World War Hulk review

World War Hulk 5




Basic Plot: Hulk is having the 4 members of the Illuminati that sent him into space (Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt and Dr. Stange) fight in the middle of Madison Square Garden as if it were the Arena from Sakkar, when the Sentry shows up to fight Hulk. They fight.

Wow! I was looking forward to World War Hulk ever since Planet Hulk, which I read because I saw on the Civil War prelude that listed Planet Hulk as one of the reasons why Civil War would take place. So I picked up the first issue of Planet Hulk and was blown away. It was one of the most awesome Hulk stories I have ever read. Plus, not much had happened yet. I was incredibly impressed with how they placed Hulk on an alien planet and made it interesting. If you haven't read Planet Hulk, I recommend it to you, especially if you tried to read World War Hulk and were somewhat confused. Basically, he was launched by Reed, Tony, Blackagar (yes, Black Bolt's first name is Blackagar) and Stephen into space as a way of trying to send him to a peaceful planet. If you read New Avengers: Illuminati (the prelude to Civil War and not the amazing mini-series), you got to see that the reason Tony has that he launched Hulk was that he caused a lot of chaos and was the reason behind deaths, even if he did not directly kill anyone (collateral damage). So they wanted to send him to a planet that was inhabited only by non-intelligent life so that he could smash to his heart's content without hurting any sentient life-forms. Instead, after smashing parts of the ship, the ship falls through a wormhole and ends up on the planet Sakkar. Sakkar is ruled over by the Red King, a ruthless dictator, ruling over his people with an iron fist (and awesome battle armor). Everyone that lands on the planet through the wormhole (which happens a lot) is enslaved with an obedience disk that is planted on them. After landing on Sakkar, Hulk is enslaved (because passing through the wormhole leaves you incredibly weak, most people pass out, although Hulk was still conscious). Hulk and other slaves fought in an arena and Red King sent him to the Pit, where they train for gladiator fights. Hulk was sent onto a field with a lot of different slaves, and the 7 who lived at the end became a gladiator team. This team consisted of Hulk, Miek (a hiveling from Sakkar that was incredibly weak and looked up to Two-Hands/Hulk), Korg (a Kronan, one of the ones that was sent to Earth and defeated by Thor in his first appearance), No-Name (a Brood that had no name, as the Brood have no names, that was trapped in a creature when the X-Men destroyed Broodworld), Hiroim the Shamed (a Shadow Priest that was expelled because of his delusions of grandeur), Elloe Kaifi (a Sakkarian who's father spoke out against the Red King) and Lavin Skee (a Sakkarian who was the lover/bodyguard of Elloe). Together, they fought in the Arena and became celebrated and cheered upon by the people of Sakkar because Hulk was able to lead them to victory by smashing. When they became too popular, the Red King released an incredibly powerful bomb at them, followed by Death's Head guards. The Hulk was able to defeat them, but Lavin Skee was killed. After his death, Hiroim asked them all to be Warbound, in which they stick together until the end (a solemn oath that all the parties involved understood meant that it was up to and including death). The Red King, furious about the Hulk winning, sent them up against the Silver Savage. Silver Surfer was flying along when he flew into the wormhole and ended up on Sakkar. He was knocked unconscious and "weaker than he had ever been", allowing for an obedience disk to be placed upon him. The Silver Surfer fought in the arena and also had never lost, by himself. When Hulk saw Surfer, he was happy, until they had to fight. During the fight, Surfer knocked Hulk away, and while being dogpiled upon by the rest of Hulk's crew, Hulk came back and smashed him hard enough to break his obedience disk. After that happened, Surfer used his powers to break the obedience disks on everybody within a fairly large radius, and Hulk broke free, and he and his Warbound went off into the wilderness. The Red King gave chase with his army, although Hulk defeated them all. He eventually was able to unite the people on Sakkar together, both the "Pinkies" and the "Bugs" (kind of like how on Naboo, there are the people and Gungans). With both of them on his side, Hulk was able to also recruit the Spikes to his side. The Spikes came from space a long time ago and landed on Sakkar. They normally were peaceful (as you learned later), but they were incredibly hungry and started feeding on the people of Sakkar. The Red King rose to power by finding the Death's Head guards and taking out the Spikes, sending most of them onto rocket-like platforms on a moon of Sakkar. When Hulk wouldn't die, he sent the Spikes against him. Caiera, the Oldstrong, the Red King's personal guard was also sent against Hulk, although she decided to join Hulk wehn she saw the Spikes killing innocent people and the Red King cared nothing for them. Hulk went to the ancient Spikes, and convinced them to help Hulk against the Red King and Hulk would then help them fly in space again. With everybody on his side, Hulk easily overtook the Red King, killing him. The people of Sakkar then crowned Hulk king, partly because he was the most powerful and also because special vines grew where his blood fell. Hulk and Caiera had fallen in love by this point and they married, she as his Queen. Soon enough, the ship Hulk had landed in was found and turned into a sculpture and put in the middle of the main Sakkar city. Eventually though, there was a warning that the ship cried out, saying "Warp Core Compromised" and Hulk threw the ship into the air, although it still exploded, and wrecked the city, killing millions of people and Caiera and Caiera and Hulk's unborn son. Hulk was devastated and wanted to stay on the dying planet, but his Warbound convinced him to put his anger to use and to take out the people who built the Warp Core that failed and killed lots of people. Hulk and his Warbound set off for Earth, and when they reached Earth, first they took out Black Bolt on the moon, in a battle between Hulk and him, in which Black Bolt unleashed almost (if not) the full power of his voice, failing in defeating Hulk, and Hulk showed him as the first one of 4 that Hulk wanted out of the Illuminati. Iron Man attacks Hulk in his Hulk-Buster armor and fails. The Avengers (both Mighty and New) go up against Hulk and his Warbound and are defeated. Then the Fantastic Four are defeated (both Black Panther, Storm and Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman). When Rick Jones tries to convince Hulk to stop, Dr. Strange attacks and fails to take out Hulk. Then Thunderbolt Ross is called in. He shoots Hulk up with adamantium shrapnel, and while it hurts Hulk, he is able to defeat Ross. Dr. Strange then comes at him, with the power of Zom, an incredibly powerful entity that Strange kept a portion of in his possession for a time like this. Although Strange was powerful, he was sloppy and people were almost killed. Hulk saved them though and knocked out Strange. Then he set up the Illuminati for a gladiator battle in Madison Square Garden. They were able to take out one of the beasts that Hulk had to face and then when asked to fight each other Mr. Fantastic takes down Tony Stark, and the Warbound await Hulk's answer. Hulk gives a thumb down. Meanwhile the Sentry is afraid of having to fight the Hulk with the amount of power he'll need to take out the Hulk. Iron Man previously told him that sometimes, you need to play God. As Hulk puts his thumb down, Sentry flies in to take out Hulk.
In WWH 5, Reed misses killing Stark by a very small amount. When asked why he missed, it is revealed that Hulk doesn't want them to die, just to know what he had gone through and that Tony, Reed, Blackagar and Stephen are monsters that, even if they didn't try to, killed more people than Hulk ever did accidentally. Of course at this point the Sentry attacks Hulk. Hulk yells out that what happens next isn't his fault and then they start fighting. Hulk punches Sentry a few times before Sentry unleashes the power he has, the "power of a million exploding suns", in which he starts pummeling the Hulk. An amazing battle takes place and I can't give it justice by trying to recap it here. Eventually though, Sentry and Hulk somehow turn into their relative alter egos, and Bruce Banner lands a punch on Robert Reynolds, taking him out. As everybody is relieved that Hulk isn't trying to kill them anymore, Miek kills Rick Jones. Miek was so obsessed with vengeance that he didn't reveal that he saw Red King supporters putting a bomb in the ship, and so Tony is slightly exonerated (curses!), and it angers Bruce enough to turn into Hulk again and Hulk kills Miek, who can be seen as being responsible for the death of Caiera and his son and millions of people. At this point though, Hulk is too powerful and just walking sends out enough power that a few steps after he starts, he would destroy the Eastern Seaboard. Tony is able to call upon lots of satellites to pummel Hulk, and together with Hulk trying to stop being so angry, Hulk is taken out. Then, Bruce is loaded into a casket-like case and taken to New Mexico and buried 3 miles beneath the surface in a facility and the water in the case starts turning red (the new Hulk coming in January or whenever is Red). Also, on the planet Sakkar, the son of the Hulk rises out of the destroyed ground.
This was just an amazing end to an event that I was looking forward to for a long time. I so was scared it was going to disappoint me like Civil War, but it didn't. It ended with such an amazing bang that it was scary. It ended incredibly well and I was amazed that they did such a great job in ending the story. Hulk v Sentry in an amazing battle and their battle ends amazingly. Just amazing in its spectrum. I was seriously blown away. The one thing I dislike is that the Illuminati were exonerated from the crime of killing Caiera and all the people in that capital city of Sakkar. I really wanted them to pay ever since reading Planet Hulk and was extremely disappointed that they weren't behind it. I never liked Miek, but was surprised to see he would go that far. I don't really know what else I can say about WWH 5, other than that you should read it. The fight is indescribable by someone like me and I can't do the issue justice. I tried, but it is too great an issue for me to go over.
Sorry for being late on this (if you were looking forward to it), but I didn't have time until now.