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Thursday 2 April 2015

Thanos Vs Hulk by Jim Starlin Review


I wonder, do Marvel’s Commissioning Editors even listen to Jim Starlin’s pitches anymore? 

Jim Starlin: “Thanos…” 
Marvel: “SOLD!”

Well, this is where me and Jim Starlin part ways. I see now that The Infinity Gauntlet was a quality one-off because everything else of his has been utter crap. A Death in the Family and The Cult were two of the worst Batman books I ever read and last year’s Infinity Revelation was a load of toss. Thanos Vs Hulk though? This is just Jim Starlin taking the piss and I’m done. 

Bruce Banner is kidnapped by Pip the teleporting troll for Annihilus to harvest the Hulk’s DNA and become Hulkified. Thanos is tangentially drawn in through some contrived machinations of Pip’s for a cameo before disappearing entirely. This book should really be called Hulk Vs Annihilus but it seems Marvel won’t have Starlin put out a comic without his purple creation in the title! 

The Thanos/Hulk fight is a joke. Thanos projects himself virtually into Banner’s head and they fight in some weird netherworld. It’s so pointless, it beggars belief – and THAT’S the Thanos Vs Hulk title fight?! This is early on in the “story” and that’s a wrap on Thanos who leaves for good afterwards! Annihilus – a small grasshopper-armoured alien – hulks out and the rest of the book is him chasing Hulk across an alien city until Hulk decides to fight back and, predictably, win. 

It’s appalling just how thin, disposable and banal the plot for this miniseries was, not to mention how misleading from its title. There’s art and there’s product and this one falls firmly in the latter. Don’t support crap like this and send Starlin/Marvel a message by ignoring it entirely.

Thanos Vs Hulk

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