World War Hulk: Aftersmash

World War Hulk is currently my favorite comic 'event' of all time. It spun out of 14 months of well-told Hulk story by Greg Pak, and it kept a laser-focus on what it was about.

So what did I think of the epilogue, World War Hulk: Aftersmash?

I thought it was a very fitting close to the Hulk stories I've been so in love with for more than a year now. It wraps up loose ends I didn't even know about. (Sue me, I haven't been reading Heroes for Hire.) It gives the Warbound a chance to leave World War Hulk behind as heroes... every member gets a chance to do something heroic except Brood. (But considering the Brood, is that really all that surprising?) It shows us Hercules and Amadeus Cho working together to try to hold Manhattan together... literally. We get Tom Foster, Goliath's nephew, learning that vengeance just leads to more vengeance.

There are a lot of great moments in the book, and everyone involved comes off as a hero. I'll miss Greg Pak when he leaves the Hulk, but he's given us an epic run with the character. World breaking stuff, really.

Possibly The Coolest Thing Ever

Maybe the fact that I'm fairly new to comics explains why the simple math of Black Bolt + Mind Control = WMD hadn't ever occurred to me before but this image (taken from What If? Planet Hulk, now on sale where Marvel comics are sold) just struck me with awe.

Sentry? Power of a thousand exploding suns? Not much compared to Black Bolt trying to refuse to speak. Too bad his refusal was vocal, eh?

But seriously... What If? Planet Hulk is a great read, and I thoroughly recommend it. Aside from watching Caiera go all, well, for lack of a better word, Hulk on the Earth, there's an awesome story of what might have happened if the Hulk had landed on the peaceful planet Reed promised. And as near as I can tell, everything is written by Greg Pak, who in the past year and a half, has turned the Hulk into something truly great.

Hulk SMASH lesser comics!

The reading material for the next episode of Comic Club is the incomprehensibly cool Planet Hulk.

I really couldn't be happier.

I was fortunate enough to have already subscribed to The Incredible Hulk via the local comic shoppe before Planet Hulk began. (Peter David's House of M tie-in story had me pretty well hooked.) So today, I've read through Peace in Our Time, the story leading into Planet Hulk, and I've started into the first act of the main event.

I'm trying to think of just why I enjoyed Planet Hulk as much as I did. I think that part of it comes from watching the Hulk fall into a Conan story. The massive, physically powerful character follows the progression that the Cimmerian long since carved into stone, transforming from slave, to gladiator, to rebel, to finally King. But through it all, we're not in the head of a savage barbarian from this fantastic world... we're in the head of a monster from our world. We see things more as he would see them. But like Conan, the Hulk isn't out to be a hero to the planet Sakaar. He hasn't set out to save it's people. His is a mission of vengeance, first against the Red King for hurting him, and afterwards on the heroes of Earth for the destruction of the peace he had found in Sakaar.

I think the second reason I find Planet Hulk so satisfying is that culturally I think we see the Hulk as less of a character, and more of an obstacle or a force of nature. He has a worse reputation than the X-Men and Spider-Man put together, but he deserves it. Where the Hulk goes, destruction inevitably follows. It's nice to see him as the driver of events. And even though World War Hulk returns him to being the obstacle, or the disaster, he's still moving events forward.

Thanks for giving me something worth reading, big guy!