u/Hobbes314

Collecting WORLD WAR HULK PROLOGUE: WORLD BREAKER, WORLD WAR HULK #1-5, INCREDIBLE HULK (2000) #106-111, IRON MAN (2005) #19-20, AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #4-5, IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #10, WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN #1-3, GHOST RIDER (2006) #12-13, HEROES FOR HIRE (2006) #11-15, PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL (2007) #12, WORLD WAR HULK: GAMMA CORPS #1-4, WORLD WAR HULK: FRONT LINE #1-6, WORLD WAR HULK: AFTERSMASH ONE-SHOT, WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH: DAMAGE CONTROL #1-3, WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH: WARBOUND #1-5 and PLANET HULK SAGA.

**Spoilers Ahead**

Think I’ll try to make this review a weekly thing, at least till I catch up with this year's read. After my wonderful creator-led and singularly focused Gwenpool read, I decided to jump knee deep into spectacle and event comics. World War Hulk, for those unaware, is Act 2 of Greg Pak’s...I dunno 8? Act continuing Hulk saga, and is the immediate follow-up to the events of Planet Hulk, so obvious spoilers for the events of that story. Now I’m going to be honest, this time and era of Marvel is my childhood, the Hulk was my number 1 guy as a kid, so this is going to be a much nicer and kinder view on this event than what most other people may give. I’m going to break down this review into 3 sections: the main event, the good tie-ins, and the bad tie-ins, and drop some conclusive thoughts at the end.

So to start, the main event, which I’m going to classify as everything written by Greg Pak, is WORLD WAR HULK #1-5, INCREDIBLE HULK (2000) #106-111, WORLD WAR HULK: AFTERSMASH ONE-SHOT, and WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH: WARBOUND #1-5. The titled series is drawn by John Romita Jr, the Hulk ongoing is by Gary Frank, Leonard Kirk, and Carlo Pagulayan, Aftersmash is by Rafa Sandoval, and lastly, Warbound is by Leonard Kirk in the present, with Rafa Sandoval doing the flashbacks. The premise of the event is simple: Hulk found peace, and those stupid puny humans once again won’t leave Hulk alone. The ship he landed on Sakaar detonates, destroys the capital city, and kills Hulk’s wife and unborn child. So he has decided he will finally smash everyone. Each issue is him smashing his way through everyone, 1st issue he takes on Black Bolt, (but not really, shhh secret invasion hasn’t happened yet) and Iron Man, 2nd issue is the Fantastic Four and the New & Mighty Avengers, 3rd is the military and Dr Strange, 4th is Dr Strange Round 2 and then what amounts to a military tribunal, finally culminating in the 5th issue, Hulk vs The Sentry.

It was this event and JMS Spider-Man that made me a John Romita Jr fan for life. I know his name is not as well regarded in recent years, but for this event and at this moment, he was absolutely the correct pick for this type of story. The sheer kinetic energy and feeling of weight in each panel, his ability to depict destruction at this scale, an unmatched talent

I’m not going to act like this is some high-concept story; this is a beat-em-up event comic that’s just smashing toys together. That said, what does elevate this event from just noise is Pak’s use of current and past continuity; this is waste deep Bendis Marvel, Cap is dead, Civil War is over, heroes are on the run, OMD hasn’t happened yet, and Pak uses this to his strength. For those new readers, it’s hard to keep perspective, but at this moment in time, Reed Richards and Tony Stark are fuckin hated both in and out of universe, and reading the event you get a vibe and implication that the universe itself feels wrong. Pak uses that to inform some pathos into the story. Take this scene, we have a call back to Paul Jenkins’ Marvel Knights Inhumans, Civil War, and a deep Silver Age throwback with Zom. We, the audience, want to see these *heroes* face justice for how far they’ve fallen, and we, in turn, feed into Hulk’s crowd and side.

There are a lot of great character moments among certain heroes and supporting characters, but what I want to zero in on is how Pak captures the lack of Cap and a moral center as the reason why all of this destruction is deserved. Multiple times, it’s depicted that even though this is the maddest Hulk has ever been, you can still reach him and his humanity, that if someone like Cap was there to talk to him, the bloodshed could’ve been avoided. This concludes with the death of Rick Jones, the Marvel avatar of the Silver Age, which in turn creates, to the bane of powerscaling discussion boards everywhere, Worldbreaker Hulk and the second half of the prophecy that’s been looming since Planet Hulk, that by destroying the innocence in the world, you bring about your own destruction.

As for the rest of Pak’s issues, the ongoing Hulk issues are just him setting up Amadus Cho and Hercules as a duo who will be leading their own ongoing once the event wraps up. It’s fine, it’s a supporting series in an event where the events can’t impact the main ongoing. Warbound Aftersmash, that one is more of a mixed bag. It’s structured so messily, but it is important if you care at all about The Warbound, whom I’ve neglected to mention up until this point. Korg the Kronan, Hiroim the Oldstrong, Elloe Kaifi, No-Name of the Brood, and Miek the Unhived. These characters were massively important during Planet Hulk, and unfortunately, during WWH, they’re more relegated to supporting fodder for fights. Warbound is a mini that takes place after the events of WWH, and is Pak setting up these characters to be usable on Earth and for when he eventually starts writing Hulk stories again. I think the mini is fine, it shows that while their mission during WWH was one of violence and vengence they are still heroic, liberators of their own planet.

Now for the tie-ins, IRON MAN (2005) #19-20, IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #10, WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN #1-3, GHOST RIDER (2006) #12-13, PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL (2007) #12, and WORLD WAR HULK: FRONT LINE #1-6 are what I would consider the good tie-ins to this event. Iron Man is during the Director of SHIELD era, 19 is more of a retelling of the first issue of WWH, exclusively from Iron Man’s perspective, while 20 mainly follows Dum Dum Duggan (also a skrull shshhh don’t worry) trying to wrangle the SHIELD offensive moves during this alien invasion. I like this era of Marvel, so seeing the repercussions from an event that I love in another series during a status quo I enjoy makes for a decent tie-in. Ant-Man....pfft, where do I start? So Robert Kirkman is certainly a character, and it’s interesting to know his biggest impact on Marvel besides Zombies is the character of Eric O’Grady, the worst Ant-Man. The series is an acquired taste, and it has definitely aged poorly, but for a single issue where a loser pretending to be a hero is forced to do something heroic is compelling for at least an issue. Punisher War Journal, another single-issue tie-in, can Frank escort this family out of this alien war zone? With the help of a gun that shoots swords, he absolutely can. The way I see it is that tie-ins are always going to exists so if you can make a dumb, fun, and a decent issue, I really don’t mind. WWH Front Line, something that Marvel used to do for a short window, was these event tie-in minis where they would try to explore an event at the human/civilian level, and WWH’s one was basically exploring and reporting on a warzone, the destruction, death, and displacement. I do miss these cause when the entire planet gets covered in symbiote goo or when a man-made god starts judging every being, that’s stuff we should get a civilian opinion on.

Leaving fine and fun behind, we now get to discuss the actual good tie-ins, Ghost Rider and X-Men. WWH interrupts your regularly scheduled Ghost Rider for a two-issue interlude, well, really like 1.25. Issue 13 is front to back a knock out drag out fight between the Spirit of Vengeance and The Hulk, Javier Saltares does a great job with the art on this one. The tie-in concludes with everyone’s favorite reposted panel all over the internet, The Spirit of Vengeance condoning and approving of Hulk’s quest. X-Men is also another big drag-out fight, except there are so many mutants that they needed 3 issues to give everyone a chance. I’m not going to deny that it isn’t fun watching Hulk just rip through everyone, the Darwin having to teleport away hype and ego stroking, but what makes this mini actually meaningful is that it asks Chuck, who was dead/in space/who knows, how he would have voted if he was present at the Illuminati meeting. And for once, Chuck is honest; he admits to his hypocrisy and ego, which makes all the smashing more valid and earned.

Unfortunately, funs over. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #4-5, HEROES FOR HIRE (2006) #11-15, WORLD WAR HULK: GAMMA CORPS #1-4, and WORLD WAR HULK AFTERSMASH: DAMAGE CONTROL #1-3, these are the bad tie-ins, no other way to dress em up. The Initiative story is the worst type of tie-in when reading these event omnis. I’m not going to stop telling my story, and I’m just going to vaguely gesture to the event. This is good for single issues, but as I’m reading this, I have no grounding in anyone or anything. Plus, it’s also boring. Gamma Corps is allegedly a story that happened. I’m going back through, trying to remember what this was even about, but it’s such a nothing series that I couldn’t tell you. It doesn’t help that the art is weak as hell. Damage Control, listen, I love Dwayne McDuffie, that guy is one of my all-time heroes, and I think truly he is the only person in the world that cares about Damage Control. It’s fine, don’t think about how in the last event it’s revealed they’re kinda responsible for Civil War. And worst for last, we have Heroes for Hire, I hope you like bug sex cause there’s a lot of it. It’s just a weird mini written by everyone’s favorite writer, Zeb Wells, and it’s mainly about Humbug, and there is a theme on nature and humanity, so it’s not slop, it’s just weird. Infamously has this cover, which was drawn by Sana Takeda, more famous for her current work on Monstress, so I guess that means don’t judge an author by one of their cheesecake covers.

TL;DR
This has been a long review cause this is a jampacked Omni, just unfortunately most of what it’s packed with is resoundingly mediocre. Objectively stepping back and looking at the total contents of this book, I have to say it’s kinda weak, especially in the art department, though some of that can be a matter of taste. WWH is the often forgotten Marvel Event of the Bendis reign, and when you look at what the event was and what was tied in, you can see how it could get drowned out by its surrounding contemporaries. That said, when you narrow your focus to just the event and what happens, this is the most fun event of the 00’s. You’ve got spectacular JRJR art, you have satisfying comeuppance for those members of registration and the Illuminati, and most importantly, for the characters it directly affects, this event has lasting meaning. Is it a bit strange how Bendis will act like the Illuminati wasn’t revealed in this event for like another 5 years? Is it annoying how every time Reed or Tony tries to explain it wasn’t them, they’re cut off or ignored? Yeah. But I promised at the top that this was going to be pretty biased, so I don’t really care, for Hulk is the Sakaarson and the Worldbreaker.

10/10 Event

7/10 Omni

Belated April Haul

By the way IST has Vol 1 of 2 of A Silent Voice on major discount in the 24 Hour Sale Tab