Original Sin 3.n - Hulk vs Iron Man #2: Review

Jul 2014

Kieron Gillen, Luke Ross

Story Name:

Hulk vs Iron Man part 2

Review & Comments

Rating:

Original Sin 3.n - Hulk vs Iron Man #2 Review by Rob Johnson (July 19, 2014)

This mini-series may, like the other secrets, not have any effect on the central Original Sin story, but it seems it will have an effect on the Hulk series. I've have to modify what I tacitly assumed last issue that the Extremis process in Hulk #4 had made Hulk brainy as well as Bruce brainier. It seems now that it is Bruce's modification that now produces the intelligent Hulk that appeared in the fight at the beginning of last issue. The Hulk with Banner's brain seems from Previews to carry over into the returning Hulk series. And it also seems from Previews that this Hulk won't revert to puny Banner. How does this fit in with Hulk's appearances in Original Sin itself. In #3 he's in "Hulk smash" mode, but in #4 he sounds much more articulate in the 1 sentence he gets to speak. (In #6 he doesn't speak at all.) So maybe this happens between #3 and #4. Unless of course. the result of this series is that the 2 men won't work together again (as they do in OS #6 - to a limited extent I must admit). But I still have no way to fit the Bruce Banner in recent Avengers and current New Avengers into this.

It seems that not only Mark Waid and Kieron Gillen co-plotting the series, but they're also alternating scripting issues. And Gillen has brought his Iron Man art team with him, as Waid brought his Hulk squad last issue. This issue continues from the end of last issue, but still precedes the big fight at the beginning. Arno agrees to do Bruce's changes to Extremis without question because Bruce is a genius and a Hulk expert. But surely Arno is a genius and an *Extremis* expert?

Original Sin 3.n - Hulk vs Iron Man #2 Review by Julio Molina-Muscara (December 11, 2014)

Comment: The story erroneously ends with a TO BE CONCLUDED phrase. This miniseries has two more issues to go from here.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Original Sin 3.n - Hulk vs Iron Man #2 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Tony Stark buys a motel that hasn't seen any business since the gamma bomb went off nearby that created the Hulk. (What! It hasn't become a tourist attraction?) Then he calls down his mobile armoury and suits up, accompanied by some flying sensors.

Meanwhile Bruce Banner uses his SHIELD ID to get into the Pentagon and search for files to prove the military asked Tony to modify Bruce's gamma bomb. And he hits paydirt. (I presume this isn't the same scene as the end of last issue, because there he broke into a place he claimed was the original Gamma Base.)

It's flashback time as General Ross does hire Stark for the job. And now Banner has found the invoice.

Back at his lab, Bruce injects himself with something that makes him ill. This triggers a monitor on the performance of the Extremis in his system, and a hologram of Tony's 'pal' Arno pops up. (Arno is physically in Stark's futuristic city Troy, flying around in an Iron Man-like armour.) Bruce claims that Extremis is malfunctioning, but he's worked out how to fix it. Arno agrees to meet him at Tony's mansion.

Back in the desert motel Iron Man is using the sensor drone to examine the room he stayed in when he visited the Gamma Base. He hopes the hyper-detailed information will stimulate perfect recall of a meeting between himself and Banner (his memory being clouded by drink).

This flashback shows him trying to persuade Bruce to let him decrease the shielding and increase the bomb's efficiency, as mentioned last issue. But Bruce only wanted military funding so he could explore peaceful uses of gamma rays. He didn't want the bomb to be more powerful. And he definitely didn't want his grad school rival Tony Stark interfering.

After Bruce left, Tony let a whisky bottle 'talk' him into doing the modification anyway.

Tony had forgotten all this, until the Watcher's Eye triggered memories in both his and Hulk's brain (and some of each other's memories). Now he just prays that Bruce doesn't know what he did.

In the mansion Arno lets Bruce reprogramme his Extremis. And Bruce turns into the intelligent Hulk we saw at the start of last issue. His parting words are the classic "Now, if you'll forgive the pretension of the third person, Hulk must destroy to the best of his considerable abilities".