Hunger #1 (Marvel)

Rating: 2/5 – An unfortunate start for a character that deserves better

To make it as simple as possible, at the conclusion of the Age of Ultron storyline, space and time got a little messed up.  Because of that, universes are starting to overlap, expand or in some cases, bleed into each other.  That’s what happens in this first issue of a four part series that will explore what happens when Galactus from the Marvel Universe proper, emerges into Marvel’s Ultimate Universe.

Unfortunately, I think Marvel did a poor job of marketing this book for a variety of reasons.  First of all, to be clear, although there’s no indication of it, this does take place in the Ultimate Universe.  Nowhere on the cover or inside would you know that.  For example, in the recap page, all it says is “in a nearby parallel universe”… why not call it what it is?  It think it allows the reader who may not be familiar with the content, know where to look to understand some of the book’s characters and storylines.  It also leads the reader, if interested in the characters involved to pick up an Ultimate title to learn more.  It’s also unfortunate for those who thought they were buying a Marvel proper book, and then finding out that it really isn’t.

Second, it’s a bit misleading as it has the Age of Ultron banner on the bottom of the book.  This issue doesn’t address anything that happened in that series, except for a splash page showing the disruption of space and time mentioned above.  And finally, there’s no indication that this is a mini-series, ongoing or one-shot anywhere on the cover or inside.  Again, an all around unfortunate job of marketing this book.

In regards to the book and story itself, I can’t say it’s much better.  The story opens with the Ultimate-verse Rick Jones being called forth by the Watcher to aid in a cosmic threat that only he can help with.  That threat includes the Kree, Chitauri and the Ultimate-verse Galactus (or Gah Lak Tus swarm).  Rick Jones is written with a heavy focus on humor that doesn’t really match the epic scale of the threats involved.  And although Galactus is front and center on the cover, his actual time in the book lasts just over a page.  And last, if you are not familiar with the Ultimate Universe version of Galactus, well, you’ll get no explanation here.  This makes all the above points that much worse.

The bright spot is Leonard Kirk’s art.  His rendition of both universe’s Galactus’ are great, and he’s able to draw the big cosmic battles with a nice sense of scale.  I’m also optimistic that this story has time to turn around as the character of Galactus himself is so interesting, hopefully we’ll see more of him in the next three issues.  Overall though, a really disappointing start to a series involving a character that deserves better.

Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas – shawn@comicspectrum.com
https://comicspectrum.com/ Covering the full spectrum of comics culture