My original plan was to write up this event differently—to give posts to every tie-in (and there a bunch).  But I changed my mind as I starting reading through.  It’s not because the tie-ins are bad, it’s because they really don’t add a whole lot.  Sorry if you’re looking for something more in depth on, say, World War Hulk: Gamma Legion.  (But really, why would you be?)

This post covers:

• Avengers: Initiative #4-5
• Ghost Rider #12-13
• Heroes for Hire #11-15 (series ends)
• Incredible Hulk #105-111
• Irredeemable Ant-Man #10
• Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #19-20
• Punisher War Journal #12
• World War Hulk #1-5
• World War Hulk: Frontline #1-6
• World War Hulk: Gamma Legion #1-4
• World War Hulk Prologue
• World War Hulk: X-Men #1-3

Before launching formally into World War Hulk, Marvel published what essentially was an orientation one-shot.  The first used a variety of narrative devices to articulate H-‘s beef with each member of the I-at-i.  The third was a bit of a deep dive into H’s relationship with Amadeus Cho.  But the best part is the second story….

A Mini-Marvels style recap where the “Illuminators” send H into space for eating PN’s sandwich.

Excellent.

Anyway, the actual story starts at the ending of Planet Hulk.

This is my second time reading this arc, and it’s not as good as I remember. Sure, it starts with a bang (literally), as Hulk finds the rocket that the Illumaniti used to send him to Planet Hulk, the rocket explodes, and…

Hulk (understandably) assumes the Illuminati caused the explosion (but it was really his fellow Warbound, Miek).

On to Incredible Hulk #106, where we see Amadeus Cho trying to gather a “pro-Hulk” network, and having a very interesting conversation with Jennifer Walters, who tries to explain to Cho that her cousin’s alter ego is not always a force for justice.

Meanwhile, Reed Richards and the Illuminati are tracking Cho by satellite, and since he’s one of the smartest people in the world, he’s aware of it.  Richards notifies Doc Samson, who arrives at the diner where Cho and Walters are meeting.  Samson takes down Cho but in the process accidentally kills Amadeus’ dog.

This makes She-Hulk so angry that she upper-cuts Doc Samson into the next town.

That sets the tone for the series: The tension between the Hulk who has saved the world many times and the one who destroys innocent lives, versus the superheroes who refuse to acknowledge that their own powers can often have the same effect.

Amadeus Cho’s story unfolds in Incredible Hulk concurrent with the “World War Hulk” miniseries, and the arc is great. He turns heroism on its head by calling a spade a spade and labels the Illuminati as cruel geniuses who use their power to bully Hulk, who really isn’t that different from them (except that of course he is). Cho’s narrative is straightforward from his own perspective, but readers know the truth: Hulk’s frequent rages killed hundreds and ruined the lives of many, many more.

Amadeus’ group partners Hulk up with Hercules and the original Champions team. First of course Herc and Hulk have to fight, but Hercules wins his way into the Warbound.

At the end of this event, The Incredible Hulk series becomes The Incredible Hercules. Very excellent.

But on to the main event, which is largely just rock ‘em sock ‘em action, with Hulk fighting…Just about everyone.  In other words, it’s the perfect Hulk event.

Hulk is hurtling towards Earth with his Warbound army from Planet Hulk.  Their first stop is Attilan, on the moon, where Black Bolt yells at Hulk.

Then, Hulk nearly kills Black Bolt.

Hulk then goes to Earth where the fun can really start.  First, on his way to New York City, he goes to Westchester, NY. Home of The X-Men. He and Colossus play “mercy.”

Where he busts Colossus’ wrists.

And tears off Rockslide’s arms.

And has a multi-page brawl with Juggernaut.

Ironically Illuminati member Professor X is not home and avoids the thrashing he’s earned.

There’s the inevitable Wolverine match up of course.

This time, though, it’s not even close. Hulk creams him.

Hulk beats up all other kinds of mutants though, which is fun.

The mutants try to express sympathy for him, which at first he has no use for…

But he learns during the X-Men fight that the world’s mutant population was recently decimated by M-Day, and decides he’ll leave them alone.

World War Hulk: X-Men is the only standalone miniseries spotlighting a team that already has it’s own book (or in the X-Men’s case, many of their own books). But anything with “X” on the cover sells, so I get why Marvel did this. Plus, all of the X-books are laden by very heavy continuity and a World War Hulk interruption would not serve the stories told there.

Arriving in Times Square, Hulk demands that the Illuminati face him and trashes superheroes, one by one, fight by fight.

His Warbound and also keep many NYC heroes occupied. They crush the various Avengers teams and the Fantastic Four.

In the Avengers: Initiative issues, Typhoid Mary joins under the new name “Mutant Zero,” and the team takes on Death’s Head units who fight for Hulk.

Hulk and the Warbound beat up just about everyone.

 In Iron Man: Director of SHIELD, Hulk takes on Dum Dum and a new suit of armor.

Battle after battle, Hulk wins.

Punisher helps fight off the invading alien insect army, and gets new tech to do it: A synthetic costume based on Venom.

This has been a theme for Matt Fraction’s Punisher War Journal series. If tying him into this event generated more readers, that’s all for the good. His Pun run is one of the best.

Ant-Man tries to defeat Hulk from the inside.

Ant-Man vs Hulk’s uvula! Fantastic! He’s unable to hurt Hulk, and exits the body during Hulk’s big Iron Man fight.

Cool.

In the Heroes for Hire tie in, which is one of the strongest in the lot and one of the best arcs for that series overall, we see armies led by No Name and Miek taking on Humbug, whose ability to commune with insects leads to interesting complications. It also marks the end of the series.

Johnny Blaze takes Hulk on as well. When he turns his penitence stare on Hulk, Ghost Rider sees Hulk’s cause as righteous and, therefore, the vengeance demon has no quarrel with Hulk. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time Blaze has used this ability–I thought it was limited to the Danny Ketch version of Ghost Rider.

The events reads like a gladiator series, which fits with the prior “Planet Hulk” arc.

Not all the tie-ins are worth reading. Frontline, Gamma Heroes…These are kinda filler-ish. There’s still decent stuff in them, especially if you want to see how other parts of the Marvel Universe are affected.

And I suppose they serve a good purpose in that books like Moon Knight are telling extended, complex arcs. If we see him here, he may get a sales boost and we don’t have to have the main book’s continuity interrupted.

Once beaten, Hulk enslaves the fallen heroes with “obedience disks.”  Iron Man is one of the captured, but he manages to create a nuclear solution with the help of SHIELD, which will blow the entire island of Manhattan into the Negative Zone.

Having captured several Illuminati, Hulk then forces them to fight as gladiators—just as he was treated on Planet Hulk.  As their battle is fought, Sentry arrives.

Of course that battle is awesome.

The intensity of the battle causes both Hulk and Sentry to revert to their alter-egos, Robert Reynolds and Bruce Banner.  Most of his Warbound believe that the battle is finally over and the healing can begin, but Miek is still hungry for the fight and stabs Rick Jones.  

Sadly, Rick’s not dead.

Enraged, Banner turns back into Hulk and turns on his Warbound.  During the battle Miek’s prior treachery is exposed—that he is the one, not the Illuminati—who created the bomb that destroyed Hulk’s lover back on Planet Hulk.  SHIELD then launches satellite misses that are able to knock Hulk unconscious.  

He’s then imprisoned by SHIELD…

…In a tube!

And then, in the final panels, we get our first look at Hulk’s son, Skaar.

I go back and forth on this event. This is probably the longest post I’ve ever written, and the one I most enjoyed writing. It was a fun event. I recognize it had some sprawl problems and redundancy across the weaker tie-ins and minis, but overall it left a huge impression on everyone who read it. My sense is that it’s not “cool” to like gang bang stories but…I like them anyway.