Indestructible Hulk Special #1

Indestructible Hulk Special #1

The Arms of the Octopus part 2 (of 3):
"For a friend whose work has come to triumph"

Story: Mike Costa
Penciler/Inker: Jake Wyatt
Colourist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Cory Petit

Part two of "The Arms of the Octopus" cross over.  Is this issue another surprising success or should it self destruct?  Hit the jump to find out!

Summary: The issue opens with two SHIELD agents attempting to pick up Bruce Banner after a mission as the Hulk.  The two agents deploy a box of puppies, which delights the Hulk quickly transforms him back to Banner.  The agents explain that SHIELD needs Banner's help and quickly rush him to Empire State University, where Spider-man and the original X-Men are waiting with Dr. Jude and Beast's "lady friend.  Banner is brought up to speed about the past X-Men and Beast and Spider-man's conflicting theories about Doctor Octopus, with Beast theorizing he followed them from the past and Spider-man insisting there is something else behind this.  Banner, Beast (and his

lady friend), Spider-man and Dr. Jude begin trying to figure out what is going on while the rest of the X-Men sit and wait.  Before they can figure out what is going on, ESU is attacked by the Abomination.  Knowing the others are no match for Abomination, Banner transforms into the Hulk and a battle ensues.  Beast's friend falls into a pit while Spider-man, Dr. Jude, and the rest of the X-Men flee the scene in a helicopter.  The pit that Beast and his friend fall into leads to a secret lab, where they discover plans for a Doctor Octopus robot, while at the same time, Hulk discovers that Abomination is actually a robot.  Beast puts together that the lab is Dr. Jude's and calls Spider-man to warn him, but Dr. Jude, realizing what is going on, apparently blows up the helicopter and everyone inside.

The good: This was another great issue of "The Arms of the Octopus" crossover.  The issue starts off great, with a pretty hilarious scene in which SHIELD uses a box of puppies, who all belong to SHIELD agents, to turn the Hulk back into Banner.  From there, Costa does a great job with the interaction between all of the science oriented characters as they try to figure out who or what this Doctor Octopus really is.  He has a pretty good handle on all of the characters and is able to mesh their conflicting personalities well.  The disinterest by the non-science oriented X-Men is a nice comedic element added in, and is captured perfectly by Wyatt's fantastic double page spread.  Another particularly funny moment, and one that apparently indicates what time the original X-Men are from, is when Beast claims Rod Stewart is his favorite modern musical artist.  To go along with the great humor in this issue, Costa and Wyatt also deliver a pretty great fight scene between the heroes and the Abomination.  Wyatt really excels in this issue but especially with the fight panels. 

The way he draws the Hulks eyes really captures the Hulk's anger and unpredictability.  The use of the solid color backgrounds during the battle between Hulk really focuses the reader's attention on the characters and seems to make the fight seem more epic.  Finally, the villain reveal at the end was actually kind of surprising, as there were very few clues to suggest that Dr. Jude was the culprit, nor is it clear why he has created robot super-villains.  Ending with the helicopter exploding and apparently killing most of the heroes is a perfect cliffhanger leading into the final issue.

The not so good:  The only real problem with this issue relates to Spider-man/Doctor Octopus suddenly changing his opinion about what is going on.  Otto is clear through the first two issues that there is no way this is the real Doctor Octopus, because, of course, he is the real Doctor Octopus and should have some memory of this.  He is insistent about this throughout the issue, but right before he is proven correct, he suddenly has changed his mind and agrees with the others that Doc Ock must have come from the past.  There was no real reason to have him change his mind, especially so suddenly, and it would have better served the story to see a Otto gloat about being right to the other scientists.  Other than this minor detail, however, this was a great read that sets up what should be a great finale.

Overall rating: A (9.4/10)

Ads:

Only one ad for this issue, as I'm pretty sure all of the ads but this one have already been featured.  It's an ad for "Lemony Snicket's" books that is in most of the Marvel books right now.