After being jettisoned to the planet Sakaar by the Illuminati (sans Professor X, who was missing at the time; and Namor, who disagreed with the decision), the Hulk has returned to the Earth uber-pissed. He believes that the shuttle that took him to Sakaar exploded on purpose, wiping out the world and his wife and unborn child. Now, with his gang called Warbound, he’s ready to unleash his rage upon the Earth.
He arrives on the moon first and takes down Black Bolt. He then heads to New York City and demand that it be evacuated and that Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Strange present themselves for punishment. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic go to see the Sentry, who they believe is the only person who can defeat the Hulk. But he’s too crazy to be of any help. As the New and Mighty Avengers evacuate the city (with help from some guys in tie-in issues that I didn’t read), the Hulk decides to check in on our favorite Mutants to see what Professor X would have said.
Hulk tears through the New X-Men team, who are then joined by the Astonishing team. Professor X steps out and Hulk confronts him. Xavier reads his mind and Hulk wants to know how he would have answered. Xavier tells Hulk that he would have shot him into space, but only for a limited amount of time – ie. when they have developed a cure for him. Hulk tells Professor X to get his ass in gear, but the X-Men refuse it and step in between them. Emma reaches out to the other X-Men teams – Uncanny, Excalibur, and X-Factor. Hulk manages to beat the crap outta Wolverine when the Juggernaut shows up, having teleported over by Cytorrak. Hulk punches him out, bends Colossus’ arms outta shape, and is then confronted by the Uncanny team and X-Factor. Guido puts up a good fight against Hulk, but his heart is still in bad shape from about a million and half years ago. He goes down, but that’s about when Hephzibah crashed the Blackbird into Hulk. Hulk shrugs that off, but now has to deal with the Juggernaut in full-Cytorrak power mode. He battles with the Hulk again, but goes down. Hulk chases after Professor X and catches up with him and Mercury at the graveyard. It’s there Mercury yells at the Hulk about how their lives are already a mess. Hulk sees that Professor X is already living in hell. He then heads on out. So does Juggernaut.
The Hulk returns to New York City and not long after the city is evacuated, he confronts the heroes. Iron Man steps up in his new Hulkbuster armor and the two beat the crap out of each other. Eventually, they crash into Avengers Tower. Hulk emerges victorious and goes to beat up the rest of the heroes with his Warbound. In addition to the Mighty Avengers and half the New Avengers (Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and Spider-Woman), there’s also Samson and She-Hulk to battle it out. They eventually fall to the Hulk – even after She-Hulk tries to talk some sense into him. Hulk then launches himself at the Baxter Building to face down the Fantastic Four. Black Panther fights the Warbound whilst Storm and the Human Torch launch themselves at the Hulk. The trio fails and Thing tussels with the Hulk before himself going down. Mr. Fantastic tries to pretend he’s the Sentry, but to no avail. He goes down, along with Sue.
With the super-heroes finished, the Warbound goes in search of Dr. Strange and Rick Jones confronts the Hulk. Hulk merely brushes him aside. The Warbound make short work of Ronin, Echo, and Iron Fist and Hiorim the Fallen remains behind to seek out Doctor Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum. As he’s being assaulted by the military and General Ross, Doctor Strange reaches Banner within Hulk and tries to calm him. The Hulk fights back and breaks Strange’s hands. Ross and his military eventually lose to the Hulk. Strange lets the demon called Zom into his body and uses its power to battle the Hulk. The battle takes them through New York and even endangers civilians – but Hulk saves them and is victorious over Strange.
Hulk then puts the Illuminati through the same trials he had to face on Sakaar – concluding with a fight between the four of them. As the Hulk watches on, the Sentry is at last unleashed. The Hulk declares the fighting at an end, making it clear that the world sees them now as traitors and liars and that he will destroy New York now as punishment. The Sentry collides with him and two war it out, with the Sentry continuing to lose control. The Hulk beats him down and in it, he is finally calmed and exhausted, becoming Banner again. Rick Jones reaches out to him . . . only to be stabbed by the Hulk’s best friend, Miek. Banner Hulks out and beats the crap outta Miek, when it’s revealed that it was Miek that watched/allowed the followers of Sakaar’s fallen ruler the Red King to load the bomb onto the ship that destroyed Sakaar. The Hulk goes crazy with rage, radiation and energy rippling from him. He tells them to stop him and Tony puts him down with a gigantic laser beam. The Hulk crumbles, the Warbound goes into hiding, and Hulk – as Banner – is taken into government custody and rendered comatose.
And thus, yet another Marvel crossover ends.
My opinion of the Hulk is a little strange. To me, the Hulk is only as good as the stories he’s featured in. For me to really enjoy Hulk, it has be a story that is going to interest me or, otherwise, I’m fairly “meh” when it comes to him. Luckily, both Planet Hulk and World War Hulk are just those kinds of stories. Having loved Planet Hulk, I found World War Hulk to be a great compliment to that epic. World War Hulk is full of all those battles I always wanted to see – Hulk versus She-Hulk, Thing, Juggernaut, Strong Guy, and Colossus with the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four tagging along. Plus, considering everything the Hulk has gone through, it’s hard not to understand his rage at these characters. We get plenty of insight into the Hulk and the characters of the Warbound are well-rounded and interesting.
The X-Men aspect (which is really the only other book I can justify being part of this crossover other than Hulk and Frontline, which I decided not to read with this entry), plays out nicely. It’s a nice story with surprising character development. Juggernaut gets some development. The relationship between Professor X and Cyclops – while tense – is played off well here. There are plenty of continuity nuggets dropped here and there as well. From Guido’s heart problems to Juggernaut’s previous battle with the Hulk and even the long-standing Hulk/Wolverine battles.
As an overall, World War Hulk is a great read and is probably among my top three favorite Hulk stories. But I do have offer a complaint against Marvel. “Avengers Disassembled” was about the Scarlet Witch destroying the Avengers. “House of M” was about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch destroying Mutantkind. “Civil War” was about Captain America fighting Iron Man. And now we have “World War Hulk” that pits the Hulk against the elite of Marvel heroes. Got a question – when is this super-hero on super-hero violence going to end? Please let “Secret Invasion” be a departure from this.
~W~
No comments:
Post a Comment