This episode feels dramatically different from most episodes in the series. From the opening scene of the Hulk smashing up a lab, the pacing is smooth and dramatic, with crisp dialogue that doesn't waste a single word. The slow pace of most of the series isn't always a disadvantage, and indeed is a strong asset in the best episodes, but most of the time a good snappy pace like this makes for the best drama.
The plot development reminds me somewhat of the classic espionage novel From Russia with Love, in that the early scenes are largely told from the perspective of the villain, a top dollar mercenary called La Fronte, as he sets an elaborate trap to kill the Hulk for a $1,000,000 reward. These scenes effectively build up La Fronte as cold-blooded, focused, cunning, and resourceful - the perfect adversary for the Hulk.
Sadly, as with "The Snare", the episode doesn't deliver a true confrontation between the villain and the Hulk, who is instead saved from La Fronte by what is so blatantly a contrivance that calling it "thinly veiled" would be too generous. It's a truly immense disappointment after such a build up.
Yet even that doesn't completely tarnish the truly exquisite drama on offer here. Aside from the main plot, Banner's debates with the blindly driven Dr. Jane Cabot strike right at the heart of what the Hulk is about. Unlike Bruce Banner of the comics, David Banner was transformed into the Hulk because of his own mistakes, and this ep lets us see that David has never forgotten that. He holds himself responsible both for what the Hulk does, and for creating the creature in the first place, and that's part of what makes him so compelling.
The plot development reminds me somewhat of the classic espionage novel From Russia with Love, in that the early scenes are largely told from the perspective of the villain, a top dollar mercenary called La Fronte, as he sets an elaborate trap to kill the Hulk for a $1,000,000 reward. These scenes effectively build up La Fronte as cold-blooded, focused, cunning, and resourceful - the perfect adversary for the Hulk.
Sadly, as with "The Snare", the episode doesn't deliver a true confrontation between the villain and the Hulk, who is instead saved from La Fronte by what is so blatantly a contrivance that calling it "thinly veiled" would be too generous. It's a truly immense disappointment after such a build up.
Yet even that doesn't completely tarnish the truly exquisite drama on offer here. Aside from the main plot, Banner's debates with the blindly driven Dr. Jane Cabot strike right at the heart of what the Hulk is about. Unlike Bruce Banner of the comics, David Banner was transformed into the Hulk because of his own mistakes, and this ep lets us see that David has never forgotten that. He holds himself responsible both for what the Hulk does, and for creating the creature in the first place, and that's part of what makes him so compelling.
