Book review 02-29

Published 2:28 pm Wednesday, February 28, 2024

The Incredible Hulk

Hunting Time: Jeffery Deaver

Jeffery Deaver is probably best known as the author of the Lincoln Rhyme novels. The genius forensics expert who was paralyzed in an accident has been the subject of more than a dozen novels, a network television series, and a movie starring Denzel Washington.

That may be about to change.

Deaver is also the creator of the Colter Shaw novels. Shaw is the main character in “Tracker,” a new CBS television series that debuted after the Super Bowl.

In the books, Shaw was raised in a survivalist family and he makes a living collecting reward money. In addition to finding people, he usually helps people.

“Hunting Time” is Deaver’s fourth Colter Shaw novel.

Here, Shaw has been hired by a company to uncover who is stealing corporate secrets. But that’s just the opening part of the novel. The meat of “Hunting Time” is the story of Allison Parker and teen daughter Hannah who are running from their ex-husband and father, respectively. He has been released early from prison and Allison believes she and her daughter are in danger.

Allison is a top staff member of the company that hired Shaw. The company CEO asks Shaw to find Allison before her ex does. The mother and daughter are also being chased by two hired thugs out to harm them.

As one might expect reading a “Colter Shaw novel,” Deaver spends quite a bit of time with Shaw, but like he does with the Lincoln Rhyme books, he also focuses on the supporting cast. This book is as much a novel about Allison, Hannah and the ex as it is about Shaw. In some ways, it’s even more about them than Shaw.

In the previous three Colter Shaw novels, Deaver has plotted an ongoing story of a missing brother. “The Final Twist,” the third Shaw novel, answered a lot of those questions. There is less about Shaw’s past here and more about the troubles facing Allison and Hannah. Which is fine. It confirms that Deaver and Colter Shaw can continue in many more books to come.

The Incredible Hulk: Age of Monsters

The Hulk is a monster again.

Or at least a misunderstood creature in a world of monsters.

For decades, the Hulk smashed through the Marvel universe as mindless brute who might do the right thing but destroy a city doing it. He battled cosmic threats, super-powered bad guys, other misunderstood creatures, and often superheroes. He was hunted by the U.S. military and superhero groups. He’s faced other gamma-irradiated beings like himself – some so much like him that they have also been called Hulks.

While primarily the mindless, green “Hulk smash” for most of his 60-plus years of existence, Hulk has been savage with the mind of a fierce animal, smart with the mind of alter ego Bruce Banner, part of a complex set of multiple personalities, a grey-skinned rogue, king of a planet, a Vegas bouncer named Joe Fixit, and most recently part of a complex system where the Hulk body was a spaceship, Banner was the pilot operating mind, body and soul, and the Hulk’s rage was the engine.

But in the latest Hulk series, writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and primary artist Nic Klein make the book a horror title again.

In 2018, the writer artist team of Al Ewing and Joe Bennett took Hulk in a new direction, making the story a tale of terror. Hulk/Banner could be killed but could not die. Ewing and Bennett took horrific and grotesque steps to make this point. They also delved deep into the multiple personalities plaguing Banner/Hulk, introducing the Devil Hulk. Good stuff, another new take on a title that was for decades seen as spotlighting a one-note character.

Johnson and Klein return to the horror element as Banner/Hulk, along with an abused youth, encounter an America filled with various levels and types of monsters. The story seems to take a page from Alan Moore’s brilliant “American Gothic” run on “Swamp Thing” from 40 years ago – a nightmarish cross-country trip into the soul of tortured characters and a nation.

For long-time comics readers, such comparisons may be unavoidable. Other than acknowledging the similarities in premise, comparisons should be avoided.

“American Gothic” is a classic in comic book storytelling. The stories told in “The Incredible Hulk: Age of Monsters,” which collects issues 1-5, stand on their own. Readers should simply go along for the ride and let Johnson and Klein take care of the destination.