Book Review: Marvel Knights: Hulk

Book: Marvel Knights: Hulk: Transformé (issues #1-4) by Joe Keating with illustration by Piotr Kowalski and color by Nick Filardi

Edition: Single Print Issues

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

This is the second Marvel Knights miniseries that I've read and enjoyed. I may have to look into picking up a few more.

The story opens with Bruce Banner in Paris suffering from some sort of amnesia. He was found floating in the Seine by Dyane, a woman who had noticed him acting strange earlier in the day on the subway. Dyane helped him by treating his wounds but he still couldn't remember who he was.

While trying to help jog his memory, Dyane takes him around Paris but they had no idea that two mysterious men in trench coats were looking for them. They found Banner in a bar and tried to capture him, it didn't work and Banner was soon able to escape but everything went terribly wrong when they started to transform into huge hulk like creatures. They chased Banner through the city and caused damage, destruction and death everywhere in their pursuit. But why did they want him?

A splintered group of A.I.M. was looking to bring in the Hulk to use as a weapon but if they couldn't do that then they would destroy him. But even in Banner's current state the Hulk is not one to be easily destroyed. After surviving the attack in Paris, Banner still wound up getting captured by the group, which was led by Nikoleta Harrow. Harrow had a plan to use the Hulk to attack A.I.M. but there was a problem, no matter what they do they can not get Banner mad enough to turn into the Hulk. But that didn't stop Harrow, she attempted one more try which resulted in the Hulk emerging but in a completely different yet controllable way.

Now able to control the Hulk, Harrow had him attack A.I.M. and anyone else she called an enemy. This story also gave an interesting look back at Banner's life through flashback as you see how he first got caught in the gamma testing and how everything changed for him there on. At some point, Banner regained his memory but too bad for him Harrow already set in place another part of her plan. With A.I.M. on the attack, she thought it was the best time to prove once and for all that she was the best there is. However, no one is stronger than the Hulk.

There were a lot of interesting things about this, such as it appears that all of what went on may have been concocted as some twisted game by Doctor Doom and Doctor Midas. Of course, those two would think playing with people's lives would be a fun game. I also like how this ended with Bruce not only trying his hardest to forgive himself for everything but trying to offer a sincere apology to someone who deserved it.

This turned out to be a good read, it was well-written with good artwork.