
Mini Marvels: Hulk Smash | Review
Mini Marvels: Hulk Smash
Writers: Chris Giarrusso, Audrey Loeb and Paul Tobin
Artist: Chris Giarrusso
Marvel Entertainment; $13.99
Publisher’s age recommendation: 10-14 years
Cartoonist Chris Giarrusso has been producing his “Mini Marvels” feature for over 25 years now, sometimes as a comic strip that ran in the back of various Marvel comics issues, sometimes as standalone comic books and sometimes as collections that include both sorts of stories. Mini Marvels: Hulk Smash is one of that last type and follows on the heels of last April’s Mini Marvels: Spidey Sense, each book apparently collecting half of 2016’s Mini Marvels: The Complete Collection.
Observant readers will no doubt note the costume that Hulk is wearing on the cover and identify it as the character’s World War Hulk costume, from a line-wide crossover story from 2007, a pretty great parody of which runs across 12 pages in this volume. Giarrusso gives a similar treatment to such early 21st century Marvel moments as Civil War (2006), Secret Invasion (2008), the advent of the “Iron Spidey” suit (2006) and Red Hulk (2008) and the return of temporarily dead Thor to the land of the living (2007).
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Given the subject matter, there’s obviously a lot of material that’s relatively dated…but that likely won’t matter to young readers overmuch, given that while so many of the stories being parodied are older ones, Marvel cartoons, films and TV shows have recycled their plots more recently. And, of course, the trade collections of all those stories are still readily available to pick up and read.
Two other things that may date the collection? One is the make-up of the Marvel Universe as presented here. It is overwhelmingly white, with very few people of color showing up throughout the proceedings—unless you count orange and green as people colors, anyway. So we see Nick Fury in one panel, for example, but it’s the original, white Fury. And in a scene set at the “Devil Dinosaur Daycare,” a character mentions Moon Boy being out of town, Moon Girl Lunella Lafayette not having been introduced into the comics yet.
And then there’s one joke that aged particularly poorly. When the various characters are trying to coach the Hulk about his upcoming date with Betty, Hawkeye recommends he try making her laugh with jokes. To which Hulk replies, “Hulk not have jokes. Hulk not Bill Cosby.” Cosby will come up a few more times in the same story, as an avatar of good jokes.
As the strip about Hulk’s date demonstrates, not all of the material is tied to a particular Marvel storyline, and so there’s a lot of general tomfoolery starring Giarrusso’s particular versions of the Marvel characters.
These include various short, one-page gag strips, an extended story where Iron Man makes new Iron Man-style suits for seemingly everyone in the Marvel Universe, one in which the powerless Hawkeye tries to borrow various items from his fellow heroes to give him superpowers and ends up becoming Galactus’ new herald, and another where Doctor Strange reluctantly teams-up with Hawkeye to save the other Avengers, an adventure in which Hawkeye gets no respect.
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In addition to drawing all the stories, Giarrusso writes the majority of them, including the most winning parody stories. Paul Tobin scripts two stories pairing the Hulk with the Power Pack, and Audrey Loeb writes a bunch of short one-pagers starring Hulk, Red Hulk and Blue Hulk, the last an original creation of the feature. But by virtue of his handling all the art and writing so much of the book, it’s Giarrusso’s storytelling style and sense of humor that is most on display throughout.
The basic concept of the strip is that these are supposedly little kid versions of the familiar Marvel heroes, although their relative adulthood shifts from character to character. Mister Fantastic still has his gray temples, for example, and Dr. Strange and Tony Stark their iconic mustaches. (“Is that a fake mustache, or did you use a magic spell to grow a real one?” Hawkeye asks Strange at one point.)
In other words, its basic premise is something akin to a Peanuts-ized Marvel Universe (Bald Professor X even has Charlie Brown’s little squiggle of hair on his otherwise smooth round head), although the supposed kid nature of the characters rarely if ever actually comes into play in the stories collected herein. It’s mainly seen in the fact that supporting and incidental characters are drawn as full-grown adults, while the Mini Marvels are drawn, well, mini.
Readers’ mileage will likely vary, depending on their familiarity with the starring characters and stories being referenced, but the jokes come at such a quick clip that even if some of them don’t land, one that will land might only be a panel or page away.
Filed under: Reviews

About J. Caleb Mozzocco
J. Caleb Mozzocco has written about comics for online and print venues for a rather long time now. He lives in northeast Ohio, where he works as a circulation clerk at a public library by day.
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