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!