The Incredible Hulk #603: Smash meets Snikt...
I wanted to do a commentary and picspam on The Incredible Hulk #603, just because I enjoyed it so much. This story is full of father issues.
Now, I don't normally read The Incredible Hulk. I think the only times I've read the Hulk comics is when I got them as hardcovers from the library, and read that wonderful run by Paul Jenkins about a decade ago. I'd never read anything by the current writer, Greg Pak. I think maybe now I'm missing something there. Judging by this, he's well worth reading. This issue came out about a year ago.
The variant cover on the issue I bought wasn't promising. It looked silly.
This wasn't ... Okay, it was on the light side, a contrast to all the dark and depressing Wolverine Origins material I'd been reading about Daken. This was delightful.
So: a monster and an assassin walk into a bar... The big green monster is Skaar, son of the Hulk. The assassin is Daken, son of Wolverine. The first few pages of art are by Ariel Olivetti: heavily computerized and not to my taste at all. But from page 4 onward (mostly) we get, to my joy, art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, an artist who can give personality to anything and anyone, and who is delightful in action sequences.
It's Daken who greets him:
So they fight, because, well, testosterone rules. Meanwhile Bruce Banner (very much in human form) and Wolverine are having a fight of their own. Banner is hoping Skaar and Daken can be friends. Logan thinks this is nuts: "My kid's a psychopath. Your kid's a freaking barbarian." Proving the point, Skaar attacks Daken:
- Daken: (Having been tossed through a window) Why so hostile, big guy?
Skaar: (Throwing a truck at him) I don't like your stink.
Daken: Ah, yes. They're called pheromones. Part of my mutant powers. Most people don't notice until they're already doing what I want.
Skaar: Nobody makes me do anything.
Daken: How do you know I'm not making you say that right now?
Skaar: Hnh...
- each born at their mother's death, each raised by monsters to be killers, each greeting their father for the first time by stabbing him.
Said fathers are watching the place from afar. The discuss the situation amicably:
Indoors, sipping his milk shake, Skaar reverts to being a human kid, and whispers something to Daken, who rises to kill him. Banner throws Wolverine through the window like a projectile weapon, stabbing Daken with his claws and ending the scene. Daken, for whom being stabbed is no big deal, amicably greets his father:
Fighting ensues. Daken is about to kill Skaar - pointing out that Skaar asked him to do it - and Banner holds his souped-up gun to Wolverine's head: "Try it... and I'll kill your pop."
It actually works. Daken holds his hand in what, for him, is an unprecedented moment of filial sentimentality. Stalemate.
So the two father/son pairs leave together, each thinking the others are more messed up than they are:
I love the visuals of huge Skaar leaning on puny Banner for support.