BANNER! TPB Marvel Comics By Brian Azzarello & Richard Corben Collects the 4 issue series STARTLING STORIES: BANNER! Pages: 112 ISBN-10: 078510853X ISBN-13: 978-0785108535 RRP: Ask your friendly OKComics staff.
Plot: Doc Samson tracks down The Hulk for The Military; discovering in the process that sometimes monsters aren’t all big and green and that there are lines even he won’t cross.
Review: Brian Azzarello is the well-oiled and gnarly comics writer known and loved by literally tens of people as the Best Brian Currently Writing Comics. Better known for his work on the epically magnificent 100 Bullets and Loveless, The Az here turns his attentions to the Jade Giant. Those who experienced his “troubled” run on Superman may be covering their eyes at this point. Fear not True Believers! Azzarello delivers The Hulk in The Mighty Marvel Manner.
The Az is a very literary writer whose dialogue forms the focal point of his work, and while the characters talk quite freely here, there’s a real purpose to their words. Rather than empty banter, the sheer length of which is supposed to suggest “character”, we get dialogue that while naturalistic has content aimed squarely at reinforcing the themes and underlying metaphor of the tale, while also adding flesh to his characterisations. Y’know, dialogue for a purpose kind of thing. And most importantly in a primarily visual medium The Az knows when to hold them and when to fold them. That is, he knows when to shut the hell up and let the artist do his thing.
And when your artist is Richard Corben that thing is sweet indeed. Corben has been working in comics since the ‘70s and he still has it going on in spades. Primarily recognisable for its grotesque beauty Corben’s Comix art and The Hulk prove an unlikely triumph. Corben is a Legend, and every page here shows you why.
Hold on, back up a bit, did he say Themes? Metaphor? Fret not sweet ones; it’s only there if you want it. You can just enjoy it as a wide-screen big bang smashathon leavened by fine character moments. The action sequence in Chapter Two is “paper movies” par excellence as Hulky takes on a fleet of chopper gunships and turns your head into an IMAX screen. While the Hulk/Samson face off in Chapter Three is both organ pulpingly brutal and rib crackingly funny. In fact every chapter has a set piece, Chapter One shows the horrific cost of a Hulk romp in detail and Chapter Four has a beautifully eerie Catch The Banner sequence.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of this work so worry not, there are plenty of surprises, one-liners and awesome scenes for you to discover. Be like The Hulk and ask for it by name: “BAAAANNNNNNEEEEEEERRRRRR!!!!!!!!”
Is that one of those there hypotheticals? It's the best I've read, but I was raised on the Herb Trimpe and Bill Mantlo eras. Entertaining f'sure but I wouldn't call them The Gold Standard. People speak highly of Peter David's run but I haven't read any of it. Did you think it was the best Hulk story of all time? Does anyone have any other contenders?
I liked Hulk: the End, but I've never read any of Peter Davids 100+ issue run from the 80's (and I guess the 90's). Although I did read the Future Imperfect Miniseries that he did with George Perez, I felt as though I was missing something because I hadn't read the ongoing series. A shame they never released Peter Bagge's Incorrigable Hulk, they printed a few panels in Comics Introspective Volume 1: Peter Bagge. It seemed to be just as funny as Megalomaniacal Spider-Man that he did a few years ago. I enjoy some of Azarrello's writing, he is good at dialogue and double meaning, but he streches his stories too much sometimes, I prefer reading his work in a collected format. Corben's artwork is amazing, but I'm continually surprised that he gets work at Marvel or DC or Darkhorse.
I read Hulk: The End and yea 'twas okey dokey stuff. But Banner! pounds it into red jelly.
Az does indeed only shine his brightest in collected formats, but it's the nature of the beast; gotta sell those floppies to show there's demand for the TPBs. Most people have trouble with the elliptical nature of his storytelling, he really does require the reader to do some quite heavy lifting sometimes. However given the vile nature of what he's usually alluding to I can see his reasons for this approach. He rewards the effort, I find. In spades.
Why wouldn't Marvel, DC etc. employ The Corb? It gets them my pennies, damn straight. Someone should start reprinting all his groovily evil old stuff. Hey, Fantagraphics!
And of course, Marvel are releasing Peter David's entire run on The Hulk under the title Hulk Visionaries: Peter David. There are 3 volumes available with more to come. Quite possibly available to purchase from OK Comics.
Amen, baby. Amen. Solo was aces high. Other recent Corbenfests include: Bigfoot Cage Edgar Allan Poe's Haunt Of Horror Hellblazer: Hard Time A couple of issues of the last Swamp Thing series (which ones OKOliver?) A couple of issues of Ghost Rider (which I missed, somehow.). Did I miss any? Give The Corb some love, people! BUT BIG NEWS!!!: Dark Horse are gonna reprint the Warren Creepy & Eerie stuff! Corben! Ditko! Toth! And loads of others. I have never read this stuff so my bit is well and truly champed. Start saving NOW!
One of the few good things that Heavy Metal published was a Corben collection of about 150 pages of his Creepy and Eerie short stories. You might still be able to find it on ebay or amazon
