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Posted by Anthony Willier
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04:54 AM Wednesday, 17 October 2007 |
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 "The Green Scar!" That's how the Hulk, AKA Bruce Banner is known in his latest adventure. These new events in the Hulkster's life started first with a 5-part series titled, Planet Hulk. The current series is titled World War Hulk, also a 5-part series with writing by Greg Pak and pencils by Carlo Pagulayan. Each storyline stretches throughout various titles within the Marvel Universe.
It showcases a small elite group of super-heroes called "the Illuminati". They decided that the Hulk was a loose cannon, so instead of trying to work something out with him they chose to send him far away to a supposedly uninhabited planet. Along the way the shuttle was thrown off course and he landed on the violent and war-like planet Sakaar. Of course for the Hulk this didn't pose a problem. After a few battles, defeating the evil king, and becoming a king himself he was living the good life. Unfortunately for the Hulk good things don't seem to last. The shuttle that brought him to Sakaar ended up exploding and destroying the planet and almost everyone else on it, including his new queen, Caiera, and their unborn child.
Early this year World War Hulk started when the Hulk arrived back on Earth with his allies, The Warbound. The big hunk of Green is back on Earth and he is M-A-D. He's hot and heavy for some revenge on the Illuminati who inadvertently caused most of this misery. By issue #110 the Hulk has already defeated Black Bolt, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Doctor Strange and various X-Men teams. Many others are also defeated along with the U.S. Army. Take that, Thunderbolt Ross!
The Hulk then uses Madison Square Garden as a gladiatorial arena for the members of the Illuminati to first battle an alien and then to battle each other to the death. Throughout this process Hercules, Namora, the Angel, Scorpion, and a super-genius by the name of Amadeus Cho side with the Green Guy try to reason with him and prevent anymore conflict. Amadeus Cho truly believes that the Hulk will not kill others without great provocation and that the ones that hurt him didn't do it intentionally. During this installment Cho attempts to show to the others and especially the Hulk that he is as he always been.....a hero. Or is he? That question is posed in this issue with possible grave results for the little boy genius. Is the Hulk good or bad? His actions here precisely show the answer to that question.
The Hulk has always been a personal favorite of mine. From his early runs fighting against the Army shouting, "Hulk Smash!" through the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV series and into today's movies and current comic runs. The Hulk has had many roles; from a dumb beast to an intelligent leader. He is an iconic figure who shows us that having all that power and strength doesn't change the fact that you still have to deal with love and loss. A lot of both have been going on through these latest series and it emphasizes what the Hulk is, or at least what he has been recently. He's honorable, a man of his word, and he can stop and, surprisingly enough, think about his actions before committing to them. Unbridled emotion is a strong factor in what makes the Hulk. The conflict between doing what you feel like and doing what is right shows strongly here. This particular issue doesn't have any epic reality twists or dramatic battle scenes, but it does show a more in-depth look at the Man in Green. We should all hope to act with honor when we are confronted with such issues in life. Being able to flatten a mountainside would also be cool.
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