Writer: Peter David

Artist: Greg Land

Colorist: Nolan Woodard

It’s time once again to check in with some Secret Wars tie-in stories. This week I chose a title that I was coming into from a fairly blank slate, both with the history of character and my expectation of the story. That book was Future Imperfect, based on the Hulk story from the 90s written by Peter David, just as this series was. What I got was really a mixed bag with a lot of potential coming out of it.

With the new worlds coming out of this Marvel event you don’t know what to expect at any turn, especially character wise.  This story appears to be about a Red Skinned (diamond?) woman named Ruby (connecting the dots?) who ends up discovering a weakened Odin, or so we think. We come to discover that Ruby is a freedom fighter against Baron Maestro, who is basically a Hulk that rules that world. As events unfold, The Maestro shows how he rules against these upstarts after Ruby meets up with her fellow fighters. One point which is completely unarguable is that Peter David knows these characters and hits their voice correctly, as he created much of this. In that sense, I have faith in David, and what he have here is pretty good. While I thought the story was a little light, I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue and character work we got. With that we have a character reveal in the end, one which is the most important for me to come back. Without spoilers, let’s just say this character has a history with the Hulk, dating all the way back to the beginning of the Marvel Superhero universe.

While the story wasn’t bad or incredible, the biggest talking point with this issue is the art. Greg Land has quite a reputation in the comic community and it certainly isn’t unwarranted. With his phototracing style and some potentially erotically based imagery as models for his work, there’s a certain notion you need to go into his books with. That being said, there were many pages in this issue which were MILES ahead of some of the work I’ve seen from him in the past years. When I opened the book, the character design for Ruby was not really to my liking as the initial pages with her seemed to be stiff. I’m not sure if he did this for speed or something else, but when you go with this photo type style, stiffness and some odd looking faces are almost inevitable. However, any scene that features non human characters or action scenes were solid. The storytelling really comes through there. It would be great to get that for all of the pages, making it more consistent and bringing out the talent Land clearly has. I know he is used to having a totally different style than today, one with a slightly more classic comic-y feel and I believe that if he integrates that now, he could really have a pretty good line. In addition the shiny color style on Ruby, which totally makes sense for the what the character is, doesn’t do the rendering any favors but it’s difficult to approach it any other way.

Even though this wasn’t my favorite Secret Wars tie in, I still enjoyed it. If you are a Hulk fan this may be right in your wheelhouse, as one of the creators with a seminal run on the character returns to these characters. I’ll leave you with this, Maestro is one intimidating dude.

 

3 Eyepatches out of 5

 

Reviewed by: Brett Israel