Well the title of this Graphic Novel implies some hard decision, like who lives and who dies. The back reads, “Secrets Revealed”, this just has to be good, right? Oh Hulk, you’re not going to do me wrong, are you? Yes, yes he is because there aren’t really any important decisions made in this trade paperback & I didn’t give a crap about any of the secrets they revealed.

A big thing with me is that a trade paperback needs to be somewhat independent, the story needs to be able to stand on its’ own. We are purchasing a collection of issues with the understanding that this will be a packaged story we can follow. I know it doesn’t always work out that way due to story-arcs that may extend past the collected comics or back stories of conflict that isn’t relived in the story arc. When this is the case we expect the editors to write up a brief synopsis of anything that might be necessary to know in order to enjoy the collected story. When they put this trade paperback together they completely failed on all accounts. There is way too much history that was important to understanding this storyline and yet they offered no recap whatsoever. Fail!

Another one of my frustrations with this trade paperback was the confusing panelling. There were 3 times in the book when I didn’t know if I was supposed to be reading left to right across both pages or stick to just the one page and the confusing action in the panels didn’t help clear anything up. Sometimes the actions between panels made confusing jumps in time, like we were left out on critical action during a fight scene.

There were problems with the plot as well. As predicted, the Hulk plays the role of deus ex machina whenever any of the protagenists are in mortal danger. As far as the artwork in the book, the Hulk looks great unfortunately everything else pales in comparison to him.

Ok, I’ve vented enough, let’s get to the spoilers and end the misery already.

Spoiler

Ok, Doc Samson is there at the beginning with some mysterious kid and some guys want to find Banner and kill them, but they don’t and there’s some girl there named Sandra who has a history with Samson in as far as she is his baby’s momma. Sandra and Doc head off to find their long lost son but get sidetracked into getting involved with Nadia Blondsky who must have a thing for all things big & green. She’s in trouble because Mr. Blue turned up at her house and drew a lot of attention to it. You ready for the big secret? Mr. Blue as it turns out is the alias of Betty Ross who was thought dead but is now is alive again with a new face. Meh.

Ok, so the whole thing is a set-up because some shadowy dude wants to get some of the Hulks blood so he can make mini-hulks & rule the world. So he sicks these micro-hulks that are part dinosaur & part robot and about the size of a large rat after the girls. The Hulk shows up in time to save them but one of these puny creatures bites through the Hulks thick skin and gets a drop of Hulk blood stored into it’s metal fangs. That little creature makes a b-line to that shadowy guy and the Hulk gives chase leading to the Hulk destroying a secret base built into a mountain. That’s totally not a cliche.

Sandra ends up reuiniting with her missing child while Doc Samson is left to believe that Sandra and his kid died in the destruction of the secret base. The Hulk meanwhile heads back to Nadia and he destroys a Bruce Banner clone that was trying to take advantage of her. He squishes fake Banner and then he and Nadia embrace.

Sometimes, simpler is better.

I’d hate to have Hulk: Split Decisions be someones first look at the Hulk as a super-hero or as a comic book line because if they did I doubt they’d buy another Hulk ever again.

Story
Artwork
Value
Can It Stand Alone
Cool Factor
Average