By now you should know that Doctor Strange, Reed Richards, Namor, Tony Stark, Charles Xavier, and Black Bolt formed a secret cabal with the idea of shepherding the super hero and mutant communities into the future. You should also be aware that those same men (with the exception of Charles and Namor) launched an unsuspecting Hulk into space as evidence of their inability to cure him of his condition. Lastly you should know that when the Hulk landed on the planet he was rocketed to, only to be enslaved, he went on to earn his freedom and a new family, only for them to be killed by an explosion that came from the ship he travelled on. Now the Hulk is back for revenge.
The first three issues of World War Hulk showed the readers a fresh new take on the power of Bruce Banner, and if it sticks this might be the best transformation the character has ever gone through. In issue four, the story starts to come to a close, partly due to the idea that bigger things are starting to brew on the horizon. Ultimately that’s really my complaint about WWH; the other events in Marvel came so hot on this stories heel that a lot of the teeth were taken out of this chapter in Marvel history. It was like going to see an action movie in the theater while the poster for the sequel hangs next to you in line, so you already know who lives and who dies before you even see the movie. The sensation that everything will be wrapped up in a nice little bow is too much this time around.
Page for page WWH is as good as it’s always been, a really cool stand alone story that has a real apparent ‘What if?’ feel, a very surreal reading experience. A sensation that was completely wasted by Marvels poor publication schedule, where WWH never was given the time to develop, when you consider what’s happened to New York, and the way life on earth has been effected (even with Front Line) WWH alone could affect the Marvel U for years. But no, all this cool storytelling is going to be lost in the whole Skrull invasion, leaving me wondering why Marvel bothered at all.
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In the end, I would still recommend you read at least the core titles of World War Hulk, there are a few gems in the companion pieces but none of them are absolutely necessary to get the story. The artwork is fantastic and the writing is great within the framework of this particular story, Pak really makes the reader forget about all the other things going on for the time your reading his book, but upon finishing an issue, and realizing that everyone on the cover and in the issue is going to survive until the next big thing and in most cases relatively unchanged, it’s more like waking up from a good but forgettable dream when I read this book.
