The Incredible Hulk: Dogs of War

Rating:
Summary: The Hulk is Far from Incredible in this Book
Review: Some pretty awful writing by Jenkins and the fadeing artwork by Garney (whose early work on Captain America was much better then this) shows a weakened Bruce Banner together with his now unpredictable alter-ego, the Hulk matching wits with an angry General Ross and a mystery man named Ryker who use all the mad science and military hardware at their service to bring down the Green Goliath for good. Like this act hasn't been repeated before by previous Marvel writers.Just another very bad idea on the part of current editors there to destroy everything that make various Marvel Heroes interesting before, oh yes, I also say to Marvel. "Bring Back Betty Banner."

Rating:
Summary: The Best the Hulk Has Been in a Long Time
Review: The Hulk has been far from incredible in quite some time. He has been victim to some very poor writers and awful retcons and has often been trapped in the "Hulk Smash!" rut by careless writers. Luckily, Paul Jenkins manages to deal with both the Hulk and Banner in a careful, emotionally driven storyline.

The nine issues within this collection feature some very stronge stories using several different Hulks. Bruce Banner has been stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease and must confront his fractured psyche for help. In the process he uncovers several incarnations of the Hulk, ranging from the well-known child-speaking Hulk to a gangster-like gray Hulk to an arrogant and intelligent incarnation.

The villain in the story is John Ryker, a Cigarette-Smoking Man character type who, as his motivations are revealed, becomes a surprisingly human man. He tests and torments the Hulk for his own goals, but his provocations serve more to cause more torment to Banner's psyche than anything else. All in all, the Hulk's conflict is an internal one.

With wonderfully dark writing and terrific art from Ron Garney, the only problem that this series of tales suffers from is a few continuity issues. The Hulk as a character has been around for over 40 years now, and he has a monster of a history. While Jenkins does wield that history well, the story is rooted in enough of it that it can be cumbersome to those who know very little of who the Hulk really is. And, on the other end of the spectrum, a few minor gaffs and retcons on Jenkins part will keep nitpicky fans up at nights complaining about it. However, if you are willing to deal with the sticky point of comic character history, this is by far one of the best comic book collections published today. Jenkins' time on the Hulk was all too brief, but these early stories of his are well worth looking into.

Rating:
Summary: The Best the Hulk Has Been in a Long Time
Review: The Hulk has been far from incredible in quite some time. He has been victim to some very poor writers and awful retcons and has often been trapped in the "Hulk Smash!" rut by careless writers. Luckily, Paul Jenkins manages to deal with both the Hulk and Banner in a careful, emotionally driven storyline.

The nine issues within this collection feature some very stronge stories using several different Hulks. Bruce Banner has been stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease and must confront his fractured psyche for help. In the process he uncovers several incarnations of the Hulk, ranging from the well-known child-speaking Hulk to a gangster-like gray Hulk to an arrogant and intelligent incarnation.

The villain in the story is John Ryker, a Cigarette-Smoking Man character type who, as his motivations are revealed, becomes a surprisingly human man. He tests and torments the Hulk for his own goals, but his provocations serve more to cause more torment to Banner's psyche than anything else. All in all, the Hulk's conflict is an internal one.

With wonderfully dark writing and terrific art from Ron Garney, the only problem that this series of tales suffers from is a few continuity issues. The Hulk as a character has been around for over 40 years now, and he has a monster of a history. While Jenkins does wield that history well, the story is rooted in enough of it that it can be cumbersome to those who know very little of who the Hulk really is. And, on the other end of the spectrum, a few minor gaffs and retcons on Jenkins part will keep nitpicky fans up at nights complaining about it. However, if you are willing to deal with the sticky point of comic character history, this is by far one of the best comic book collections published today. Jenkins' time on the Hulk was all too brief, but these early stories of his are well worth looking into.

Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: Two powerhouses, Paul Jenkins (writer) and Ron Garney (artist) join forces to deliver this action packed, awesome art novel about our gamma spawned friend-foe, the Incredible Hulk! A must for old and new Hulk fans alike. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A Return to Greatness for the Hulk
Review: When Peter David left as writer of the Incredible Hulk, fans feared that the title would never again achieve the extraorinarily high quality of writing that characterized the best issues of David's long run on the series. For a while, they were right. But renowned writer Paul Jenkins' first major story arc, Dogs of War, collected here, gave them a reason to hope. Rather than simply dismissing the character's past, as many a "bold new" writer is wont to do, Jenkins builds on themes and plot points that were prevalent in David's run and makes them his own, offering a new, compelling, and frightening vision of the Hulk/Bruce Banner relationship. Jenkins' clever writing combines with some of the best art of Ron Garney's career to create one of the great comic stories in recent memory.