They say you can’t keep a good Hulk down… and Thunderbolt Ross is anything BUT good. Your Major Spoilers review of Red Hulk #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!
RED HULK #1
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: February 26, 2025
Previously in Red Hulk: Thunderbolt Ross is a prisoner of Doctor Doom, held in a cell deep beneath the surface of the Earth. And he is not alone. Brilliant military, criminal, and political minds have been gathered against their will in a prison complex that serves as a “Think Tank” to help carry out Doom’s plan for global domination.
But the Red Hulk has other plans!
UNDER DOOM, UNDER WRAPS
In a crowded airliner somewhere over the Yellow Sea, General Thaddeus Ross prepares for the second phase of an infiltration plan. Taking cover in the restroom, he hulks out, shattering the plane, and causing hundreds to die. He has chosen this flight specifically because it has a few unnamed celebrities and political figures, and his shattering of the airframe will be seen as a missile attack. This, he reasons, will be blamed on North Korea, after which he will take control of a nuclear arsenal. As Ross’ narration fades back to the real world, we find that he is being held captive by Doctor Doom, and forced to game out military and political scenarios day after day. His long white beard implies that he’s been there for a while (HOW long has the One World Under Doom story taken again?), and we find that he’s not the only one. His new home behind bars isn’t as remote as it might have been, as he discovers while sending messages in Morse Code, discovering that seven of his fellow captives are able to understand… including Deathlok, The Demolisher, and Machine Man!
And slowly, a plan begins to form.
HE DOESN’T LOOK AT ALL LIKE INDIANA JONES
“Thunderbolt” Ross is one of the oldest members of the Marvel Universe, dating back to 1963 and the first appearance of The Hulk, but he’s never seemed like a character who would really be a riveting protagonist. The first two decades or so of his existence, he was more a plot device to keep Hulk and Betty apart, and occasionally attack Bruce Banner, but even when he became an active superhuman, he was more of an irritant than anything else. With a second Red Hulk having come and gone during his absence, the biggest question of this issue isn’t “Is Ross interesting?” but “Can they get readers to engage long enough to find out?” For me, so far, it’s a mixed bag. The idea that Doctor Doom is keeping him hostage because of his tactical genius is a fun (if unearned) bit of business, and teaming up with Machine Man at least keeps things interesting. The art is more successful, if more stylized, but it succeeds in making a man plotting in a 20 x 20 cell visually interesting. Shaw gives us a weirdly thin, alien-like Machine Man, a square-jawed but somehow still elderly Ross, and a prison complex that feels like a real setting, which is an achievement in itself.
BOTTOM LINE: NOT REALLY FEELIN’ IT
All in all, though, your appreciation of Red Hulk #1 is going to come in how welcoming you are to the idea of Ross as a protagonist, much less as a Hulk, and if you can accept that, it’s a pretty solid prison story with some interesting art, making for 3 out of 5 stars overall. In this case, you at least have to admire Marvel’s editorial for getting this book on the stands close to the Captain America: Brave New World debut date.
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RED HULK #1
We get into the head of Thaddeus Ross, but find little explication of his mindset or the breadth of the new Marvel Universe, but what we get is pretty solid. I just don't have a lot of interest in Ross or the Red Hulk.
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Writing5
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Art7
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Coloring6
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.