By Greg Pak (W), John Romita Jr. (P) Klaus Janson (I) Christina Strain (C)
Talk about having your faith rewarded. Two posts ago I said I would be sticking around for the duration of World War Hulk because I was confident in the creative team's ability to make up for what I felt was a rather underwhelming first issue, and lo and behold, they have delivered, on all levels, it has to be said.
The story kicks off with Dr. Strange literally trying to conjure up someone who will "defeat and redeem" Hulk at the same time. In the meantime, the Hulk and his friends from Sakaar, known as his "Warbound" lay the smackdown on several members of the New and Mighty Avengers, then on the Fantastic Four as well (including new/interim members Storm and the Black Panther) but not after Reed makes a rather underhanded and, gratifyingly ill-fated attempt to deceive the Hulk. Rick Jones approaches the Hulk, calming him to the extent that Dr. Strange sees an opportunity to touch Hulk's psyche, which he is unable to consummate. At the end of the day, Hulk and his Warbound have just trashed three of Marvel's premier teams and General "Thunderbolt" Ross decides to have a go where they have failed.
Pak's script has some nice character moments (like Rick Jones' appearance) woven between some truly riveting action sequences, and Romita Jr.'s art...well, let me just say that suddenly his work on Eternals no longer feels like his best ever, in my opinion. Even Janson and Strain have upped their game. I know the second issue of this series was in the can long before I reviewed the first issue in this blog, but it almost feels as if art team in particular read what I had to say (and whoever else took issue with their work) and responded in kind. Christina Strain, if you're reading this, I feel you have done an astonishing job with this issue, and completely take back whatever I might have said about you not being appropriate for this book!
The stars of this show, however, are Pak and Romita, Jr.
For me, Pak's breakthrough here is how he manages to make me utterly despise Reed Richards.
I never hated Richards, no matter how badly Civil War went, because I felt he was being rather badly written. His callousness towards his family just seemed too much like a plot device to justify Sue and Johnny Storm defecting to the side of Captain America.
His decision to shoot Hulk into space, though he made it together with Iron Man and the rest of the Illuminati, however, feels like something that Reed, with his control-freak, I-know-better-than-everyone-else personality is entirely capable of, as is reflected not only in the currently ongoing miniseries starring the Illuminati but in key issues of Fantastic Four going as far back as Mark Waid's "Authoritative Action" run. Richards has a history of showing incredible hubris stemming from his intellect, and Pak taps into that with his particular take on the character. He's not evil; just arrogant to the point where it doesn't occur to him that he might be wrong. This makes him no less detestable in my eyes.
It burned me up to see Reed making yet another, last-ditch attempt into hoodwinking the Hulk and enthralled me to see the green goliath give Mr. Fantastic the pounding he has long deserved. It's a given that some fans will quibble about Richards' elasticity enabling him to take a whole world of punishment, but that's their problem. At least Marvel made it a point to emphasize at the end of Planet Hulk (and even during this issue) how much stronger he became as a result of the warp core explosion that killed his queen, Caera the Oldstrong and their unborn child.
What made the FF fight that even more engaging was the Hulk/Thing showdown, easily one of the best action sequences I have ever seen committed to paper.
Another thing that made me enjoy this issue exponentially more than I did the first was something fairly simple: they showed Mr. Fantastic getting beaten up, as well as the result of the beating, with his face looking like hamburger. This was a huge contrast to the off-panel thrashing of Black Bolt (with that admittedly killer splash page serving as the prelude) and the pulping of Iron Man in his new Hulkbuster armor (after his irritating, self-righteous speech) which didn't show a battered, bloodied and defeated Tony Stark.
Stark, in particular, really deserved to be beaten within an inch of his life, and while I'm sure his punishment from Hulk will go beyond a mere slugfest (as strongly suggested by future solicitations showing the Illuminati going up against each other as gladiators), I would really have liked to see him drawn as only Romita, Jr. can draw folks who've been beaten up. One of my favorite things about JR, Jr., not only does he draw the best fights in the business, but the best aftermaths of fights as well.
I'm a little disappointed in the appearance of General Ross (who I was sure was dead up until this issue) because I can't help but wonder what he hopes to achieve that Marvel's heroes, who have time and again made short work of military technology could not. And it's not like the Hulk hasn't made mincemeat out of them before.
Still, Pak promises excitement in the next issue and, considering what he pulled out of the bag with this one, I completely believe him.
4 comments:
re Reed's appearance in Civil War: Maybe because Reed showed up as too whiney in CW? :-)
Though I did like the issue where they delved in his reason to back Tony Stark.
Not quite sure which issue you're talking about, unless you're referring either to CW: Front Line or one of the multitude of tie-in issues (Fantastic Four, for example), neither of which I picked up.
It's funny, though CW had more bells and whistles, I get the impression that from a narrative point-of-view, CWFL was a lot meatier. Too bad the art was so uneven.
At least this World War Hulk is all about the action, so there's no risk of my missing much by passing up the concurrent Front-Line mini running alongside it.
Not sure which CW that was though you could be right. I read mine via download. (Torrent is your friend.) ;-)
Seriously, the reason cited behind Reed's support of Tony Stark is-- *tada*-- Isaac Asimov's psychohistory.
Whoever thought of including that in CW was a genius.
Nope, that wasn't in the main CW mini, and reinforces my point about one having more narrative heft than the other.
If it was Front-Line, I would guess it was all Paul Jenkins' idea.
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