Thanos vs. Hulk #1 Review: Waiting For The Main Event

Marvel has been billing Thanos vs. Hulk as the comic book equivalent of a heavyweight boxing title fight from an era where that was actually a big deal. And why not? Who wouldn’t want to see the Mad Titan and the Green Goliath slug it out?

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It’s a safe bet to assume that brawl is going to happen, but you won’t find it in Thanos vs. Hulk #1. Jim Starlin, the real world father of Thanos, uses this first issue to get the pieces in place. To extend the boxing analogy a bit further, this is like an undercard fight where most of the fans aren’t even in their seats yet.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. It’s been billed all along as a four-issue series, so you can’t give away the farm right away. Set prior to The Infinity Revelation when Bruce Banner was still working with S.H.I.E.L.D., the story sees an alliance of two of the most dangerous villains from the Negative Zone attempting to get their hands and/or claws on the Hulk, How they do it might not sit so well with some people, as both Banner (thanks to Pip the Troll) and Hulk (courtesy of some Negative Zone tech) prove curiously easy targets.

Still, this is a fun read because Starlin makes it that way, particularly in the early interactions between Iron Man and Maria Hill and by making Pip the Troll a big focus. Pip’s been somewhat underused in the cosmic scene as of late, but he makes up for lost time here.

As an artist, Starlin (with Andy Smith on inks) has definitely mastered his craft over the years, and he turns what could otherwise be dull pages full of nothing but conversation into interesting ones with his varied repertoire of panel layouts. Take another spin through the book and you’ll notice that the layout on nearly every page is different, yet the artwork remains clean and easy to follow.

So yeah, you’re not going to like this if you want to just see Thanos and Hulk trade haymakers. But if you appreciate the build-up to the main event as much as the battle itself, this is good stuff.

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill has given Bruce Banner the day off. Iron Man doesn’t like it, but she’s taken precautions — only those precautions are worth squat against Pip’s teleportation powers, and he sedates Banner and vanishes.

While Hill and Iron Man get the scoop on Pip, he’s busy trading Banner to Blastaar. Bruce is stressed enough in this predicament to turn into Hulk, though Blastaar and some space bugs (hmm …) have a cerebral disruptor ready. Just like that, it renders the Hulk unconscious.

With both Banner and Hulk out of commission, they meet up on a small purple sphere. Bruce says it’s where he comes when Hulk takes over, though he never has any memory of it when he regains control. It’s an interesting way to show the Banner/Hulk dynamic, though the Jade Giant says he doesn’t belong there. Bruce figures his alter ego might be there because they’re dying.

At the cosmic bar called Starlin’s, we find that Pip made the trade in exchange foe a blue-skinned girl named Heater. She doesn’t seem as into Pip as he is to her, but nevertheless, he schemes up a plan to free Hulk from the bad guys and keep the girl.

The trouble is, the plan involves Thanos, who isn’t at all happy to see Pip. The Troll reveals that Blastaar is working for Annihilus (hence the space bugs), which interests him enough to hack the bug king’s computers. Thanos: super hacker!

We see that Annihilus is still just a tiny bug from the last time he was destroyed, and that he believes he can get something from the Hulk that will restore him to his full size and power. Meanwhile, Thanos projects himself into Annihilus’ imperial/military computer network, where he comes across Banner and Hulk. So … they’re stuck in the Matrix?

Favorite moment: Maria Hill frets that letting the Hulk get kidnapped isn’t going to look good on her resume. Iron Man’s reply? “Maria, an exciting new career in food services awaits.” And this is before he was inverted!

Final thought: I trust Thanos in Starlin’s hands completely, but I hope the inevitable cyberspace throwdown isn’t the only time we see the two main characters fight. It won’t be, right? I’m also glad we can add “tapping into computers from another dimension” to Thanos’ many talents. There’s really not much he can’t do.

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