Comic book review time.
There will be spoilers.
First though, a little backstory. About a year and a half ago (give or take), four of Earth's most powerful heroes decided to solve the "Hulk problem" once and for all. The "Hulk problem" being that every few years the Hulk goes on a rampage of some sort that results in massive property damage, civilian injuries, and (presumably) loss of life. Actually, the only specific comic series I can remember reading that really showed how many people the Hulk unintentionally kills is a mini-series titled Startling Stories: BANNER. It was great, but I think it took place outside of Marvel U. continuity.
Back to the backstory, the heroes (Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt) send the Hulk into space on a rocket/starship headed for a planet with no organic life, where he can "live in peace" and not hurt anybody. Well things go wrong, of course, and Hulk ends up on a savage alien world where he's made a slave. This "epic" storyline , titled PLANET HULK, saw Hulk go from slave to gladiator to freedom fighter to emperor of the whole danged planet. Now, while this story was a big hit, I can't say I was overly impressed. It was pretty original for a Hulk story, but I've seen the slave to gladiator etc... type of story plenty of other places. Actually, I've never really thought the Hulk, as a character, lent himself very well to a monthly comic. Big, green, strong guy get's pissed and smashes stuff. There's only so much you can do with that concept. He's much better as the wild card of the Marvel U. Y'know, he shows up a few times a year to tussle with The Thing, or Wolverine, or Thor. Maybe get's involved in big super-crossover and the heroes throw him in the battle to beat on the heavy, and then the heavy knocks Hulk on his @ $ $, and the good guys are all like, "Oh, sh*t! Look what he did to the Hulk. We are SO boned." That's the role I think the Hulk best serves in. But, thankfully, I digress...
While a slave, Hulk sort of bonds with his fellow slaves (reluctantly), and they, eventually, overthrow the emperor. Hulk is made the new king and even finds himself a woman, who he quickly knocks up. Yep, things were looking up for Ol' Greenskin for the first time in a long time. And then...
Hulk had all but forgotten about the four A-holes that sent him to this world, and was ready to settle down and live out his days on that planet until the ship he arrived on blew the EFF up, nuclear style, kiling almost everyone, his wife and unborn babe included. I forget exactly what happened that made the ship blow up, because I was just ready to get the story over with at that point, but Hulk thinks everything is Richards and Co. fault, and he is ready to open up a can of American whupazz on them ASAP. The rest of Hulk's former slave/gladiator bud's (they call themselves the "warbound") survived, so they head to Earth on a stone starship (huh?), gunning for the Hulk's new worst enemies.
Overall, Planet Hulk was a decent story, and I applaud writer Greg Pak for trying something a little different with the Hulk. It was kind of uneven, and dragged a bit at times, but it was certainly entertaining enough. To be honest, though, I mostly kept up with it in order to stay in the loop while waiting for World War Hulk to get started. Whew. Now what was the point of all that? Oh, yeah, my review of World War Hulk #1.
Now this is how you use THE HULK. He's back on Earth for one reason: Smash.
The Hulk makes a quick stop on the moon, before hitting Earth, in order to get Black Bolt out of the way. Now, I've never been that familiar with Black Bolt. Long story short: He's the leader of a superhuman race known as the Inhumans, and they all live on the moon. He's a powerhouse, I guess, but his main power, as far as I know, is that his voice can shatter mountains. Literally. So, when Hulk faces of with this guy, I'm expecting it to be good. And it was at first, but most of the fight takes place off-panel.
LAME.
Not liking that too much. At all.
How did the Hulk beat him? It seems like he couldn't. All Black Bolt has to do is raise his voice a little and Hulk would fly off the Moon's surface. I would like to know how Hulk managed to stop Black Bolt from doing that, and it almost seems like lazy writing from Pak to "leave it to the imagination" or whatever. Anyway, that was pretty much my only complaint. After beating Black Bolt into unsciousness (or maybe he's dead, it's never specified), Hulk and his new mates arrive on Earth and give the citizen's of Manhatten time to evacuate so he can kill the rest of his enemies there. Iron Man recruits the "Secret Avengers" and The Sentry to help contain Hulk, but he get's first crack with his new, souped up, Hulk-Buster armor. I should also point out how much I like the way Pak used The Sentry. He really made it seem like this guy is Marvel's Superman. Anyway, the Hulk-Iron Man battle was pretty crazy, and penciller John Romita Jr. (maybe the best Hulk artist ever) makes Hulk look about as viscious as he has ever looked, as he smashes that armor of Iron Man's to pieces. So, with the exception of that off-panel fight, I was extremely happy with how this mega-event started off.
Four more issues to go...
There will be spoilers.
First though, a little backstory. About a year and a half ago (give or take), four of Earth's most powerful heroes decided to solve the "Hulk problem" once and for all. The "Hulk problem" being that every few years the Hulk goes on a rampage of some sort that results in massive property damage, civilian injuries, and (presumably) loss of life. Actually, the only specific comic series I can remember reading that really showed how many people the Hulk unintentionally kills is a mini-series titled Startling Stories: BANNER. It was great, but I think it took place outside of Marvel U. continuity.
Back to the backstory, the heroes (Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt) send the Hulk into space on a rocket/starship headed for a planet with no organic life, where he can "live in peace" and not hurt anybody. Well things go wrong, of course, and Hulk ends up on a savage alien world where he's made a slave. This "epic" storyline , titled PLANET HULK, saw Hulk go from slave to gladiator to freedom fighter to emperor of the whole danged planet. Now, while this story was a big hit, I can't say I was overly impressed. It was pretty original for a Hulk story, but I've seen the slave to gladiator etc... type of story plenty of other places. Actually, I've never really thought the Hulk, as a character, lent himself very well to a monthly comic. Big, green, strong guy get's pissed and smashes stuff. There's only so much you can do with that concept. He's much better as the wild card of the Marvel U. Y'know, he shows up a few times a year to tussle with The Thing, or Wolverine, or Thor. Maybe get's involved in big super-crossover and the heroes throw him in the battle to beat on the heavy, and then the heavy knocks Hulk on his @ $ $, and the good guys are all like, "Oh, sh*t! Look what he did to the Hulk. We are SO boned." That's the role I think the Hulk best serves in. But, thankfully, I digress...
While a slave, Hulk sort of bonds with his fellow slaves (reluctantly), and they, eventually, overthrow the emperor. Hulk is made the new king and even finds himself a woman, who he quickly knocks up. Yep, things were looking up for Ol' Greenskin for the first time in a long time. And then...
Hulk had all but forgotten about the four A-holes that sent him to this world, and was ready to settle down and live out his days on that planet until the ship he arrived on blew the EFF up, nuclear style, kiling almost everyone, his wife and unborn babe included. I forget exactly what happened that made the ship blow up, because I was just ready to get the story over with at that point, but Hulk thinks everything is Richards and Co. fault, and he is ready to open up a can of American whupazz on them ASAP. The rest of Hulk's former slave/gladiator bud's (they call themselves the "warbound") survived, so they head to Earth on a stone starship (huh?), gunning for the Hulk's new worst enemies.
Overall, Planet Hulk was a decent story, and I applaud writer Greg Pak for trying something a little different with the Hulk. It was kind of uneven, and dragged a bit at times, but it was certainly entertaining enough. To be honest, though, I mostly kept up with it in order to stay in the loop while waiting for World War Hulk to get started. Whew. Now what was the point of all that? Oh, yeah, my review of World War Hulk #1.
Now this is how you use THE HULK. He's back on Earth for one reason: Smash.
The Hulk makes a quick stop on the moon, before hitting Earth, in order to get Black Bolt out of the way. Now, I've never been that familiar with Black Bolt. Long story short: He's the leader of a superhuman race known as the Inhumans, and they all live on the moon. He's a powerhouse, I guess, but his main power, as far as I know, is that his voice can shatter mountains. Literally. So, when Hulk faces of with this guy, I'm expecting it to be good. And it was at first, but most of the fight takes place off-panel.
LAME.
Not liking that too much. At all.
How did the Hulk beat him? It seems like he couldn't. All Black Bolt has to do is raise his voice a little and Hulk would fly off the Moon's surface. I would like to know how Hulk managed to stop Black Bolt from doing that, and it almost seems like lazy writing from Pak to "leave it to the imagination" or whatever. Anyway, that was pretty much my only complaint. After beating Black Bolt into unsciousness (or maybe he's dead, it's never specified), Hulk and his new mates arrive on Earth and give the citizen's of Manhatten time to evacuate so he can kill the rest of his enemies there. Iron Man recruits the "Secret Avengers" and The Sentry to help contain Hulk, but he get's first crack with his new, souped up, Hulk-Buster armor. I should also point out how much I like the way Pak used The Sentry. He really made it seem like this guy is Marvel's Superman. Anyway, the Hulk-Iron Man battle was pretty crazy, and penciller John Romita Jr. (maybe the best Hulk artist ever) makes Hulk look about as viscious as he has ever looked, as he smashes that armor of Iron Man's to pieces. So, with the exception of that off-panel fight, I was extremely happy with how this mega-event started off.
Four more issues to go...
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