The Totally Awesome Hulk #2 by Pak, Cho and Oback

I wasn't sure but now that I've seen his whole name, I'm excited to actually recognize the illustrator of The Totally Awesome Hulk. I remember looking at Frank Cho's work at Baltimore Comicon back in the day and I also remember my friend Kat telling me she knew his girlfriend. Pretty exciting stuff.

The comic starts exactly where the old one left off: introducing Lady Hellbender, who wants to fight The Hulk. Living by a code of chivalry, he dodges her attacks. Her pet... monster, shall we say, steps in and The Hulk is wrestling with it as Lady Hellbender goes after Amadeus' sister.

Which is a huge mistake. Spider-man tries to help, and She-Hulk stops him, stating that she knows that look. She's right and he loses it, slamming Lady Hellbender into the ground. Oh, side note... I also didn't realize that the Spider-man was Miles Morales. He's completely in costume the entire time, and it was only looking at the ads of new comics that are coming out (which I mostly ignore), I would have never known (or Josh would have ended up telling me once he read the series.) Josh is super excited for his comic to drop and it seems like a way better Spider-man than the new Peter Parker.

It quick changes back to Bruce Banner, after absorbing the energy from a Kiber Fusion Reactor, is locked in a containment device underneath the ocean. Iron man and others are trying to figure out what to do and are quickly running out of options.

It snaps back to the new Hulk almost killing Lady Hellbender before She-Hulk and Maddy step in, defusing the situation.

I like the tone of the comic book, a mixture between Bruce's dire situation and Amadeus' new life with his sister helping him in the food truck. He's incredibly optimistic and he's just trying to figure out what to do and how to succeed with his new superpowers. I also love the inclusion of She-Hulk and Spider-man, which gives the Hulk some direction and a team to rely on. It's a very diverse comic, which is definitely appreciated.

It's an interesting choice that She-Hulk wasn't replaced, but I like how instead of just abandoning the Banner' backstory, they embraced it, leading up to how Amadeus obtained his powers in the first place.

My only problem is.... Maddy doesn't feel younger to me. She looks older, and she acts like the older sister to Amadeus. Maybe it's intentional? I don't know, but I have to keep reminding myself she's only 16, not the 25 year old that is depicted in the comic.

I can't wait for the next issue!

The Totally Awesome Hulk #1 by Pak, Cho and Oback

It's pretty awesome when your husband reads your blog and gets you comic books that you mentioned you would like to read. I've always loved the Hulk and She-Hulk, and found their origins and superpowers very interesting. I was really excited to read the new rendition of the Hulk with Amadeus Cho, who, to my knowledge, is a brand new character.

The new Hulk is Asian, which I thought was a great direction for the Hulk universe to go in. It's unexpected, simply because even though Asians are (stereotypically) linked to martial arts and cunning fighting technique, they aren't (stereotypically) known for their strength and large statures. It opens a wide range of stories, and I was excited to read it.

Hilariously, it opens up to a monster attacking the beach, and Amadeus Cho inhaling hamburgers, in preparation to become the Hulk. He's introduced as the 8th smartest person in the world, and he goes to save the day. He's 19, full of himself and flirts with everything that moves but is still very likeable. He has a younger sister that helps him as a robot and they go on a journey to catch the monsters that are roaming the earth.

It also does a flashback to Bruce Banner and what happened that made Amadeus Cho become the Hulk. There is a clever visual image of Cho putting the monster right where he wants him. The pair zoom to the next location to defeat another monster, where he runs into She-Hulk and Spiderman.

Yay for She-Hulk! Yay for Spiderman!

I like how there are other appearances of strong females in the comic, especially his sister, She-Hulk and Lady Hellbender. The new Hulk is a 19 year old kid who flirts with anything that moves, but the writers make sure to get his ass handed to him by the women he surrounds himself with. Amadeus is charming, and I like how they kept remnants of the Bruce Banner Hulk, making him very intelligent, which is what Bruce prided himself in.

I can't wait to read issue 2!