SAVAGE HULK #1 - 4

"THE MAN WITHIN"
Writer & Penciler: Alan Davis | Inker: Mark Farmer
colorist: Matt Hollingsworth | Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Assistant Editor: Jon Moisan | Editors: Mark Paniccia with Wil Ross
Editor in Chief: Axel Alonso | Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine

(You know you're writing about a modern marvel comic when it takes ten minutes just to type out the stupid credits. Anywho...)

As far as I know, this 2014 story arc is, to date, Alan Davis's most recent work for Marvel in the writing capacity. And it's about what you'd expect of Davis the writer: some good old-fashioned classic Marvel action and adventure. Note that of the Davis works I covered over the past few weeks, FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END, while set in the future, presented the most iconic versions of the various Marvel heroes within its pages. THOR: TRUTH OF HISTORY was set in the distant past and featured the characters' original Jack Kirby looks. It's pretty evident that, given his choice, Davis will always go for the most classic visuals he can, and it's a shame that Marvel has drifted so, so very far from the best visual representations of their characters that in order for him to do so, he must set his stories in the past or in alternate worlds/timelines.

But! Much as I love to comment on the myriad failings of current Marvel comics, I'd rather spend the next few paragraphs singing the praises of Alan Davis. As noted above, this tale is set in the past; around this time, Marvel launched SAVAGE WOLVERINE and SAVAGE HULK, a pair of out-of-continuity series intended to chronicle untold adventures from their title characters' pasts, and each series received an opening arc by a well-known writer/artist (see my look at Frank Cho's opening SAVAGE WOLVERINE arc here).