The epic collection of Hulk entitled Crossroads collects a very interesting part of Bill Mantlo’s run on the title. Mantlo is one of those Marvel writers who worked on as many or more titles than Stan Lee, creating characters like Rocket Racoon and Cloak and Dagger as well as adapting properties like The Micronauts and Rom.
Crossroads collects close to 500 pages of comics including Incredible Hulk 297-313, Annual 13, and ends with Alpha Flight 29. The first three issues of the epic collection begin with the classic style Hulk stories readers are used to with a slew of guest stars such as Daredevil, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Power Man and Iron Fist, and even the Avengers. After these issues, however, a Banner-less, monstrous Hulk, exiled from Earth, travels from dimension to dimension. This sets the stage of some utterly bizarre Hulk stories that live up to Mantlo’s sometimes odd writing style.
No one can argue that Mantlo wasn’t a genius perhaps even defining the Marvel Universe during the high point of his career, but he was also known for taking things in unexpected directions at times. The Crossroads stories are certainly a prime example of that. pitting the Hulk against the toys of giant children, a world where he is the weakling, and many other strange encounters during his wanderings.
If you’re looking for a normal Hulk read, then only around for issues in this epic collection are going to please you (but dang are those four great tales!) and the rest will leave you wondering what in the heck happened to the comic series that you thought you knew. That’s not to say at all these stories are bad but just rather wildly different and perhaps not for everyone.
