AFTERSMASH

Well puny humans, it looks like we can all sleep a little easier at night because Hulk is done smashing for a quite awhile. With the recent conclusion of World War Hulk, an abundance of questions have been answered about the bane of Bruce Banner. However, I finished the series unsatisfied, and am starting to think that the fate of all Marvel crossover events will leave me feeling these way.

Let me explain, I enjoyed the conclusion of World War Hulk (I will do my best not to spoil it for those of you who haven't finished) I just feel that the way writer Greg Pak tied everything together was very rushed. It seemed like every issue of the series went to an excruciating degree of effort to re-explain why Hulk was taking over New York. Hulk was unfairly
sent to space. He was forced to become a gladiator and fight the Red King. He becomes the king of Sakaar, and has a pregnant wife. Bam! His world explodes, loses his wife and seeks vengeance on the superheroes of earth who sent him there. Yeah, that was a great story when I read Planet Hulk, but I don't need to be retold this every time I pick up an issue of Hulk.
Let's move forward, and to Pak's credit we have, but it was not until the last half of issue 5 that anything major was really revealed.

Obviously, the problem I am having with World War Hulk is that Marvel wants to make sure that if any stray reader picks up an issue they'll have enough back story to understand what is happening and will be enticed to continue the series. In comparison, a crossover series like the Green Lantern - Sinsetro Crops. War has done a great job of constantly moving the series forward without repeating itself. I guess Marvel's strategy is great for sales but for the dedicated readers the story telling can get redundant.

Ultimately, I want to give World War Hulk a thumbs up. It was like a Micheal Bay movie, lot's of explosions and insanity meant to for you to just enjoy and not think to hard about. Hulk's last battle with The Sentry was exactly like the last battle in Bay's Transformers, I couldn't tell what the hell was going on but boy was it cool! My complaint is only that an event that will clearly have a major effect on Hulk continuity was treated like a Micheal Bay movie, only until the very end when there are quite a few interesting reveals. If you want to know what happens you'll just have to read it yourself!

To catch up with Greg Pak's thoughts on the conclusion of his Smash-fest check out the href="http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=136412">War Room over at newsarama.

smash! Smash! SMASH!!!

-Jon