Review by Frank Plowright

Planet Hulk and World War Hulk occupied several years of Hulk continuity, and the issues collected here launched a new Hulk series after those events, by writer Jeph Loeb and the art team of Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines. The primary, and pretty well only, plot is the mystery of a new Red Hulk, and his motivations.

Over several chapters it’s proved that this new Hulk is strong enough to come up on top when battling the Abomination, She-Hulk, Iron Man, the original green Hulk and Thor. Towards the end Ares and Namor are also thrown into the mix, and there’s also a surprising new Abomination, called (ugh!) A-Bomb, but he only battles the original Hulk.

If you want head to head, toe to toe and wall to wall, pulse-pounding and head-pounding Hulk action McGuinness is your man. He takes Loeb’s slim plots and delivers page after page of battling material. Anyone wanting any answers to the mysteries introduced, though, won’t be discovering them here. As there’s little else underpinning the fight scenes than the mystery of who the Red Hulk might be, those fight scenes are really the only attraction with his identity now common currency.

Loeb, McGuinness and Vines took a dry run on the Hulk as a back-up in a Wolverine comic, which is also included here. It’s a slim piece as Wolverine re-considers his first encounter with the Hulk, and reasons for it.

The content is also available as an oversize hardcover that combines it with the following volume, Red & Green.