Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale: Hulk Gallery Edition

by Jeph Loeb

Before the world knew Bruce Banner was the Hulk. Before Bruce confessed his love to Betty Ross. Before the Hulk was green - there was GRAY. The explosion of the Gamma Bomb tore Bruce Banner's life apart, unleashing the strongest creature on the Incredible Hulk! But no matter how powerful he became, his heart still could be shattered by Betty - the daughter of his greatest enemy, General "Thunderbolt" Ross. The Eisner Award-winning team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale ( YELLOW, BLUE, CAPTAIN WHITE) continues their insightful look into the early days of Marvel Comics' most popular heroes, unraveling the Hulk's origin - and uncovering a secret that will change the way we look at Bruce Banner forever! Collecting GRAY #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Marvel

168 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

Reviews

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 3.25/5
This is, sadly, a noticeable step down from the exceptional Daredevil Yellow, as well as anything else that Loeb and Sale have done. And as much as I would rather not admit it, it's solely down to Loeb. Tim Sale, as always, knocks it out of the park. The man is a legend, very sadly no longer with us. He carries Loeb's rather flat script (flat by his standards at least). It just didn't hit anywhere near as hard as Daredevil Yellow did. Granted, I like Daredevil much more than The Hulk, and have a much greater history with him, but still. Perhaps if I had spent more time with the character, the story would have resonated more.
Regardless, a solid Jeff Loeb story and six pages of gorgeous Tim Sale art is absolutely nothing to sulk about. I just expected a little but more. 3.25/5


OmniBen.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the same vein as Spider-Man: Blue and Daredevil: Yellow , Loeb and Sale go back to the early days of Hulk comics to flesh out the character history. Set between issues #1 and 2 of the original Incredible Hulk run, the story follows Bruce Banner coming to understand the new Jekyll & Hyde dynamic he must share with his monstrous alter ego. True to the original design of the character, Hulk has a greyish hue instead of his classical green appearance. The concept of Gray Hulk had already been covered in the seminal Peter David run, so Hulk: Gray isn't really doing anything unique here though. Nonetheless, this is a solid, introductory Hulk story and it's bolstered a lot by Tim Sale's fantastic layouts. The gallery edition doesn't really have anything beyond the miniseries, but the extra oversized pages makes the artwork really pop.