Hulk: The Incredible Guide

I read this cover-to-cover after giving it to my 5 y/o (obsessed with the Incredible Hulk) and learned a ton! Never having read the comics as a kid but watching the television program, this book provides a great background on the green machine. These series are great - perhaps not as good as the Complete X-Men but on par with Wonder Woman.

With the release of the Incredible Hulk this year, the Hulk looms larger than ever. DK, in their popular character guides, has updated the Hulk files for our time frame. Based on the 2003 edition, this book includes Hulk in the Late 200's, from Hulk Gray to Planet Hulk. Exactly what does the book hold for Hulk-o-philes? DeFalco and Manning give us a look at our favorite changling decade by decade. As an introduction, we are treated to an examination of his origins, his supporting cast, and powers. The 1960's saw the Hulk first appear in print (March 1963), disappear after 6 issues, then reappear in Tales To Astonish and never look back. Including good quality scans of classic covers (Fantastic Four #12, Hulk #1, Incredible Hulk Special #1, and Amazing Spider man King Size Special #3), the sections focus on characters, biographies, and short summaries of story lines. The 1970's gives us the Defenders, and Hulk #200. Of course, we can't forget the Rampaging Hulk black and white magazine or the Bill Bixby TV show either. The 1980's found She Hulk #1 appearing for the first time, and Betty Ross marrying Bruce Banner in 1986. The 1990's found the Hulk changed, and Betty Ross/Banner dying. John Byrne and Ron Garney revamped the character late in the decade . The Hulk in the 2000's emerged under the hand of Bruce Jones and John Romita Jr and Tom Palmer. The `new' Hulk was more savage, and the book was ended in 2002 until the House of M, Planet Hulk and the Red Hulk burst onto the scene. For Hulk fans who want to see the continuity from decade to decade, this is a good book to read. Each major villain/character is profiled alongside pertinent storylines. Art by Trimpe (gotta love that styel), Romita, Kirby, Ditko, Perez, Buckler, Jae Lee, Jim Steranko, Lee Weeks, and Sal Buscema knock readers out. The real game is identifying the art used and the issues they come from! To make it more fun, call it a drinking game... I do have one complaint about the art though. There are certain pages (139, cover, 106, 41, 34 ) with art that just doesn't sit right. Perhaps it's the cartoony/over exaggerated style, or just that the Hulk seems too powerful. The Hulk varies from a strong looking individual by Kirby to a massive individual as drawn by Steranko and Weeks. Which one do you like? Good book, but perhaps it's just hard to pigeonhole a man who turns green when he's angry that inspires a wide range of representations. I guess we just have to read the comics and magazines. Tim Lasiuta

I got this for Christmas and just finished reading it. The format of this book is great. It starts with basic information on Bruce Banner, The Hulk, Hulk's powers, Betty Banner, and a few other main characters throughout Hulk's history. Then it is broken down into decades starting with the 1960's and going up through the 2000's. Each decade details major events, allies, and of course enemies of the Hulk. This set-up is perfect. The art is taken mostly from the comics and there are samples of pages added featuring the spotlighted character. All in all this is well worth the price for a fan of The Hulk.

Mr. DeFalco's latest Guide for the Incredible Hulk shows a tremendous amount of research and skill in editing in focusing on the history and surrounding chararacters of the Hulk mythos. I confess this is my first Marvel DK Book, that I've looked at. Previously, I've spent more time examining the DC ones, (Superman, Batman, the Justice League, etc). And I have to confess that background gives me a slant. Unlike DC, Marvel did not trash or recon its history as extensively as the Superman Group did in the mid-eighties, so their continuity is far more coherent than in DC. I confess I love that. It's a good read. Mr. Defalco covers the major storylines, with recommendations on some of his best-loved favorites. There were a few two-age spreads that I thought could have been used for more textual information. But that's just my humble opinion. Of course, this is to tie-in with the upcoming Hulk movie release (smart move, wait till a major publicity event is coming to relaunch books like these). I look forward to more such books from both DC and Marvel. From Marvel: The Fantastic Four and Daredevel, From DC: Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel. Not bad. JThree [email protected]

Tom DeFalco does a great job again (as he did with Spider-Man The Ultimate Guide), and I consider this book the best Hulk encyclopedia out there. Precise, accurate, giving proper credit to all Hulk artists, major or not, with tons of great images, easy-and-fun-to-read, in summary, a great buy. I could not say the same about the Hulk Marvel Encyclopedia by Kit Kiefer, which is a true dissapointment, a 3/5 stars book (tops), deserved by the great artwork on it, and the sections about Hulk merchandising, the TV series, and the 2k3 movie. Kit's book is sometimes inaccurate (for ex., it says that on the first issues, Banner changed into the Hulk when he was asleep, page 28, but it was nightfall that triggered the changes), calls the Hulk a 'keep-it-simple-stupid-character' (page 22), ridiculizes Peter David's run saying about his comics: 'they were not the Hulk', does not even mention Sal Buscema, the most prolific Hulk artist of all, but does mention his late brother John who probably did 3 issues maximum. It's your money, but I suggest you get DeFalco's guide, a true homage to the incredible Hulk.