scans_daily

On the one side, you've got the Red Hulk, Thunderbolt Ross: formerly a four-star general in the Air Force hunting the Hulk, currently a dead man turned Rulk being hunted.

On the other, the technomorphic transhuman Zero/One, Dr. Parul Kurinji: once working for the shady super-scientific Omnisapient Systems, now for the future's betterment.

They're a natural protagonist/antagonist pair, opposites that they are; one's raw power and just-in-time tactics, the other's refactored intelligence and long-term strategies. Until this month's Hulk #40, they hadn't yet had a direct confrontation, Zero/One only sending her attack augment Black Fog time and again in bids to eliminate him.

( But then, last month, the crimson crusher's latest bête noire Omegex the world-ender BRAMMM'd him right into Bar Harbor, Maine. )

In terms of the Red Hulk, you've no doubt already figured out the answer.

Parker's Hulk run certainly has, its Scorched Earth arc having Rulk take it on the chin from Iron Man, Thor, and Namor. It's also realized that if you want to make a character viable beyond the events of his creation (despite Incredible's upcoming conclusion, Hulk promises to be predominantly "all red" for a while yet.. Rulk and Red She-Hulk? Definitely a familial connection..), you've got to draw him away from it.

To that end, it's been cranking out all-new antagonists since March, four deathly deadly terrors with their own reasons to see Rulk dead: the living weapon Omegex, the vengeful soldier Fortean, the creative mastermind Zero/One, and the haunting Hyderabadian spectre known as the Black Fog.

It's wrapped up those acts of creation with this month's #33, to take Rulk off to space; if future solicits are any indication, it won't be coming back to them for a few months at the least. Still, Parker's done a nice job dropping a few new toys into the box, and I'm eagerly anticipating his picking them up again.

(A note: These're pages from Hulk #30.1-33, none of which exceed the 7/21 split; only 4 from this week's #33 are below, for those who need to know that sort of thing.)

( Partly because he's also been fairly deft at their construction.. )