Do you HATE tie-ins with a fiery passion, True Believer? Well, this isn’t one! It’s a compete epic event – in 20 pulse-pounding pages! In the wake of Monsters Unleashed – even more monsters!! Because you probably will have demanded it! RED HULK! AMERICAN KAIJU! VANDOOM, the man who made a creature! And wouldja believe – DEDD-PUUL, THE MERCENARY THAT WALKS LIKE A MAN?!?

That was a lot of build up for a so-so issue. Al Ewing and Paco Medina bring us a stand-alone issue featuring Red Hulk (the new one, General Robert L. Maverick; not General Ross.. there seems to be so many Hulks these days..) being sent in to handle a situation quietly for the American government. He runs into Deadpool, and things don’t exactly go as planned. Deadpool does give us some funny moments through this story, but it doesn’t do much to save this issue from just being ‘ok’. I was rather bored and found the villain to be a little cheesy. Maybe that was what they wanted from this issue, and with Deadpool in it you know it isn’t going to be gravely serious. But it just didn’t do anything for me.  Also, having the book break into what looks like different covers for a tie in didn’t really add anything to the story, I just found it distracting.

I do really like Medina’s art on this book. His pages have a great flow and the action moves well with the story. I may not have been caught up with the story, but I really did take a moment on each page to take in the art, which really is the winner in this issue.

Overall, not a very exciting issue. It does have some humorous moments and as I said, the art is very good. But it isn’t just this issue, I’m just not really enjoying this book as a whole. When it was New Avengers and Roberto had taken A.I.M and turned it into something good, that was an interesting concept. Yes, that title had it’s problems too, but it was a new idea that could have been taken a lot further. Instead, the organization got rolled in with SHIELD and is now just a cog in that machine. And I’m sure with Secret Empire coming up this title is going to get a shake up with the direction Steve Rogers wants to go in, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this team reacts. I’m hoping Roberto doesn’t jump into formation with his new fuhrer, and maybe this team can go back to being something new and exciting rather than following its current course.

Story: Al Ewing Art: Paco Medina
Story: 4.0 Art: 8.5 Overall: 6.25 Recommendation: Pass

Marvel Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE issue for review