Rampage (UK) #7 (Story 1)

Background

"Rampage" was a UK teen pop-culture magazine published by Panini Magazines from late 2004 to early 2007.

The content was predominantly a garish mix of enthusiastic product marketing for toys, movies, and video games. But each issue also featured a couple of short new Marvel stories written and illustrated by UK creators.

Spider-Man appears in the second story this issue (even though the web-head doesn't feature on the cover). But first, we have to get through this Hulk vs. Iron Man 6-pager written by Jim Alexander.

Story 'Monster'

After the town of "Placid Peak" was destroyed, General "Thunderbolt" Ross has convinced Tony "Iron Man" Stark to head out west to end the menace of The Hulk once and for all.

Iron Man duly rockets-off to the deserts of the Midwest where he quickly encounters the green giant. They fight, and Iron Man's air-to-surface missiles start a landslide which the Hulk prevents from reaching the nearby town.

Exhausted, Hulk reverts to Bruce Banner and tells Stark the other side to the story. Banner explains that Hulk was helping rebuild Placid Peak after a tornado, but General Ross's assault on the Hulk destroyed it again. The local populate support Banner's story, and General Ross admits that he made a tactical error on the missile front.

As the tanks approach, they enter a stand-off with Iron Man who persuades them to leave for long enough for Banner to depart in peace.

General Comments

I'm somewhat torn by this story.

Of course it's great whenever a writer creates a non-linear plot, with a twist of some kind. But the execution here is implemented with a sledgehammer. The transition from Bad Hulk to Good Hulk is so rapid that I suffered whiplash watching it.

Overall Rating

With a bit more subtlety in the execution, this might have worked – despite being a cliche wrapped in a sermon tied up with a trope.

But instead it's heavy-handed and clunky. Two webs.