Red She-Hulk 61, Punisher: Nightmare 1, Iron Man 3 Prelude 1

Red She-Hulk 61
Parker (w) and Pagulayan and Alves (a)

I admit when I was bemoaning the lack of female-driven titles while praising Captain Marvel (there IS still a lack and I DO still praise Captain Marvel) I had completely forgotten Red She-Hulk was a book. I give myself some leeway since it only switched over to focus on her a few books ago and Wikipedia tells me she only became Red She-Hulk in 2009, but the blame is still on me. It's largely still on me because I do like what I've read of this book. There's a nice bit of soft science tying together a plot with Betty being tracked by Machine Man as he tries to apprehend her for the Avengers before ultimately joining up with her. Before this, I'd seen her crop up in Fear Itself and The Defenders, which I quite liked. I like the idea of a Hulk becoming a Hulk late into a world where Hulks are so present. There's not so much of the "WHAT AM I? WHAT HAVE I BECOME?" and more of the "boy, I'm really strong and really powerful and I'd like to go punch things that are bigger than me." She admits as much in this issue, telling Machine Man that her inhibitions seem to disappear when she's red, a feeling she seems to appreciate. In those times, she explores and seeks out thrills, unlike many of the Hulks before her. It's a fun and more loose way of looking at a Hulk and it's definitely appreciated.

At the end of last issue, she changed from her still-humanlike Red Hulk form into a far more Hulk-like form after being set upon by enhanced super-soldiers of the "Echelon Project," designed solely to make more superhumans but apparently actually working (unlike so many other projects like this). When she looked like she would lose the fight, Machine Man notes, she turns more Hulk and thus loses more of herself. The Echelon Project leader contains her before Machine Man frees her and whisks her away to give her a chance to power down. She goes full human and explains to Machine Man what exactly is going on with her. There's a great sense, to build on the inhibitions idea in various Hulk forms, that very different things matter to her as Betty Ross and as Red She-Hulk. As Red She-Hulk, she's very upset at an ancient, hidden pyramid that stole her "BIG-%#& SWORD." When she follows leads about what could have happened in the pyramid, now as Betty Ross, she's more intrigued by the mystery and less attached to the sword.

It's a great idea, one that's both inherent to the Hulk mythology and a bit warped for her purposes. She is certainly a different Hulk than the others, though she shares the same powers. For regular Hulk, there's no middle ground stage. He's either Banner or he's Hulk. There's still a sense of Banner within Hulk, to varying degrees depending on the writer or the time or whatever magics they apply to him, but it's never as pronounced as with Red She-Hulk, or even regular type She-Hulk, for that matter. That's always been a weird sticking point for me about the Hulks; She-Hulk far prefers the Hulk side of her and doesn't shy away. Certainly she's lost control in the past and will do it again in the future, no doubt, but there's never been the sort of feeling of a totally changed person. Meanwhile, Hulk is typically very much one or the other. This issue of Red She-Hulk helps explain away a good amount of that, with different degrees of Hulking. It's a very good idea put to good use here. Machine Man is a solid character dug up from depths of Marvel for it. The art in the book is very strong in its action and settings, which are varied and they're beginning to delve into the recently storied history of SHIELD. Overall, solid book on what has so far been a solid title. Worth reading.

Punisher: Nightmare 1
Gimple (w) and Texeira (a)

I'm not really a Punisher guy. I never have been. I've always kind of thought he's been a one-trick pony and I hate that. It's also why I hate when people who don't know Captain America try to portray Captain America. In video games, he's always like "These colors don't run!" and "I've been fighting since before you were born!" We get it, video game developers, he's got a flag on his chest. That's kind of the first thing we saw. But to people who know Cap, there's more there than just crazy patriotism. In fact, crazy patriotism isn't really there (despite the flag bit). With Punisher, it's always been "these guys are bad, I'm bad too, but a different kind, so I'll kill them."

Here's the inherent hypocrisy of that, in case you didn't catch it. I like Cap because I read deeper than his costume. I don't like Punisher because I don't. I've read maybe 15 books total that really have to do with Punisher, and half of those are from the perspective of other characters (his Civil War appearances, when he jumps into Daredevil, etc.). I don't know how much goes on between the costume. I will say, in my defense, that just about every one of those books did follow the same formula. I will also say, against my defense, that I was compelled enough to read on then denounced Punisher as a weak character EACH TIME. As this blog continues, I hope to stay on top of just about every Marvel book. That will include a heavy dose of Punisher. I've read some of this most recent series, Greg Rucka's take, and I've been at least willing to keep going in many cases. So we'll see if any of this changes.

On to Punisher: Nightmare 1. We get a lot of Punisher backstory here (which, despite my distaste for the character, I do know already) and so it kind of drags a bit to readers who know. Still, it works well enough as it's interspersed with fragments of his non-origin story past and with the way the origin story scene plays in his head on a constant loop. It's also important to have it there in terms of building this story, introducing a new character who is going through almost exactly what Castle went through when he became Punisher. Another war vet, wife and kid, finally home from the war and his family gets murdered in the crossfire of a gang assassination. This one had some issues in the war differentiating between the good guy he was and the murderer he could be on the battlefield. I'm not sure if that parallels Castle's war days (where I know he was a good soldier and he must have learned a whole bunch, but I'm not sure if he was as kill-happy as Johnny) but it certainly parallels his once-days and his now-days. Gimple and Texeira paint a good picture of Castle-now as the Johnny persona, the murderer person of John Niman. Castle-then was likely more like John's J persona, the diplomat, the intelligent family man. There are two extremes with Frank, before Punisher and Punisher. Johnny is both in one. It's an interesting concept and I'll keep with the book because personality interests me. Even if I've written Punisher off as having a one-track personality, it's still a personality of a sort and examining it from all sides is something that intrigues me.


Iron Man 3 Prelude 1
Gage (w) and Kurth (a)

This book is meant as a movie-tie in for Iron Man 3, which is interesting to me because it's only a two book limited series and I don't think that will bring us to movie release date, but I might have that release date wrong? Oh well, just seems early is all. Anyway, it's standard stuff, establishing characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe like Tony, Pepper, Coulson, and Rhodes. This story, actually, focuses on Rhodes. Tony designs a new War Machine suit for him, with his own weapons instead of Hammer weapons and Rhodey takes it to war, only to find out that he's up against the Ten Rings, the same organization Tony escaped from in the original Iron Man. It's a smart premise and keen-eyed fans will have already noticed by now that Iron Man 3's antagonist is set to be the Mandarin, he of the ten rings (GET IT, TEN RINGS?). So the Ten Rings of the first movie was just a cell of the entire organization which is no doubt run by Mandarin. Anyway, they don't know all this (they know about the cells, not about the Mandarin) in this issue and Rhodey is trying to find any information he can on the organization as a whole, which is supplying heavy weapons to them.

One of the more interesting bits to me is that there's an Avengers tie-in sequence in here too. Though it's certainly a nod to the blockbuster and ground-shattering movie, it's used more as an explanation to Rhodes' whereabouts during the event. It's a question that didn't ever come up to me until I saw it in this issue, but where WAS Rhodey? You'd think that another Iron Man suit would be invaluable in that attack on New York and the army would certainly send him. This issue explains that he's just cleared up a hostage situation in Asia and, even at supersonic speeds, it would take him hours to get to New York and then he gets attacked by what appear to be more Mandarin forces ANYWAY.

Take this issue for what it is. It's providing some sort of backstory for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and doesn't really tie in to the Marvel 616. Still, Gage is a good writer and makes the story interesting and answers some questions about that Universe. It's somewhat fun because, though the characters resemble their 616 counterparts, there are clear differences and this kind of book allows the writer and the artist to render their own interpretation of that character. Not a bad book. If you're looking to get into comics and your way in is the movie, this would be a great way to jump in. Something with characters you're familiar with and where you don't feel like you need the decades of history to understand the comic. This just requires knowing about a couple movies you probably already know about. It's not so bad for a full-on comic fan too; good writing, good art, intriguing story. Better than a lot of movie tie-in books, for sure.