The most thumbed collection on my
toilet is World War Hulk.
World War Hulk is, for many
reasons, the perfect bathroom book in my home. Upon finding
themselves in that gutteral need and wanting some reading material to
pass the time, some people might prefer to just bring whatever book
they’re progressing through at that particular moment, but I find
that dangerous. If I bring whatever book I’m intensely caring
about with me to my throne in the restroom, then my time on the seat
will likely be longer than makes sense. Rather than the mental white
noise I seek while on the toilet, the book will actually engage me
and demand my attention. I will lose myself in the words and/or art
and before you know it a half hour will have passed with my world
eroding beyond the door. But World War Hulk offers the
perfect prescription. I have already read the book, so all that is
there for me are the massive clashes between the Hulk, his
otherworldly allies, and the cringing pantheon of Marvel’s heroes.
It’s a book of punches like meteor strikes and shockwaves that end
worlds. There’s no need for me to read through the dialogue that
lets me know why the Hulk and his Warbound are facing off with the
Avengers. I can just skip ahead and enjoy the blood and flying
rubble as a gladiator-clad Hulk smashes the earth-bound Greek god of
war into the pavement with one irresistible fist. And if that were
the only reason why it was perfect for the restroom, that might be
enough, but on top of everything else it is the Hulk. It is the Hulk
in a story that – while not particularly complex or nuanced – is
unique to the Marvel Universe and to superhero comics in general in
that it is a revenge story and the revenge is that of a superhero on
a world of superheroes. It is my childhood hero finally delivering
on the promise every Hulk fan infers the moment he recognizes the
green goliath as his favorite: an apocalyptic war between the Hulk
and the rest of Marvel’s super-people, a war that the Hulk will
rightly win, and a war that will not only cement Hulk as the Alpha
Male of Marvel but one that will redeem him. When the heroes fall to
him, it won’t just be because he’s the strongest one there is. It
will be because they deserve it. And so every time I bring World
War Hulk with me to the toilet I am entertained without
investment, and yet I am emotionally uplifted. When it’s all done
and my business completed, I hear the same thing I heard right after
the Hulk slammed Tony Stark and his Hulkbuster suit from head-to-toe
of Avengers tower, the same thing I heard after watching Hulk pound
Reed Richards into a limp human rubber band, and the same thing I
heard after watching Hulk and his alien companions rip the combined
New and Mighty Avengers a whole gaggle of New and Mighty new
buttholes: I heard the flush of a toilet.
While the rest of the Marvel Universe
was bickering over whether or not it was okay to turn all of its
costumed heroes into indentured servants, the Hulk was fighting for
his life on the planet Sakaar. He had been tricked into a space
vessel by four members of the Illuminati – a group of super-heroes
who had been secretly influencing events behind the scenes in the MU
for years and who decided the Hulk was too much of a liability to
remain on Earth – and sent spinning into the void. The Hulk found
himself on Sakaar where he was first a gladiator, then a commander of
a rebel army, and finally the king. He had a queen who was pregnant
with his son and he finally had the peace he wanted. But the
spaceship that brought Hulk to Sakaar exploded, rocking Sakaar and
killing millions including Caiera, the Hulk’s queen. Convinced the
explosion was from a bomb the Illuminati planted on the shuttle meant
for him, the Hulk gathered together the last remnants of his people
and his loyal Warbound – former gladiators who had fought at Hulk’s
side both in the arena and on the battlefield – to return to Earth
and claim vengeance. After a quick stop on the Moon to beat up and
imprison Black Bolt – one of the four who exiled Hulk – the
massive stone ship carrying the Hulk and his invading army arrived in
New York City with an ultimatum that the rest of the Illuminati –
Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, and Doctor Strange – appear before
Hulk, or else he’d crack their world in half over his knee. The
heroes of Marvel, fugitive and Uncle Tom alike, hurried to evacuate
the city in preparation for the battle.
The action of World War Hulk is
big. It’s huge. When the heroes clash, there is a cinematic
grandeur to it. Every time a green fist connects you feel shockwaves,
you hear windows all across Manhattan exploding. The fisticuffs are
not as drawn out as they used to be. Any old-school comic book
fistfight has more punches thrown than any tussle in World War
Hulk, but the difference is you feel the ground shake in this
one. The sheer, unbelievable, godly power of the combatants hits your
face like hurricane wind.
John Romita, Jr.’s art is wonderful,
and while I usually enjoy his work, his success here surprised me.
When the series was first released, he was touted as a “fan-favorite”
Hulk artist in Marvel ads. The reality is that before World
War Hulk, Romita’s work on the green guy wasn’t particularly
extensive. He penciled a few issues toward the end of the Paul
Jenkins run of Incredible Hulk. But most of his work on the
title was during Bruce Jones’s tenure as writer, which was anything
but a “fan favorite.” The run alienated many old school Hulk fans
for – among other things – going multiple issues without even
featuring the actual Hulk, opting instead to focus on Bruce Banner.
Romita’s work was good during the run, but considering that run
featured so little of the Hulk, tapping Romita for a Hulk series in
which Bruce Banner hardly shows up (only twice in five issues) seemed
strange. But as usual when it comes to things like this, I was happy
to be proven wrong.
In many of my favorite moments,
Romita’s choices for what he shows what he doesn’t are perfect.
For example, in the second chapter when the standoff between the
Warbound and the Avengers finally breaks, Ares swings an axe at Hulk;
the Hulk sidesteps it, slams Ares into the ground, turns menacingly
toward the rest of the Avengers, and when we turn the page we get a
two-page splash of the clash between all the combatants including the
Hulk charging literally headfirst into the doomed Doc Samson. Though
we only get static snapshots, the dance is as clear to see as if it
were on a movie screen.
Later, after the Avengers are trounced,
the inevitable Hulk/Thing battle comes. Ben Grimm is so utterly,
heroically outmatched. He seems so futile and even out of place with
his Li’l Orphan Annie eyes and his cartoon forehead. There is a
great character moment at the beginning of the fight. Grimm belts out
his clobberin’ catch phrase and cracks Hulk across the jaw. The
Hulk’s response speaks volumes. He smirks, looks at Grimm and says
simply “Hmp.” In that look is so much. In that look is the entire
history of their rivalry. There is a grudging respect Hulk gives no
one else in this war. No matter how hard they might fight him, the
Hulk has no respect for Stark, Richards, Strange, or Black Bolt; only
hatred. Grimm holds a minor, but unique position in the larger
conflict. While he is Richards’s protector, he had nothing to do
with Hulk’s banishment and the Hulk knows this. Still, as an ally
of Richards and a rival of Hulk since the dawn of Marvel, Ben Grimm
is a soldier who couldn’t sit this one out. That’s all there in
that look. But also there’s the joy of the fight to come; the fight
and the outcome as inevitable as it is devastating. Because of all
this, and the simple fact that Grimm is one of the few combatants in
this war who can survive more than five seconds against the Hulk, the
fight with Grimm may very well be the only fight in World War Hulk that the Hulk genuinely enjoys. Rather than spend space he doesn’t have on the kind of long, earth-shaking battle these two usually wage, Romita gives us a double page splash of the battle with a handful of panels of green blood and orange rock flying around, and along the bottom are quick shots of members of the Fantastic Four and the Warbound, each shot representing a different, crashing moment of the battle that we can’t see, not bringing us back until Grimm is seconds away from passing out.
Then there’s that moment in chapter 3
when, finally breaking free of Doctor Strange’s psychic trap, the
Hulk emerges from the Warbound to rip Thunderbolt Ross’s military
forces to pieces. It’s the kind of fight that used to be a
dime-a-dozen back in the days of Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema, but
it’s exactly the kind of Hulk fight we haven’t seen in years.
There is something deliciously rhythmic about the battle. For four
pages we get almost no dialogue at all; not until Ross enters the
fray himself. We just get the Hulk at his army-stompin’ best,
tearing through tanks and helicopters like Godzilla. Towards the end
of the fight, there is a tiny detail I love. In one panel we see the
Hulk turn his head toward soldiers who have just started firing at
him. There are no motion lines. We only know Hulk is turning his head
because of the green blood spraying from his face as his head whips
around.
Even more than he did in Planet Hulk
– the story that made him a true Hulk fan favorite almost instantly
- Greg Pak proves with World War Hulk that he understands the
Hulk in a way that most writers just don’t. Pak has a better
understanding of the Hulk’s relationship with the rest of the
Marvel Universe than most writers before or since. Moments like his
reunion with Rick Jones, the aforementioned battle with Ben Grimm,
his confrontations with Thunderbolt Ross and Doctor Strange show us
that. And as a Hulk fan himself, Pak understands the gravity of this
conflict. After he’s finally captured all four Illuminati members
who banished him and made them listen to Hulk-sympathizers angry at
the four for past transgressions (including Bill Foster’s nephew
who blames Stark and Richards for his uncle’s death), the Hulk says
to them “Don’t like it, do you? It’s not fair. Not the whole
story. You have excuses. Explanations. You’re innocent. These
people don’t know what really happened. They don’t know what’s
in your heart. Now you know how it feels.” As a Hulk fan like me
and the rest of us rowdy, geeky Hulk-nuts, Pak knows how much those
words mean, he knows how long we’ve waited for them. Through every
imprisonment, every attempt at a “cure,” every exile, every false
accusation, we’ve been waiting for the Hulk to get this moment.
It’d be like seeing Peter Parker save his Uncle Ben.
No. No, that’s wrong. It would be
like Uncle Ben still dying, and Peter Parker shooting Uncle Ben’s
killer in the face.
The Hulk of WWH is familiar but
different. He’s a Hulk who has matured, who understands his
duality, and who ironically has used his state of constant warfare to
make a kind of passionate peace with Bruce Banner. It isn’t just
Hulk, after all, who wants the Illuminati brought to justice. When
the Hulk shatters Doctor Strange’s hands, it’s Bruce who lures
the good doctor into a position where he can do it.
The Hulk of WWH is a harkening
back to the legendary run of Peter David. It was David who first
pointed out in the storyline “Countdown” that to think of the
Hulk as something Bruce Banner occasionally turned into was a
mistake. The gamma bomb transformed Banner. The mystery wasn’t, as
Phil Sterns (a.k.a. the too-rarely used villain Madman) said, wasn’t
the question of why Banner turned into Hulk. The mystery was why the
Hulk ever turned back into Banner. Here, David laid the
groundwork for the merged version of the Hulk (or what Paul Jenkins
would later name the “Professor” Hulk). This is echoed in the
fourth chapter when Rick Jones reminds Hulk “You are Banner.” The
Hulk responds, “No. Banner is me.” This is not some obtuse claim
of superiority over Banner. The Hulk is what Banner, for better or
worse, turned into. It is who he is.
The maturity of the Hulk in WWH
comes through in startling ways. When She-Hulk assures the Avengers
things will be fine as long as they don’t throw the first punch,
the Hulk surprises her by doing it for them. Later, we see a Hulk who
seems either mired in despair or just utterly apathetic in regards to
the death and destruction around him. When Miek threatens to murder
Rick Jones, and moments later when a demonified Doctor Strange slaps
Hiroim around at the Hulk’s feet, the Hulk hardly seems to care,
regarding each situation with distant interest. It is only when
Strange takes one of Hiroim’s arms that the Hulk seems to finally
wake up.
One of the most interesting questions I
have about World War Hulk – a question part of me would love
to ask Greg Pak, but another part would never want to ask him because
the uncertainty adds to my enjoyment of the story – is whether or
not the Hulk knows more than he’s saying. His justification for his
assault on Earth is his apparent belief that the explosion of the
ship that brought him to Sakaar was a purposeful attack on the part
of the Illuminati. We learn at the end of the story that it was an
alien terrorist group who caused the explosion to protest the Hulk’s
ascendance to Sakaar’s throne, and that Hulk’s Warbound ally Miek
knew the group had done it and allowed it to occur. The thing is,
when Doctor Strange enters the Hulk’s mind, giving us the first
chance to see the Hulk and any one of the four who banished him the
chance to speak about what happened, I get the impression that the
Hulk knows damn well that the explosion wasn’t from an
Illuminati-planted bomb. When Strange explains to Bruce that, yes, he
voted to exile him, but that he did not try to kill him, maybe it’s
just part of Banner’s ruse - his luring of Strange closer so he can
transform into Hulk and shatter Strange’s hands - but I get the
sense that Banner knows. He knows the explosion of the ship wasn’t
a purposeful act on the part of the Illuminati, but he doesn’t
care, because he needs someone to smash. And after all, if they
hadn’t banished him, it never would’ve happened anyway, so who
cares if they meant it or not?
Another moment that piques my curiosity
is the battle with the Avengers. When the talking finally stops, the
Hulk grabs She-Hulk’s face and slams her into the pavement,
creating a crater that She-Hulk presumably stays in for the rest of
the battle. Could it be – especially considering the Incredible
Hulk tie-in issue to WWH that suggested the Hulk’s
violence was much more calculated than most people assumed – that
the Hulk specifically did that to keep She-Hulk safe during the rest
of the battle? Sure, he, you know, hits her pretty damn hard. But he
also knows there’s more fight to come. Is it possible he hit her
that way just so she would remain safe in the crater, so none of the
Warbound could hurt her purposely or otherwise?
World War Hulk has its
weaknesses, even when regarded purely as Hulk-fan-porn. Chief among
them is the handling of the Sentry. While it’s difficult, as a
lifelong Hulk fan, to complain about Hulk’s victory over the
Sentry, the outcome of Sentry’s involvement seems so utterly
convenient. From the beginning of the series, he’s seen as the only
single hero capable of defeating the Hulk. He resists urgings
throughout the series from Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Sue Richards,
and even the President to overcome his agoraphobia in order to join
the battle. Finally, he leaves his living room and attacks the Hulk
in the final chapter, but almost as soon as the fight begins, he’s
lost his marbles. Because the Hulk is, in Sentry’s words, “the
only one I can hit…like THIS,” the Sentry unleashes in a way he
apparently never has before, threatening the world with his power. It
seems too convenient a way for the Hulk to shift from villain to hero
in the eyes of the other heroes he’s been fighting, especially
since to those of us cheering him on, he’s been the hero every step
of the way.
Coming up with an ending to World
War Hulk couldn’t have been easy because of the demands of the
Marvel universe. Hulk had to win, but so did the heroes he was
fighting. Somehow, even though he was trying to do anything but, the
Hulk had to save the world. At the same time, WWH needed to
lead into the nonsense Jeph Loeb had planned for what came after. So
it’s tough to fault Pak for the convenience with which he used
Sentry. If he could’ve found a way to involve the schizophrenic
hero more heavily earlier on, it might have helped protect the
story’s integrity.
I’m also not sure I love how Pak
worked the Hulk’s vocabulary into other characters’ dialogue. For
example, as the Fantastic Four prepares for his assault, Storm tells
Reed, “And now the Hulk’s smashed the Avengers.” It’s a minor
complaint.
World War Hulk will be
remembered in no one’s top 100 graphic novels of all time. But it’s
the closest a Hulk fan can get to the fulfillment of the wish he’s
harbored for years.
But more than
that, World War Hulk was something of an answer to a
particular interpretation of the Hulk I sometimes consider. I see the
Hulk as kind of a proto-super-hero. Sure, he’s not even close to
being the first super-hero. I don’t mean it chronologically. But in
many ways, the Hulk is much closer to the mythic heroes of antiquity
upon which super-heroes were based. It’s been said many times that
the idea of Superman was conceived as a hybrid of Heracles and
Samson, but one of Superman’s defining qualities is a righteous
morality that neither of those ancient heroes shared. And that dogged
dedication to morality is one of the things that separates the Hulk
from the larger community of super-heroes. Even when he isn’t
swearing vengeance on the Earth, the Hulk, for the most part, doesn’t
fight for the world or for humanity or for peace, justice, or fair
hiring policies. The Hulk fights for himself, for his own freedom to
exist. To not be hounded. To not be cured. To be left alone.
