro.

Even though I think Spoilers would not apply in a book this old I still will refrain from talking about the ending. I will just say that I thought that they did a really good job of bringing the whole story to a close in a nice round about manner.

The story seems a little rushed at times, but it is still a good story. It presents a good picture what could become of the Hulk. I think by far my favorite part of the whole book is the various images of Rick Jones’ Relic Room. It was a trip sitting there trying to pick out what all the various relics were.

Click picture to see a labeled version on Flickr.

THE END :

Again a story of a possible future for the Hulk. In this one the Hulk and Banner are alone in a world destroyed by Nuclear War. I kind of see this one as a story of what Banner who had seen the Maestro would have done to insure that that future would not come to pass.

While I do not like this story as much as the story in Future Imperfect, I do prefer the art a lot more. I think that Keown has a better grasp of who the Hulk is then Perez did.

This story is the story of the struggle of life and death. Banner, broken lonely and old wanting to die and The Hulk, strong as ever wanting to never die. While it is an interesting tale, it just doesn’t have much of the action and fighting that one normally associates with the Hulk. Instead it is mostly words which leaves me, and I think most other Hulk fans feeling somehow cheated. We didn’t want to see the Hulk sitting in the sunset at the end of time, we wanted to see him go out with a bang in a blaze of glory…

Jeff Smith Documentary

While I love my classic comics, Jeff Smith is who really inspired me to start playing around with comics. When I saw this youtube video over on CBR/Robot 6 I about died! I can not wait until this movie is released.

Books – MPC#5 Wolverine : Weapon X

This is a day early. I am going to be really busy tomorrow, so instead of setting it up to publish itself tomorrow morning i figured I would just post it now…

Who knows, maybe I will make another post that will show up tomorrow instead… if I have sometime.

Wolverine has never been a favorite of mine. I have always thought that he was an over used and a very flat character.

When I found a couple volumes of the Marvel Premiere Classic series of the Hard Covers (#5 Wolverine – Weapon X and #8 The Hulk – The End) for cheap at Half Price Books I figured I really didnt have much to lose so I picked them up.

I have to tell you, I liked Weapon X. I really did not expect to like it, but I did. I thought that the story was well done and the art was amazing. Then again, how could the art not be amazing with BWS on the book. I have always been a fan of Barry Windsor-Smith since his days on the Conan the Barbarian book for Marvel.

The story tells how Logan is abducted by a government group who then use him for experiments as they try to create the ultimate killing machine. Needless to say, it does not go the way that they plan it to and Logan gets away one step closer to being the wolverine that we know today.

I did find it very interesting seeing what Hollywood choose to take and leave out of this story in the X-Men Origins : Wolverine movie.

The one fault I had with the story was the rhythm. When it was originally released it was in short pieces in the Marvel Comics Presents comic book series (issues #72 thru #84). The story seems to be filled with tons of little acts instead of one overall story arc.

As far as the Marvel Premiere Classic series goes, I really like the look of these books. I will soon have some more additions to my collection of these books (#6 Avengers : The Defenders War, #14 XMEN : Longshot and #22 Avengers : Hawkeye) I like how this series of hardcovers features a selection of Key Marvel stories as well as some that are off the beaten path. I also really like the look of the dust jackets for the Comic Store version of these books. I like having books on my shelf that the publishers use a consistent theme to the book design and these fit that bill.

The Reading Pile – 3/3/09

A little behind on posting about comics I have read… Going to try to do some catch up here.

Zombie Tales #10

I don’t normally read this one, but I picked it up this time because one of the stories (and the only one I am going to really write about.) was done by an internet friend. Pittsburgh’s own Pat Lewis. I always think it is fitting when some one from the birthplace of the modern zombie tells a zombie tale.

I have to say that Patrick has done his hometown proud. In his own style he has told a tale of a small town zombie outbreak in 1912. I found his story of a flim flam artist who is caught in the middle of the outbreak to be not only a good zombie tale, but a good laugh at the same time. All to often in zombie comics it is all about the body count and gore. They tend to forget what Romero showed us about being able to laugh at the undead as well.

This book is worth picking up if for no other reason then this story.

Secret Warriors #1

What can I say… I am a sucker for Nick Fury. The whole cloak and dagger spy thing just works for me. So of course Secret Warriors had to be on my read list. I really enjoyed this book. It gave Fury a chance to be a major player again and really used him well. If this is what Dark Reign is going to be about then I have to tell you that I might actually be looking forward to a crossover event for the first time since the XMEN had the XTINCTION AGENDA.

I have some other books that I would like to talk about, but I really need some rest… Maybe I will post some more tomorrow…