Incredible Hulk #608

I remember when "Planet Hulk" was announced and I wondered if a big storyline centered around the Hulk would be any good. Turns out it was extremely good. Then "World War Hulk" was announced and I wondered if the Hulk could support a big summer crossover event. Turns out it was even better than "Planet Hulk". So when "Fall of the Hulks" was announced I was really looking forward to it. Turns out that it's pretty much horrible and at times unreadable.

This issue has the final assault on the Intelligensia's reconfigured HeliCarrier and showcases some of the problems. It seems everyone has a plan but we don't really know what it is. It's hard to be taken by surprise by some plot twist if you weren't really sure what direction the plot was headed in anyway. Skaar has the sense to start asking what the plan is (Albeit not until they are in the middle of a huge fight) and seems satisfied when he really isn't given an answer, just more vagueness. What makes this more incredible is the bad guys have already captured Dr. Doom, Henry Pym, Reed Richards, and Hank McCoy but Banner's going to able to outsmart them? He's a theoretical physicist, not some strategical savant. You want to know how quarks and protons interact with Gamma radiation? Ask Banner. You want to know how to attack a team of ultra-smart bad guys? Don't ask Banner because he has no experience with that, at least until this story line.

Of course everything goes wrong, Banner is captured and the heroes are "Hulked-out". Not sure why the bad guys want to turn everyone into super-strong monsters but I guess we'll see. The bad part is we have no idea if this Banner's plan or not. Maybe this is exactly what was supposed to happen, maybe not, who knows.

The back up story was even more ridiculous. Red She Hulk vs. Electra and Domino. After the first attacks on Red She Hulk all her clothes fall off. I'm sure that always happens. So she get her hands on Domino and does she hit her? No. She strips her clothes off. Am I reading someone's wet dream? Is this fan-fic? Was this written by a twelve year old? Just terrible. I feel like even though Greg Pak and Harry Wilcox are credited with writing this issue, the blame for this needs to fall at the feet Jeph Loeb. This just feels like his level of "character development".

The good news is that this is the conclusion to "Fall of the Hulks" and next month starts "Hulked out Heroes". I hope this all gets much better real quick.

COVER BY: John Romita JR.
WRITER: Greg Pak
Harry Wilcox
PENCILS: Paul Pelletier
Ryan Stegman