Hulk: Gray

Tim Sale's art is the real reason to buy this book. I adore most collaborations between Sale and writer Jeph Loeb, particularly when they touch Batman, but Loeb's script doesn't really shake the earth for me. I don't care for Bruce Banner's late night confessional with Doc Samson, but that's mostly a background narrative engine. Bruce's emotional realization - that Betty may love him for all the wrong reasons - is pretty meh. I do like the inclusion of Iron Man, but otherwise this is straightforward origin retelling.

But Tim Sale could draw poo and I would buy it. The sort of deranged Gothic look for the Hulk is totally Mary Shelley and totally perfect. Sale manages a real depth of emotion in his panel layouts and figure poses, and conjures a gray concoction part Quasimodo, part man-beast Vincent, and part Lennie. Read the words, remember the pictures.