Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone #1 Is an Interesting Twist on the Two Character’s Relationship (Review)

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the biggest movie of the summer and it honestly wasn’t that hard to figure it would be. Spider-Man is one of the most popular heroes ever and the MCU version of the hero played by Tom Holland is a favorite of fans. The movie also includes Hulk and Punisher (and Jean Grey) and Marvel Comics have been dropping books starring the movie’s heroes (except for Jean because she was supposed to be a surprise) for months now. Spider-Man and Hulk are two characters that have long been around each other, but their relationship is similar to the Jade Giant’s and every other heroes’ – they fight and work together, with Spidey scared of the Green Goliath but trusting in the good of Bruce Banner. They’re fun together but nothing really special.

There have been some cool Spider-Man and Hulk stories over the years, though, and Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone #1 is looking to take the two of them in a new direction. This book is co-written by writer/director Kevin Smith and Andy McElfresh, Smith returning to Spider-Man for the first time in years, with superstar artist R.B. Silva doing the art. I’m going to be honest – I’ve read a lot of great Hulk stories, but this one is taking the character in an entirely new direction, one that’s right up Smith’s alley and deals with Spidey and Banner trying something new to get rid of the Hulk: exorcism.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Pros	Cons
Smith and McElfresh go in some interesting new directions with this book	Smith goes a little too hard on the puns; I get why he does it but it just feels forced in some ways
Silva’s art is its usual brilliant, giving readers a fantastic opening battle scene
Smith goes to familiar place in his work and it’s so very intriguing

Smith and McElfresh Take the Hulk and Spidey to Church

Kevin Smith wore his love of geek culture on his sleeve with his first movie Clerks and was able to parlay that into writing comics. Smith helped reboot Daredevil in 1998 and made Green Arrow into a superstar again in 2000, but his other comic work was often struck with delays. Smith’s films are known for dealing with various issues and one of them has always been religion. Smith is a Catholic and has wrestled with his faith on the big screen many times, with even his comics sometimes dealing with faith. Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone goes in that direction, with Spider-Man and Hulk saving at an outdoor church service from an attack by a group of villains before revealing why the Hulk was there in New York City, a great beginning to this issue.

While I find the puns to be a little too much, the opening action scene is both vintage Spider-Man and right up Smith’s alley. There’s rapid-fire jokes throughout this segment of the book. The team of villains – Mole Man, Stilt Man, Absorbing Man, Everyman, Man-Bull, Titanium Man, Sandman, Molten Man, and Plant Man – end up calling themselves “the Manosphere”, which is a pretty fun joke when you look at their names battle Spidey and Hulk, who joined the fight from out of nowhere. The book goes on from there, with Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Bruce Banner discussing Bruce’s latest bid to control the Hulk after the fight, this time using religion instead of science. It’s an interesting premise, one that we’ve rarely saw with the Hulk. He’s tried magic many times to get rid of his green side, but he’s rarely tried Christianity. Smith and McElfresh are doing something new and for me at least, it’s enough to make this book the most interesting of the Brand New Day tie-ins.

Silva’s Art Takes a Good Story and Makes It Great

R.B. Silva is one of the best artists working today, his art taking the current Marvel house style (everyone kind of draws like Stuart Immonen now at the House of Ideas, which is funny because he hasn’t worked there in a while) to some interesting new places. One of the things I’ve always liked about his pages is that they’re busy in the best possible ways; Silva is an artist who will cram panels with everything and the kitchen sink without it ever feeling overstuffed. This issue is full of panels and pages like that, images with amazing detail that get better and better the longer you look at them. Silva takes the issue’s opening fight scene and makes it sing, a well-paced, hard-hitting battle full of cool moments and panels.

The book switches gears halfway through, taking readers out of the big fight to Daredevil’s office. This section of the book is the heart of the story, where Banner describes the way trying Christianity has helped him with the Hulk, and I was a bit nervous about them. Luckily, I didn’t have to be. These scenes rely heavily on Silva’s character acting and he does a fantastic job. In the past, I’ve mostly just liked his action scenes; that’s not to say he’s bad at everything but action, but his character acting has often been something of a weakness in his work for me. However, he’s able to do a fantastic job with these scenes, capturing the feeling of the various flashbacks and the conversation, helping to sell the stakes of his story. This could have been the weakest section of the issue art-wise, but Silva does a brilliant job with it.

Spider-Man is Marvel’s most relatable hero and the Hulk is their greatest monster, so putting them together is always a lot of fun. Smith and McElfresh take a story that could have been something of a cliche – the two fighting then teaming up or some other kind of story we’ve gotten before – and make into something that fans have never experienced before, which is rare. Bringing faith to Bruce Banner’s struggle with the Hulk is very different from what’s come before and Smith is exactly the right writer for this story. It’ll be interesting to see how far this story goes – will Smith and McElfresh deal with One Below All or will this be one of those semi-canon stories that deals with what the writers want them to instead of current continuity? – but even without that, it has some novelty to it that makes it a must-read.

Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone #1 is on sale now.

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