Posts Tagged ‘ World War Hulk ’

I had a brief Twitter conversation recently about how absolutely perfect the characterization of Banner is in the current run of Incredible Hulk, but on retrospect I don’t so much think it’s a perfect representation of who the character has been in the past; moreover I think it more accurately reflects who the character has become over the past five years or so since Greg Pak started writing him.

Since Greg Pak took over, Banner has been shot into space, seen Hulk claw his way to power on Sakaar and return to Earth for revenge but, more significantly, he’s been okay with it. Banner reached an understanding with the Hulk – and his bride, Caiera – that he’s never had before. It wasn’t the uneasy detente of Peter David’s run, it was a full fledged complicity in Hulk’s actions – and it’s revealed aspects of Banner’s character that has been dormant for far too long.

Banner’s a genius, yes. But the shroud of social incompetence he used to wear has been shrugged off; he’s cold, calculating and brutal. He’s now taken to training up his son, Skaar, to be able to kill the Hulk when he inevitably re-emerges – or at least that’s what he’s leading everyone to believe.

He’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect his son as well. Take this most recent issue, which culminated in Daken using that claw with the ability to block healing abilities (apparently) to gut Skaar; Banner doesn’t hesitate to pull an old-power-powered gun on Wolverine.

Problem is, Daken doesn’t believe he’ll use it and he’s not the only one.

And that’s when Banner talks about his past; his killing of his abusive father was established in Peter David’s run and there, if I remember correctly, it seemed that the Hulk had more problems coming to terms with it than Banner did.

Of course, some people still need convincing…

…and convince them he does. Here’s the thing, though, it was originally suggested that the Hulk was basically born of the guilt from Banner’s act of patricide – and Pak here takes it one step further. Here, Banner suggests that the Hulk isn’t Banner’s repressed violent side; it’s his outlet to protect the world from Banner. He can’t be Banner while he’s Hulk – which means that Banner can’t plan.

It’s a great take on the character, and elevates him to a level that we haven’t seen before.

Also, Bendis’ thing about the Hulk killing people in his rampages? Gone forever, apparently – and good riddance.

I’m not one for animated Marvel movies (mainly because the only one I’ve seen, Iron Man, was a bit lame) but damned if this doesn’t look good.

Any chance that this will lead into a World War Hulk?

Rick Jones has been at the forefront of the Marvel Universe for decades.

Without Rick, there would be no Hulk.

I miss there being a Hulk book on the market that I’m interested in.

With all due respect to Ed McGuinness, whose almost cartoon-styled art I’ve always liked, I have little interest in reading a Red Hulk book. That’s mainly because I have no interest in reading about a character that’s as unlikeable as he seems to be (from what I’ve seen flicking through the book), and also because it’s quite clear that writer Jeph Loeb is writing him up to be a bad ass just because.

He has a gun! (You know that was ‘kewl’ in the 90s…).

He punches out the Watcher! (Galactus is probably next on the list).

He can take Thor out because he’s smart! (Jumping and holding the hammer makes no sense, and I’m not sure that zero gravity trumps mystical Norse magic, but that’s just me).

You know, I’m not one of those fanboys who cries into my cornflakes over whether Thor could take Superman or whatever, but this isn’t good storytelling from what I’ve seen; it’s pandering to a writer who honestly does his best work on moody, emotional flashback tales. He’s not that good at the big action stories that he seem to gravitate to these days.

It’s a shame, because prior to this the Hulk had been on a roll with Planet Hulk and World War Hulk (which wasn’t as great as it could have been, but still).

Maybe I should give Skaar, Son of Hulk a try?

The Bad

1) Tom Foster is a self-entitled whiny brat that I have no interest in reading about. I always liked Bill Foster and wish he had survived long enough to give his troublesome nephew a clip round the ear and a stern talking to.

2) Misty Knight transforms from a hard ass into a self-doubting fool. I was never that keen on her but that’s just plain annoying.

3) No Colleen Wing.

4) Amadeus Cho is crossing the line from amusing to obnoxious.

5) With the Damage Control mini coming out in January, it would appear that the rebuilding of New York will last till next May. Which is odd because it looks fine over in Spider-Man right now.

6) No Colleen Wing.

7) Manhattan starting to split apart. Just stupid.

I don’t believe Colleen Wing was in it.

9) Luke Cage acts like an ass in response to someone who says that they didn’t want to fight. How does Cage respond? By hitting him and saying that they did.

The Good

1) The Warbound in general and everyone else turning a blind eye to them escaping.

2) The preview for the Incredible Hercules wherein the bearded demi-god attacks a SHIELD helicarrier with a barrel of merlot.

3) Hercules holding Manhattan together with chains reminded me of another stupid Marvel Hercules feat, where he towed the island of Manhattan. Yes, read that sentence again and boggle your mind at the sheer stupidity of it. I wish I had a scan of that, but I’ll settle for the book’s cover…

I have to say though, I kind of like my idea better. Having Herc trying to contain the Hulk’s essence would have been pretty good – a mythological figure fighting the monster within.

Ah, well. Next time.

Over at Newsarama, editor Mark Pannicia took over Joe Fridays last week to tease some suff on the Hulk and Agents of Atlas, amongst other things – read the whole thing here.

One interesting thing that came up was the cover for Incredible Hulk #111:

Hmm, that sure looks like Hercules in silhouette there, doesn’t it, with Amadeus Cho in the background?

A couple of other things came up:

What’s next? Hmmmmmm. Let me see if I can be cleverly cryptic about this…Ok. For one thing, you’ll see the true color of anger.

And…one could say that Banner’s “curse” will definitely live past WWH.

More hmm. Banner’s curse will survive but Banner – and Hulk (being the curse, I assume) – might not? Is that’s what’s being teased?

And what’s this about the ‘true’ color of anger – implying that perhaps it isn’t green?

And then there’s this little comment a while back in another Joe Fridays (empahasis mine):

Q: Blaqstar 05-14-2007 06:00 PM : Not counting the Hulk. Name the top 5 characters that you think we readers should look out for in the second half of the year?

JQ: Well, too bad, ‘cause I’m going to say Spider-Man. Okay how about Thor, Cyclops, Ultimate Nick Fury, Spider-Woman and Hercules. Thanks for asking Blaqstar.

Intriguing stuff – could Hercules be so angered by the outcome of WWH that he goes on a rampage, thus revealing his own color as the true color of anger? It would certainly be an interesting twist and a new direction for the character and the book – and it’s not like we haven’t seen a Bannerless book before – or a Bannerless Hulk for that matter.

In fact, the last time I recall there being a non-Banner Hulk outside of the Avengers issues Rick Jones was a Hulk once too – and this was also teased by Pannicia:

As for Rick’s role, it’s very important to WWH and beyond, so if you’re jonesing for Jones, stay tuned and make sure you pick up Incredible Hulk #108!

Rick’s hair is kinda long sometimes, isn’t it?

One way or another, looks like we might be seeing a whole other Hulk come the end of the current World War…

EDIT: I’ve had a brainwave…what if the only way to stop Hulk ends up being that Reed or someone whips up a device that allows someone stronger than Banner to take on his curse and try to contain him? Hercules would be the perfect vessel to try and contain the Hulk’s power – and I’m fairly certain that Pak said that the relationship between Hulk and Banner would be changing – so what if Hercules is the new alter ego of the Hulk? Would that work??

Spoilers Ahoy

World War Hulk #1 – Okay, how good is it to see John Romita JR on an action book again? And how good is it seeing the Hulk taking out his rage on the Illuminati? And how good is it to hear something from Iron Man that starts to make up for and explain his actions. Yes, he’s an arrogant ass with a god complex – but he thinks he’s doing the right thing.

I can’t tell you how satisyfing this issue was for me – from Hulk’s landing on the moon to Strange and Iron Man’s brief talk to Spidey’s reaction to Iron Man’s Hulk-buster armor. So many things just felt ‘right’ that it was a pleasure from cover to cover, much more satisfying than Civil War.

That’s not to say that the issue was perfect – I would have liked to see more of the fight with Black Bolt (hmm, Silent War seems to be out of continuity before it even ends, doesn’t it?) and I have officially had enough of the Sentry now, the whining little schizo.

But other than that – firing on all cylinders. Highly recommended!

Image from Scans Daily

Sadly, the rest of the issue was kind of a mess – Lenil Yu’s art didn’t help matters here; Dr Strange’s return to health was a mess and the fight itself didn’t tie in to well to last issue’s ending.

Never mind that, though, because this whole Skrull thing poses the question of just how stupid that race is. It didn’t work when they replaced Alicia Masters or when they replaced Wolverine – and invasions have been repelled by the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and even the Front Line more times than I can count (yes, I have a soft spot for The Lost Generation) – so why do they keep on bothering?

Perhaps if the Illuminati hadn’t stuck their oar in during the first issue of their limited series, just after the Kree-Skrull War…

Hey, maybe this does hold together – what if Lyja replacing Alicia was just one isolated part of a plan to replace lots of people close to heroes that is so far-reaching, each Skrull only knows their own ‘secret identity’ – or what if many Skrulls are sleepers that don’t even know they’re Skrulls?

I’ll be interested to see how that plays out. Especially if it means seeing Lyja again…

Note to self: If you’re not looking to make Hulk angry, aiming rockets at his crotch is probably not the best idea…

Note to self – Sending angry green men into space is not wise; if they come back they may be even angrier. And the madder Hulk gets…

Note to self: Do not make him angry. I wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Newsarama has a four page preview of World War Hulk #1 up – and it looks great.