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Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Paul Pelletier
Cover:John Romita Jr

“Father’s Day”: In the midst of Norman Osborn’s siege a group of villains are planning to come in under the radar and establish themselves as a force.  They call themselves the Intelligencia and their membership consists of the Leader, M.O.D.O.K., Doc Samson, and the Wizard to name a few.  Their main opposition has come from Bruce Banner who has plans to move against them along with a hidden agenda of his own.  As evidence of his secret allegiance with the mysterious Red Hulk, who just happens to be a former member of the Intelligencia.  For some time now Bruce has been mentoring his son Skaar on how to be a hero, preparing him for the inevitable fight with Bruce’s alter ego: the Hulk.

After defeating the Mole Man and Tyrannus, Skaar along with the Fantastic Four and his father are receiving a ticket tape parade in the streets of New York City when the Watcher appears.  His gaze is fixed on Bruce who has noticed a woman in the crowd that looks like Betty; so he bursts through the crowd to verify what he sees, only to lose sight of her.  After an intense discussion with Mr. Fantastic about the validity of what he saw, he teleports to New Mexico to where Red Hulk is dining on a bull.  During their talk Bruce shoots Red Hulk in the face and warns him that if he was involved in any way in harming Betty that he would kill him.  Red Hulk then hits Bruce with what may be a bit of truth; that Betty didn’t hate the Hulk but that she hated Bruce instead.  Bruce immediately teleports again and ends up in Latveria and after checking his heart rate (which is quickly rising) his eyes turn a bright green. We then see the Hulk in all of his purple pants glory viciously attacking Dr. Doom.

Unfortunately for him, Doom quickly drains his power and stands over the Hulk triumphant. However, it’s too bad he doesn’t notice Skaar behind him as he brings his sword down and cuts through Doom’s arm!  During the fight Doom reveals to Skaar that the Hulk he rushed to come “save” was nothing more than a power cosmic fueled impostor and uses a spell to change Skaar into his more human form as he is about to kill him with his own sword.  Bruce appears and blocks the killing blow and gives Doom the news that the power that he absorbed from the impostor Hulk was laced with what he calls a “dumb ray” implanted by the Leader, and that he wants Doom for his collection.

With everything that’s been happening with the Hulks as of late I’m on the fence with this entire storyline.  I’m not a fan of Red Hulk or Red She-Hulk but I’m willing to see how it plays out.  This issue in particular by Pak delivers pretty well and reveals more about Bruce’s character and how Skaar is beginning to view his father.  Bruce has so much going on that he isn’t willing to share and it’s making him look more and more like the monster he’s always been fighting.  Paul Pelletier can do no wrong visually with these books! I see a little Alan Davis in his work and I’m a fan of his as well.  The fight between Doom/Hulk/Skaar was just great and I think that is the first legitimate beat down that Skaar has received since coming to Earth.

The Intelligencia’s plan is to remove the 8 smartest people who will pose an obstacle starting with Doom; however others on the list include Hank McCoy, Hank Pym and Reed Richards so expect to see a cross over or two.  Along with this book is a brief back story featuring Red She-Hulk facing off against the original She-Hulk, Jen Walters.  And like her red counter part she quickly beats Jen by wrapping a cable around her neck and then snapping it, and as her eyes roll back and the blood pours from her nose and mouth…Red She-Hulk asks “Who’s next!”  This story comes to us from Harrison Wilcox and artist Ryan Stegman.

I do hope that after all is done with this story the identity of the Red Hulk will FINALLY be revealed along with Red She-Hulk… not that I really care but just to satisfy my basic need to know.  Any suggestions from you guys?

Infinite Speech
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