Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Original Sin #3.2 – Iron Man versus Hulk #2
Marvel Comics
Gillen, Ross & Guru eFX
Iron Man versus Hulk continues to reinvent the origin of the Hulk to heavily include Tony Stark in it. This issue is another background story but told from the present day as Stark and Banner try to track down their pasts, but separately, as they pertain to the gamma bomb. This is a good read and is helped because it seems to stay clear of the Original Sin event. Unfortunately, there is no fighting in this comic.
Stark heads to the motel where he and Banner continued their argument the night before the gamma bomb was detonated all those years ago. The odd part here is that Stark needs to actually go to the scene with help from his tech stuff to jog his memory. It's clear the alcohol has caused him some memory loss but the oddity is that he needs to physically be at the scene to recall this information. Couldn't he simply dispatch his robots? Also, I'm not clear as to why Stark needs this extra bit of information because he is already aware that Banner knows Stark meddled with the bomb.
Banner heads to the government agency that keeps the gamma bomb records. Banner looks to validate what he has learned from the memory bomb over in the Original Sin mini-series. Again, the strange part of this is all he seems to find is the invoice that proves that Stark funded the bomb. How this validates that Stark meddled with the bomb itself is unclear. However, this sets Banner into motion.
Banner plays a clever card in this to give him the advantage against Stark. This presumably will give Banner, as the Hulk, a way to defeat Stark in their fight. Hopefully the fight will occur in the next issue.
The artwork is very good. I liked the way the pages and the dialogue seem to have a common flow and they provided enough visual drama to help along the story. The comic does seem to struggle with keeping Banner looking consistently the same, especially his hair cut, but generally speaking the book is a good one artistically.
Whether you like the reinventing of the origin of Hulk or not this comic book is certainly weaving a good story into an established tale. The book is mostly set in the current time as Banner and Stark are trying to sort through the memory bomb that occurred in the Original Sin mini-series. When you read this book and then re-read the beginning of the previous issue the pieces are beginning to fall into place. This is a solid comic book to pick up.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
