f13.net

World War Hulk Prologue:  World Breaker was released a couple days ago.  If there's one problem that I'm going to have with the story it's this:  We have Hulk, armed with a sword and a particularly murderous attitude towards certain individuals.  Realistically Marvel can't have Hulk kill those individuals.  Well maybe they'll offer up a couple of sacrifices for publicity.  Black Bolt and Dr. Strange are fairly expendable at the moment or maybe they'll go for more Captain America style shock value and off Tony or Reed.  Point is that Hulk isn't going to get a chance to kill all these people.  And he should.  He really really should.

I know nothing about this.

Why Hulk mad at puny humans? Why Hulk have pointy metal?

Puny humans tricked Hulk and shot him to another planet in a rocket. Hulk learned to use pointy metal as Gladiatior on that other planet.

Reed, Tony, Dr. Strange, and Black Bolt decided that they were tired of the Hulk rampaging around Earth.  The told him they needed his help for something (forget what but it involved going into space), and after he got in the rocket ship, they proceeded to tell him that they tricked him (smart move guys) and were really blasting him off to some uninhabited planet where he could live out the rest of his days.  In his anger he started beating the shit out of the inside of the ship, sending it off course and causing it to crash down on a different planet.

Here he became a Gladiator, made friends with some of the other Gladiators, replaced the Emperor there, got a wife, and had a kid on the way.  The rocket ship then exploded wiping out millions of people including his wife.  Now he's on his way back to Earth, and obviously pissed.  Reed and Tony are supposed to be geniuses, but not only did they tell the Hulk that they tricked him, not only did they send him in a rocket ship that apparently could be easily diverted from it's course by a rampaging Hulk and then stupidly caused the Hulk to do just that,  but their rocketship has apparently just wiped out more people than Hulk ever did by an order of magnitude.  So yeah... rootin for the Hulk here.

I haven't read it yet, but if the Hulk DID kill Tony Start and Reed Richards, I'm not sure there'd be too many people that didn't cheer. These two characters have become the least sympathetic hero characters ever.

Hulk might as well kill Cyclops too, just as a bonus.

Dude no, Joss Whedon's been doing good things with Cyclops.  Most importantly: making him not suck.

As for everyone else, yes, I would be very very happy if Hulk killed the hell out of Stark and Richards.  Hulk FINALLY got everything in his life sorted out and was set to live happily ever after as king of a planet, and their rocket blows up and kills everyone on the planet.  They really have it coming.

You can make Cyclops not suck? What a crock of bullshit.

Is "Cyclops Sucks" going to be the new official running joke of F13?

Actually....

ASTONISHING X-MEN SPOILER ALERT:




Joss just killed Cyclops. Yay!

Killed Cyclops my ass.  Whedon 'kills' characters left and right and they keep managing to pop back up, as any Buffy viewer could tell you.  He'll be fine in an issue or two.

But yes, he made Cyclops not suck.

Step 1: Take away his power so he isn't a walking turret anymore.
Step 2: Make him go fucking crazy.
Step 3: Make sure he finds a pistol somewhere.
Step 4: Rather than use his 'super powerful but never seems to kill anyone' eye beams, have him use the pistol to solve problems, while having an, "I'm fucking crazy and don't care anymore." attitude.

Voila, Cyclops stops sucking.

(Example of Whedon making someone awesome simply by giving them a pistol and nothing left to lose here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Up1CwjEsc))

I just make comments about killing off Cyclops in order to piss off Haemish.



It's a little early to say that.  I don't think he's quite dead at the end of the most recent issue.  Mind you I've been predicting that he dies in this arc, but as of yet he still seems to be alive.

Killing Cyclops isn't quite an SB.EXE moment for me, so long as the death is a decent one. But then, someone's already killed Cyclops once in the X-Men's run so really I won't believe it til the arc is over.

Cyclops killing aside, Planet Hulk made a pretty good case for Hulk basically being the hero in World War Hulk.  Reed and Tony's stupidity relsulted in most of the life on a planet to get wiped out.  Even if the malfunction that sent Hulk off course was a one in a billion chance, why send out a space ship with a warp core powerful enough to wipe out millions of people if it should somehow get breached (and thus could have acted as a pretty potent weapon if some space traveling race had come across it at some point)? 

Bendis, Millar, JMS, and others have made a point recently of showing that Reed and Tony are so smart they can come up with equations to predict the future or can see specific events coming far in advance, so why couldn't they figure out something simple like blasting Hulk off into space + incredibly dangerous warp core + guidance system in space ship easily thrown off course + actually telling Hulk you betrayed him =  fuck up of epic proportions?

What is Hulk like these days anyway? Is he smart? He was dumb and green, then clever and gray and weaker, then was big and smart and green - now what is he?

Personality-wise he's closest in tone to Mr. Fixit.  He's intelligent, but he's not at Banner's level of intelligence.  He's also Green and pretty strong (there's an energy draining field around the planet Hulk landed on that sapped a lot of his strength but he regained it pretty quickly).  Throughout Planet Hulk he only reverted back to Banner a couple of times (and never in front of any of his friends, nor has he really explained to them the whole Banner/Hulk thing).  He still seems to have quite a bit of disdain for Banner, but it also seems like their personalities aren't really fighting each other at the moment.

Well, I can understand why they told Hulk they betrayed him.  They still felt he was a friend, and it would have been really bad just to shoot him off into space for no apparent reason.  They wanted to let him know it was they that were doing it, in the best interest of him and everybody on earth, and this was for the best.  Now, you can say that was naive and stupid of them, but I can understand wanting to come clean and let your friend know exactly whats going on, instead of going for a full stab in the back.

Hulk's intelligence seems to be on the high end of average at the moment.  He's done a lot of clever things, but hasn't shown much in the way of nuclear physicist smarts.  Whether he's not that smart or he has the smarts and simply hasn't demonstrated them is unclear.  He was also very bitter but seemed to have a good handle on his anger issues, right up until some jackass blew up his planet.  As for Banner, during his brief appearances it seemed that he had become the bitch of the relationship, with Hulk firmly in control.  You can bet, however, that it's Banner who'll keep Hulk from killing important Marvel characters.

That's why you put in a recording that plays as the ship lands, far far away.

I haven't read Planet Hulk yet, but I read the preview.

When even Peter David can't make a storyline like this interesting, something's wrong. You can tell there's parts of the story where he knows he's just aping editorial directions. Especially the part with Jen and Samson, which was just pages long "This is what's happened" exposition. Yeah, I think Black Bolt is going to get capped in the story and Iron Man and Reed Richards will come off unscathed. What a waste.

The satire story they had in there was better than the main story.

Why does a sword add to Hulk's lethality? His punch is like having a bulldozer dropped on you. A sword cannot compete with that.

Because then it's like a bulldozer pushing a razor thin piece of metal though you.  Less surface area means greater pressure per square inch.

Also someone mentioned the planet sapping his strength.

Also, he doesn't need it.

"There is no air in space.  Because of that, he could not ask them who they are.  As it happens, he has no need of their names either.  He wades through them with a sword he also does not require.  He is the eye of anger... the World Breaker... the Green Scar... Two-Hands, Harkanon, Harrg, Holku.  He is Hulk."

But swords are cool and the Hulk looks like Conan now.

Why would they do that?

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Conan_O%27Brien_at_U.S._Embassy_Helsinki.jpg)

That part served to remind me how much I hate that they gave Hulk the ability to survive in space without any sort of oxygen supply.

Suffocation just makes him angry.

What do you expect?  It's a major crossover where heroes fight each other, and thanks to delays of the last couple of issues of Civil War, it's coming out right on the heels of a major crossover where heroes fought each other.

The Hulk can't fly, right? So why didn't they just blast him into the sun? Am I simply not suspending my disbelief enough?  :-P

Because he's their friend and they don't want to kill him.

Cause y'know, firing him off on a rocket randomly into deep space would have been just peachy. I'm sure he had enough food and water on board to last him for the rest of his life.

To their defense they tried to shoot him to a lonely planet where he could survive on his own and be kept in peace like he always wanted.

Thats the only defense the cabal of the dumbest geniuses ever get from me, though.

Yeah, but I just don't see how these guys couldn't forsee the possibility of the guidance system going off course when the Hulk gets pissed off and starts hitting stuff (as they had to have known he would).

I'm just waiting for the panel where Reed goes "BANNNNERRRR!!!!!".

The dude doesn't need air. I think he's probably okay without food or water.

Especially considering Reed's revelation that he helped engineer the entire fucking Civil War mess because he was able to forsee an even worse set of events with his predictive algrebra or whatever that retarded plot device was called. I mean, you can predict a cataclysm because you don't reign in super-heroes, but you can't predict mechanical failure or the Hulk bashing the shit out of a rocket?

The whole thing is predicated on everyone involved being a complete dumbass.

Sounds like somebody has been stealing ideas from the Foundation Trilogy.

I'll get this when it's TPB'ed or something.

As I've said a hundred times, Planet Hulk rocked. So I look forward to him getting some payback.

Also, it's very hard for someone to screw up a Hulk story for me. I'd be surprised if someone actually managed to do it.

Believe in the power of the Bendis.

Uh, in the comic thats exactly what he says actually.  That he was inspired by reading foundation as a kid, and so he ended up creating psycohistory himself.  Wasn't really like the authors were sneakily trying to steal the idea.

And Haemish, if you read foundation (and they also said this in the comic), psycohistory is useless for predicting any type of small scale event at all.  It can only be used to predict massive trends in society on a global/galactic type level.  IE, you cant use it to figure out Doctor Doom is going to attack New York at such and such date.  Or that the Hulk is going to Smash your rocket.  Now, of course, for the last one, common sense should stand in easily, but oh well  :wink:.  But I actually liked that they threw in the psycohistory thing as a good way of explaining Reeds actions, so I guess we just see things differently.

The rocket bashing thing doesn't really bug me much either.  I mean, it would have been alot better if they had just said the rocket unexpectedly got knocked off course by an unseen asteroid/wormhole/Galacticus or what ever, but thats just one small plot point.  Could have been completely changed with a couple of panels.  So just pretend they did that, heh.  After that, the planet hulk story was still quite good I thought, and now I'm looking forward to World War Hulk.

Ah well that explains it.

I take it he also destroyed the guidance computer and the backup as well?

Oh sorry - this is a comic.

I'm sure if Reed and Tony just offer Hulk some Hostess Fruit Pies, with their light, flaky crust and real fruit filling, everything will be ok.

First issue has been released.  The Black Bolt fight was way too short and the Iron Man fight was a little too long (regardless of what armor modifications he's made to what looks like some crazy version of the Hulkbuster armor Hulk is noted to be at his most powerful right now, and thus should have pretty much finished Tony off in one blow).  On the plus side all the characters pretty much agree to ignore all that Civil War related shit for the moment which is a fucking relief.

So is it basically the Hulk is pissed and everyone tries to stop him for whatever reason?  Is it directed rage or is any target fair game?  Is anyone staying out of his way?

His rage is mostly targeted on Black Bolt, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Mr. Fantastic.  He gives civilians 24 hours to evacuate NYC, so he's at least giving people who aren't involved a chance to get away.  Of course he's also threatened to wipe everyone on the planet out if his targets don't present themselves for their beatings.

Sweet.  G'luck Hulk!

I just read it. It's a lot more solid than any of their big crossover events have been lately. I'm still not sold on the subject, since it again follows off of that premise that those 4 characters are authoritarian jackasses who were too stupid to think through their decisions. But the story was decent, reservations aside. There did need to be much more Black Bolt and much less fucking Iron Man.

And can I say again how much I hate what they've done with the Sentry? How much he really just fucks up the entire universe?

Also, when did She-Hulk regain her Hulk form? Last I saw, she'd been nanobotted into losing her powers.

Might have been in an issue of the Hulk.  I seem to recall Mastermind Excello coming up with a way to disable the nanobots.

Issue #2 I think highlighted a lot of the problems one would expect from this story.  First and foremost would be the fact that Marvel can't actually have the Hulk going around killing everyone in his way.  His fights against the Avengers and the FF in this issue have all the tension of a battle scene in an episode of G.I. Joe.  Where are all the 3rd tier sacrificial lambs when we need them?  Oh, Black Goliath, if only we could kill you in every major Marvel event.  Someone get Brother Voodoo or Captain Ultra in this book.

Much like the DC event, World War 3, which had 4 issues of Black Adam fighting everyone in the DC universe, World War Hulk will overstay it's welcome by about 3 or 4 issues if it can't add some more meat to the characters, as well as raise the stakes a little.  Hulk's Warbound have been given nothing to do so far.  One of them has a bit part in the backup feature of Frontline, but it's crap that's at such odds with how events are being portrayed in the main book that it might as well be taking place in an alternate timeline.  She-Hulk and Rick Jones at least each get a scene in this issue which is nice.  Sure, Jen get driven into the pavement, but for the two pages before that she's written as having a lot more sense than most of Marvel's characters have been displaying in the past couple years.  Same with Rick Jones, who, in expressing his wish that the Hulk was around to hit Tony and Reed, I'm sure echoed the thoughts of many of the readers.

And in closing, fuck the Sentry!  I don't need to read this retcon crap about the Sentry being one of Hulk's only true friends, and the only guy that can calm Hulk down, especially when Rick Jones has several decades worth of comic history that show him as the guy that already fills that role.  Pak clearly seems to understand this, as he uses Rick to just that effect a page later, so I can only assume that this Sentry shit was some sort of editorial directive he was given.  There's certainly no compelling reason for including the Sentry in this book, other than the fact that once they established him in the actual MU, you're pretty much forced to put him into any major event like this, based solely on his power level.  He's only the barest hint of a character whose lack of a well-defined list of powers is only overshadowed by his lack of a well-defined personality.

Don't fuck this up Marvel.  This could be a brutal followup to Planet Hulk, or it could be a fucking WWE grudge match.

Oh they will. Shit, they already have. In the span of one week's comics, they have the Hulk fighting everyone in New York in the main book, then fighting the X-Men in WWH: X-Men, and the Warbound are with him at the same time one of the warbound is in that execrable Frontline backup doing idiotic fim noir detective shit. And the worst part is that the whole thing amounts to Hulk beats the shit out of everyone. That's it, that's the story. Fuck character, fuck story, just Hulk SMASH!!! for what 4 issues, 6? That'd be ok if it were just the one book, but it's 3 books not to mention any crossovers. At least Countdown, as bland as it is, has some layers of complexity. This is just excessive.

The Sentry is a shitty character. Always has been. Even the regular mini-series really weren't that interesting, but making him an Avenger has just been a failure. Bendis has to stretch to figure out why the Avengers aren't using him to fix things, then he just brings him in whenever it's convenient, only to have him get his ass kicked for no good reason like in the last few Mighty Avengers. And all the destruction New York has been under bewteen Mighty Avengers and WWH, there shouldn't be one building left standing.

Marvel needs to have a writer and editorial purge.

Thing is, I don't really care about the crossover titles, as I pretty much expect them all to be shit.  I just want the main book and Hulk's book to be good, and Greg Pak is certainly capable of it.  The problem is that I'm guessing he had a lot more freedom when he was writing Planet Hulk than he does right now.

Oh god damn is this funny, I wonder how many people get this? LOL.

I used to read a newsgroup where a Marvel editor would post. However bad you think the Marvel editing is, it's worse.

I just read up on this Sentry fellow in the Marvel Universe section on the main website.

What a shitty, shitty character.

I'm not a big fan of the Sentry, myself.  Basically, they put him in the universe to make a "more managable" Thor-leveled character.  Now that Thor is back, however...  I do enjoy the fact that they made The Sentry a psychopath who is so stuck in his own head that he can't go out and do much to help.  He did one cool thing, however, when he was introduced back at the beginning of New Avengers when he flew Carnage in to space and ripped him in half.

STRANGE SMASH!

What... the... fuck?

I don't know, but I'm looking forward to that more than I am the increasingly likely climax of a Hulk/Sentry fight.

It's pretty obvious that the end is going to be the goddamn Sentry coming in and depowering the Hulk or some shit like that. A finger snap will end it.

Hulk will probably end up one blow away from beating Sentry, look around and see all the destruction the fight has caused, and give up.  Then he'll be killed on his way to his trial.


Edit:  Someone needs to write a story about just how much they have to pay people to live in NYC in the Marvel Universe.

I'm still laughing about the fruit pies.

Sadly, the decline of Hostess products in the MU was an indirect cause in the deaths of Captain America and Captain Marvel, as they were proven to be effective weapons against the villains that were eventually responsible for killing them (Red Skull and Nitro respectively, who were both stopped with Twinkes, with their golden sponge cake and cream filling).  However they would not have prevented Batgirl (who utilizied Hostess related tactics on two seperate occasions) from being crippled by the Joker, as the Joker has admitted to not liking them (thus further proving his insanity to the police).  It's debatable whether Thor may have been able to use them to prevent Ragnarok.

I want them to sacrifice Tony Stark to the Hulk.  nuff' said.

I wish this thread was updated more often.  Didn't #3 come out? I don't really want to pick up the comics, I just want to read about the stories and opinions about them.  You know, like 0.0 PvP in EVE.

Here's an update on the story.

Hulk Smash. People talk. People attack Hulk and almost hurt him. Then Hulk Smash. Sentry looks forlorn while sitting around in his jimmyjams. Doctor Strange conjure. STRANGE SMASH.

End of #3.

I picked up Planet Hulk as per Velorath's suggestion. Not sure when I'll get a chance to read it, I'm stuck at a consulting job working round the clock for weeks.

Inteview with Greg Pak, Mark Paniccia, and Jeph Loeb (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=128804) about post-WWH plans (possible minor spoilers).

With Loeb temporarily taking over on Hulk after WWH ends, I'll likely drop the book.  While I've liked a couple of his books in the past, he's decended into the realm of really crap writing lately.  His recently completed Wolverine arc was one of the worst stories of the past decade, and for those who haven't read it, if I were to describe it here, people would just assume I was joking.  Pak though, is going on to write a 5 issue Warbound mini which I will be picking up, and will be back on Hulk sometime next year from the sound of it.

So I read Planet Hulk on Sunday, liked it a lot. Looks like Velorath has taste I can trust.

My favorite character was the Broodling. Does that make me weird?

WWH #4 came out on Wednesday, giving us the fight between Dr. Strange and the Hulk.  It's a decent fight scene, but it suffered a bit from that fact that it was a really transparent way of making Strange look like he's as big of an ass as his three Illuminati cohorts.  It's almost like they realized at the last minute "oh shit, we forgot to make Strange look like a complete dick in Civil War, we better have him do something really out of character here so we don't actually feel sorry for him when the Hulk kicks his ass".  Mind you, having been a big Dr. Strange fan at times, I could pick out numerous occasions in the past where he's acted like a complete douche, but Marvel somewhat frowns on using any continuity in a story unless Bendis had some hand in writing it.

The other letdown is the last couple of pages continuing to lead up to the inevitable Sentry related conclusion that I've feared throughout this entire story.  I don't know how many times I can say that this character has been a complete misfire.  The fact that the entirety of his dialogue in New Avengers since issue #1 could be written down on a napkin with and only fill up one-half of one side, coupled with the problem that the writers can't seem to keep straight what sort of psychosis the guy actually suffers from, leaves us with a character whom I can only hope has his involvement limited to a quick, painful death possibly leaving the Hulk to feel guilty for a short while.  Really, with Thor back, the MU doesn't need the Sentry (not that it ever really did).

So what did I like about this issue.  Brief as it was, I liked the conversation between Rick Jones and the Hulk.  It was important in letting us know that there really doesn't seem to be any conflict between Banner and Hulk in regards to what their goal is.  His wife accepted him as both Hulk and Banner, so it stands to reason that they're both pissed right now.  The fight between Reed, Stark, Strange, and Black Bolt was decent, although JRjr's art seems a little bit rushed, making some aspects of the fight a little confusing.  I assume Strange's spell is what's creating that fire, but I"m unsure why it appears to be consuming him as well, and whether or not they're supposed to be in danger of burning to death in that last panel they're shown in, or what exactly is going on.  It cuts down on the impact a little bit, as I've got now idea what Strange is actually doing.  Maybe it's just an illusion Strange is casting and that's why they're being a little vague about it?

Also, more Warbound plz.

Meh. The whole series has been a disappointment to me (and I had no real hope for it anyway) but not nearly as bad as Civil War. The last issue of Hulk had that Amadeus kid try to give some explanation for why no one has ever been killed in a Hulk rampage (though I think they've flip flopped on that one numerous times in just the last year). It's a TORTURED, badly lame explanation, about as lame as Reed Richards pyschofuturism or continuity wall punches. I actually think it's worse than those two because Marvel can't keep straight whether or not the Hulk has caused civilian deaths.

You are correct about the Sentry. It was a moderaly interesting idea that never made any sort of entertaining book. The second series was worse than the first, and now no one can even keep his pyschological problems straight. He's been waiting in the wings the whole time, and I can only hope that they manage to kill the character off at the end of #5 so no one will be tempted to use him ever again.

The whole Marvel Universe is in serious need of a reset.

Bendis (big surprise there) pretty much fucked up the whole thing with whether or not the Hulk has accidentally killed anybody.  Up until that first Illluminati one-shot I believe, it was pretty much understood that through the magic of comics, none of the Hulk's rampages had caused any deaths.  The reasoning was that if Bruce Banner had been responsible for killing even one person, his sense of guilt probably would have caused him to off himself to prevent it from happening again.

It's one of those things that silly in a comic book sort of way, but as long as nobody mentions it, than it's easy to ignore.  Bendis though decided he didn't like all that, so all of a sudded Hulk became a killer after a rampage through Los Vegas.  Dan Slott, who had recently mentioned in an issue of She-Hulk that Hulk had never been responsible for any deaths, got a little irate about this, and now it looks like Pak is trying to undo the damage.  It's a stupid explanation, and one we'll likely never hear about again after this storyline, but it mostly seems like it's a band-aid designed to fix another Bendis fuck up.

I like Dan Slott.

All his She-Hulk stuff was spot on and very entertaining.  It was one of the reasons I started picking up comics and realizing that, holy shit, certain writers make excellent stories.

I hear he's doing Spider-man now, which must be a nice promotion, but now I worry for Shulike. =\

For some reason, Velorath has managed to intruige me enough to check out what is going on with Marvel. I came across a pretty cool sounding What If? story involving the Planet Hulk storyline, which, even though I didn't read it, seems like the freshest thing to happen to the character in a long time.

What If? Featuring Planet Hulk is the third title featured on the page.

The Buy Pile @ CBR (http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=22)

Yeah seems like it woulda been alot better storyline.  PLANT HULK SMASH (http://images.comicbookresources.com/solicits/marvelcomics/200710/whatifph.jpg)

In other words, the shit they SHOULD be doing with the storyline, instead of the massive pussing out you know they are going to do by not having the Hulk kill Iron Man, Reed Richards, Black Bolt and Dr. Strange.

There's no point in having Hulk kill them. That would just result in four more Remembering Fallen Heroes issues and then things would be back to the same old shenanigans after a month or so as Dr. Strange returns them all from the ether, with the help of Wolverine who also happens to die in a separate storyline. Together they will defeat the Angel of Death, return, then hit the stripclubs.

Yeah pretty much.  That is one thing I loved about What If comics, they are allowed to actually change the world in a drastic way, since it's only an issue.  Thinking about it now its kind of a bad move even making them as it's showing how cool the Marvel universe could be if they grew some balls.  Imagine makes reading the actual storyline they are going with all the more depressing. 

I hear that Hulk beat the shit of the X-Men. Surely that must be worth reading?

Not especially.  It was a three part mini that only existed because Marvel felt that they had to have some sort of X-men tie-in with WWH.  It's not horrible or anything, but given that the main WWH book alone is 5 issues of the Hulk fighting people, 3 issues of him fighting the X-men wasn't especially necessary.

Speaking of which, WWH just finished up today, and as expected, the Sentry/Hulk fight was about as compelling as the average Dragonball Z fight (DBZ being the kind of thing that you have to give me the Clockwork Orange treatment in order to get me to watch, and even then by sheer force of will I'd somehow manage to dislodge my eyeballs from my skull). 

Even beyond all that, o be honest, the conclusion of this story is a bit of a mess.  With Civil War, we had a story where Marvel claimed that there wasn't a good side or a bad side, and then proceeded to have the pro-reg side unleashing murderous clones of Thor, sending super-villains after their former friends, etc..., and any moral grey area vanished as readers wondered what twisted sense of morality Quesada must have in order to be so blind to that fact that, yes, one side was acting really fucking bad.  In WWH, we have another attempt at one of those morally grey stories, and while it was by no means perfect in that respect from the start, the surprise betrayal that comes out of nowhere near the end establishes one character as the mustache-twirling bad guy.

On the bright side, the book advertises two new Hulk spin-off books, and while one is the abysmal looking Jeph Loeb book with the Red Hulk, the other (which I won't give away here), looks to be something a lot closer in tone with Planet Hulk, which is nice, although a creative team hasn't been announced yet.  Also, the Incredible Hulk book is being turned into the Incredible Herc, with Hercules and Amadeus Cho starring.  Of course I assume this is temporary.

I just like people owning the X-Men. That was the best part of Secret Wars, when Spider-Man singlehandedly beat them down. :awesome_for_real:

So it looked like the comic ended strongly.

That's a bit of an understatement. What a fucking waste of a book. Multiple books, whatever it was.

SPOILER ALERT!






Green Hulk is shot into space, Red Hulk/Bruce Banner is locked in a bunker in the desert, Rick Jones and most of the Warbound is dead. Sentry looks to be exhausted and maybe doesn't have any power anymore? Which can't be right unless Mighty Avengers takes place before this, and that may be true because the crappy Illuminati book takes place after.

But the worst part of the book was that they reveal one of the Warbound set Hulk up the bomb. That seriously weakens the whole impact of the betrayal that the 4 Illuminati members pulled off which caused the Hulk world to be destroyed in the first place. Marvel pussed out again. Either make these guys into the shitheels that they've shown they are, or just forget the whole goddamn Civil War mess existed.

Read the last book finaly.

Ugh is all I really have to say about it.

Here's a shock, the Hulk doesn't actually make an appearance in Hulk #1.  We have Bruce Banner and Rick Jones, but no actually glimpse of either a red or a green Hulk.  Hasn't Marvel moved past this sort of decompressed storytelling yet?  This story might possible work if they hadn't relaunched the book (while giving Hercules the Hulk's old book), but presumably the reason behind relaunching a series is that it's supposed to be a good jumping on point for new readers.  This issue reads more like coming in to the middle of a story. 

The story is building off the end of Planet Hulk, but there is zero recap for new readers to catch up with.  Instead we've got Thunderbolt Ross, Doc Samson, She-Hulk, Iron Man, and Maria Hill investigating the murder of the Abomination.  The Hulk seems like a likely suspect due to the footprints, gamma radiation, and the severe beating the Abomination took, but he was finished off by some sort of gun, which doesn't really fit Hulk's M.O..  While the characters are puzzling through this, the Winter Guard shows up and a fight breaks out.  It almost seems as if all the characters become irrationally angry, especially Doc Samson who throws the first blow with little provocation, so I'm speculating that either there's something about the red Hulk, or the kid Ross finds nearby that causes others to become angry.  Either that or everyone was being written out of character, which sadly I can't discount given the current state of Marvel.

The issue isn't bad really, especially compared to most of Loeb's recent work.  As a relaunch though, it isn't going to attract any readers that haven't been following the Hulk recently, and it's going to shed readers fairly quickly if it tries to drag out the mystery of who or what the new Hulk is.

I tried reading the last Hulk issue (which was really a Hercules issue) and I don't think I even finished it. It was just not interesting in any way. How is it that Marvel has made most of the characters I liked and was interested in... just not interesting?