JOE FIXIT#1: Hulk Smashes The Kingpin

Peter David has been hard at work lately revisiting a lot of his past works. He’s been revisiting a lot of old Spider-Man and Hulk eras over the past few years, giving us some ancillary stories that took place in between the classic issues. This has been a ton of fun to check out and thankfully the greatness continues in this week’s Joe Fixit #1. Fans of Hulk comics will know that Hulk has had a handful of different personalities over the years, but none more off the wall and infamous than Joe Fixit, a Las Vegas mob boss. This issue sees Joe Fixit take on the Kingpin of crime. 

David takes an interesting approach to this issue by having Spider-Man be our ride-along character. This works particularly well in the era in which this is set since many fans reading this will be very familiar with this Peter Parker. It’s also an excellent change of pace from the current status quo since many fans are not on board for everything that has been going on with the character. One of the best parts of this issue is when Joe Fixit lays out the Kingpin.

This was epic by itself, but Spider-Man’s reaction is what sold it. The way David writes Spider-Man is so iconic. But let’s not forget that the real star of the show here is Joe Fixit, or is it?

While this book is titled Joe Fixit, and it features Joe Fixit as its main character, I’d be hard-pressed to call this a Hulk book if I had to guess the title. This feels like a Spider-Man book first and foremost. It’s almost like a Spider-Man VS Kingpin book, featuring Joe Fixit. This is just the first issue and it contains a lot of setup, so hopefully, the rest of the series focuses more on the titular character. 

Yildiray Cinar’s art here is perfect for this book. As soon as Peter Parker appears on the page, readers will instantly feel like we are back in the era in which this story takes place. Cinar’s art takes the best of what is modern and how these characters looked back in the day and blend them into panels and pages that feel both familiar and nostalgic. Fans of Cinar’s art will probably notice that this book looks different from his previous works. Cinar really went all on the aesthetic here and it really shows. This has been a common trend in all of these  Peter David flashback stories and I am all for it. At no point when I was reading this issue did I forget what time period we are in here, and that’s all because of the art. 

The only detractor to this book comes from the premise of all of these Peter David series that have come out in the last few years. Because this book takes place between the issues of older stories, we know that there can’t be any lasting repercussions of the actions here. There are not really any stakes. That being said, this is only a nitpick, if you know this is going into it then you can sit back and enjoy this story for what it is.