Muckraker Posts: 227 Joined: 17 Dec 2007 | "They didn't like him, so they launched him into space."
Those are the words of some random comic book store clerk who told me about Planet Hulk. I've never been a big fan of the Hulk, to be honest--I always felt he was an overpowered sort of super "hero" and his ambiguity annoyed me for some time--ambiguity about whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. I know those same features endeared him to his fans, but they bugged me for some time, so I never really followed the Hulk's storylines closely. The only villain of his that I knew about was Abomination, and that's just 'cause I read reviews of the games.
Hearing about Planet Hulk, though, it just sounded like a really fun story. Hulk vs. an entire planet? Alright, I can dig that--no ambiguity there, just sheer, balls-to-the wall explosive goodness. It took me awhile (and 37 dollars, motherfucking Graphic Novel prices) to get the whole story arc in Trade Paperback, but after watching the Hulk movie, I finally found a big-ass copy in Barnes and Noble and was thoroughly and completely engrossed by it all day. I just finished it now, so...here's a review.
---
Planet Hulk is sort of like a cross between Conan the Barbarian, the Hulk, and, like...Braveheart, I guess. The Hulk gets launched into space, shit happens, and he crashes into some alien planet. That's where the story immediately picks up (it assumes, I guess, that you read the other 80+ issues before this, though there's a little paragraph explaining what happened.) From then on it's a very long, extremely epic story of the Hulk becoming a slave, a gladiator, a rebel, a revolutionary, and eventually an emperor. And it fucking ROCKS.
With his no-holds barred attitude and his inhuman strength, the Hulk meshes perfectly with the alien world he is in, which is a savage, bloodthirsty place, run by a cruel dictator and with lots of collisseum drama. Beautifully drawn by, like, a zillion in-house Marvel artists, the entire exhausting saga is written by Greg Pak, who I've not heard of before, but am intensely interested in now. The narrative is just so well-paced that, despite all the crazy shit you see in the first part of the saga, it just keeps upping the ante, almost to the point of brain exhaustion. There's a giant explosion about every ten pages, there's somebody getting ripped apart, cut up, stabbed, smashed (there's lots of smashing) and just plain getting their day FUCKED UP that you are never starved for excitement.
More interestingly, they didn't half-ass this venture at all. I mean, any generic alien world will do, but the Hulk can only be SO interesting. There had to be more to flesh out the story, so we get a wonderfully rich world, devoid of the mindless jabbering so prevalent in the Marvel Universe, that--while simplistic--is extremely well-fleshed out, almost to the point where, on a first reading, you'll likely miss out on a few subtler details. There are about four or five races who live on the planet, almost all of them exiles from some other part of the galaxy, and the point of contention is that one of them reigns surpreme, enslaving and doing some crazy genocide on everyone else. Each race is well thought out, and because the story is so long and epic, everyone gets their time in the spotlight.
Hulk is supported by a cast of pretty awesome fellow gladiators, who are all worth mentioning as being extremely entertaining, and none of them get left behind in the narrative--throughout, they constantly act, both as a group and seperately, as the spiritual, physical, and moral background to keep the Hulk moving. Their loyalties are tested, there's disputes, drama, all that good stuff that keeps it interesting, and they're sort of like a band of superheroes except without the GAY.
And the tights.
In fact, I think the main reason I like this story so much is because it's not like a lot of "epic" superhero drudgery. Take "Emperor Joker", for instance--DC's bizarro bit of storytelling where the Joker gets god-like powers and remakes the world in his image. It's a fantastic premise, but it stars SUPERMAN, of all people, and no matter what, if Superman is your main character, your story becomes hopelessly cheesy. I mean, they play Superman up to be akin to Christ in that story, and (Spoilers!) all of the bullshit and speeches and fighting he does amounts to nothing, because the Joker WINS. They wrote themselves into a corner, and the only way for good to triumph was to come to the logical conclusion: Batman saves EVERYBODY, and Superman amounts to jack shit. It's almost like a Jesus parable that ends with a gigantic cock painting the words "Fuck Jesus" on a brick wall. (end spoilers)
Sorry, tangent. At anyrate, Planet Hulk is wonderfully brutal, well-thought out and detailed, but most of all, Hulk becomes INTERESTING. Most Hulk stories focus on Bruce Banner and his whining about killing everybody he loves, so this is pretty refreshing in the context that Bruce is kept far out of the main focus, and Hulk is known as Hulk. It's sort of like a huge love-letter to Hulk, not to Bruce Banner, and the ongoing theme is that everybody--and I mean everybody--treats Hulk like SHIT. He's not even evil--all of the bad shit he does is almost always somebody else's fault, and while, sure, he's a rage-fueled psychopathic killing machine, you can't blame him for that because it's not his fault. That's just what he is. And while the Hulk seems strangely talkative and intelligent in this story, he's still got the same issue: all he's ever good at doing is killing people. And stuff. Like, buildings. He smashes.
And that's where the story hits home, especially when everyone starts assuming Hulk is a prophecied Messiah come to liberate them. It's a constant point of contention between everybody as to whether Hulk is destined to save the planet, or destroy it, and we see the Hulk's triumphs, his failures, his moments of self-doubt, his reflections, and ultimately, his final moments of solace and redemption, and by god, it takes a long while, but every bit is good. The Hulk becomes the most fascinating character in the story, and ultimately he gets all he never thought he wanted, which makes the twist ending such an emotional punch to nuts it makes you almost cry.
If you haven't already, buy this book. Yeah, it's expensive, but it's one of the few Graphic Novels I'd say is worth the price. It's endlessly entertaining, well-drawn, and god damn, if it isn't just the best Hulk story I've ever read. It's better than the movie, actually, and if they made a Planet Hulk movie, it would be FUCKING AWESOME. |
Press Junketeer Posts: 421 Joined: 2 Dec 2007 | I think your getting a bit ahead of yourself the planet books comics were awsome i read them
but maybe they should finish the story they got going on now... |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 758 Joined: 6 Apr 2008 | Thanks for that :) I've never bought any DC or Marvel stuff due to starting my interest in comics and graphic novels so late in that I wouldn't know where to start with the 'mainstream' stuff, so I end up with Hellboy and The MAXX etc. (Which I :3 too) So, thanks for the review, I might just check this one out :D |
Muckraker Posts: 227 Joined: 17 Dec 2007 | You totally should. Of the mainstream stuff, I'd reccomend Plant Hulk, the first few Ultimate Spider Mans, Ultimate Captain America, any of the Alan Moore one-shots for either DC or Marvel, and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, as well as his Sin City yarns. |
Beat Writer Posts: 158 Joined: 4 Feb 2008 | Very interesting. I'm getting increasingly interested in comic books these days so recommendations are always welcome. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 2570 Joined: 7 Feb 2008 | HULK NOT WANT BE SPACE RUSSEL CROWE ANYMORE! |
Press Junketeer Posts: 385 Joined: 21 Jun 2008 | Very nice review. I also enjoyed Planet Hulk, so much so that I became emotionally invested in the character over the run of the arc, I collected the individual issues.
RentCavalier I'd like to suggest to you Iron Man: Extremis as well. It is a fantastic reboot of the character and shows why he is the man he is today in the comics. Also the House of M, Earth X series, Origin: The True Story of Wolverine and (if you can find it) the early Runaways volumes, there should be three of them. |
Muckraker Posts: 227 Joined: 17 Dec 2007 | I do love me some Iron Man. I actually tried to read House of M, but the thing with that is that House of M is actually the pinnacle of what I *don't* like in Marvel comics--extreme cross-overs and wonky, ridiculous plotlines. It just seemed too much, and you really need the volumes of build-up to it before you can really appreciate it, which annoyed me. |
Press Junketeer Posts: 385 Joined: 21 Jun 2008 | Yeah it wasn't for everyone, I thought it was a nice mashup of the Marvel universe. Pick up the Runaways though; the teenage kids of supervillians who runaway from their parents and discover their own powers. It's a really great read, hmmm maybe I should do a review on it. |
Muckraker Posts: 227 Joined: 17 Dec 2007 | I've heard good things on the runaways. I also wanna check out Damage Control and maybe some Deadpool stuff. |
"They didn't like him, so they launched him into space."
Those are the words of some random comic book store clerk who told me about Planet Hulk. I've never been a big fan of the Hulk, to be honest--I always felt he was an overpowered sort of super "hero" and his ambiguity annoyed me for some time--ambiguity about whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. I know those same features endeared him to his fans, but they bugged me for some time, so I never really followed the Hulk's storylines closely. The only villain of his that I knew about was Abomination, and that's just 'cause I read reviews of the games.
Hearing about Planet Hulk, though, it just sounded like a really fun story. Hulk vs. an entire planet? Alright, I can dig that--no ambiguity there, just sheer, balls-to-the wall explosive goodness. It took me awhile (and 37 dollars, motherfucking Graphic Novel prices) to get the whole story arc in Trade Paperback, but after watching the Hulk movie, I finally found a big-ass copy in Barnes and Noble and was thoroughly and completely engrossed by it all day. I just finished it now, so...here's a review.
---
Planet Hulk is sort of like a cross between Conan the Barbarian, the Hulk, and, like...Braveheart, I guess. The Hulk gets launched into space, shit happens, and he crashes into some alien planet. That's where the story immediately picks up (it assumes, I guess, that you read the other 80+ issues before this, though there's a little paragraph explaining what happened.) From then on it's a very long, extremely epic story of the Hulk becoming a slave, a gladiator, a rebel, a revolutionary, and eventually an emperor. And it fucking ROCKS.
With his no-holds barred attitude and his inhuman strength, the Hulk meshes perfectly with the alien world he is in, which is a savage, bloodthirsty place, run by a cruel dictator and with lots of collisseum drama. Beautifully drawn by, like, a zillion in-house Marvel artists, the entire exhausting saga is written by Greg Pak, who I've not heard of before, but am intensely interested in now. The narrative is just so well-paced that, despite all the crazy shit you see in the first part of the saga, it just keeps upping the ante, almost to the point of brain exhaustion. There's a giant explosion about every ten pages, there's somebody getting ripped apart, cut up, stabbed, smashed (there's lots of smashing) and just plain getting their day FUCKED UP that you are never starved for excitement.
More interestingly, they didn't half-ass this venture at all. I mean, any generic alien world will do, but the Hulk can only be SO interesting. There had to be more to flesh out the story, so we get a wonderfully rich world, devoid of the mindless jabbering so prevalent in the Marvel Universe, that--while simplistic--is extremely well-fleshed out, almost to the point where, on a first reading, you'll likely miss out on a few subtler details. There are about four or five races who live on the planet, almost all of them exiles from some other part of the galaxy, and the point of contention is that one of them reigns surpreme, enslaving and doing some crazy genocide on everyone else. Each race is well thought out, and because the story is so long and epic, everyone gets their time in the spotlight.
Hulk is supported by a cast of pretty awesome fellow gladiators, who are all worth mentioning as being extremely entertaining, and none of them get left behind in the narrative--throughout, they constantly act, both as a group and seperately, as the spiritual, physical, and moral background to keep the Hulk moving. Their loyalties are tested, there's disputes, drama, all that good stuff that keeps it interesting, and they're sort of like a band of superheroes except without the GAY.
And the tights.
In fact, I think the main reason I like this story so much is because it's not like a lot of "epic" superhero drudgery. Take "Emperor Joker", for instance--DC's bizarro bit of storytelling where the Joker gets god-like powers and remakes the world in his image. It's a fantastic premise, but it stars SUPERMAN, of all people, and no matter what, if Superman is your main character, your story becomes hopelessly cheesy. I mean, they play Superman up to be akin to Christ in that story, and (Spoilers!) all of the bullshit and speeches and fighting he does amounts to nothing, because the Joker WINS. They wrote themselves into a corner, and the only way for good to triumph was to come to the logical conclusion: Batman saves EVERYBODY, and Superman amounts to jack shit. It's almost like a Jesus parable that ends with a gigantic cock painting the words "Fuck Jesus" on a brick wall. (end spoilers)
Sorry, tangent. At anyrate, Planet Hulk is wonderfully brutal, well-thought out and detailed, but most of all, Hulk becomes INTERESTING. Most Hulk stories focus on Bruce Banner and his whining about killing everybody he loves, so this is pretty refreshing in the context that Bruce is kept far out of the main focus, and Hulk is known as Hulk. It's sort of like a huge love-letter to Hulk, not to Bruce Banner, and the ongoing theme is that everybody--and I mean everybody--treats Hulk like SHIT. He's not even evil--all of the bad shit he does is almost always somebody else's fault, and while, sure, he's a rage-fueled psychopathic killing machine, you can't blame him for that because it's not his fault. That's just what he is. And while the Hulk seems strangely talkative and intelligent in this story, he's still got the same issue: all he's ever good at doing is killing people. And stuff. Like, buildings. He smashes.
And that's where the story hits home, especially when everyone starts assuming Hulk is a prophecied Messiah come to liberate them. It's a constant point of contention between everybody as to whether Hulk is destined to save the planet, or destroy it, and we see the Hulk's triumphs, his failures, his moments of self-doubt, his reflections, and ultimately, his final moments of solace and redemption, and by god, it takes a long while, but every bit is good. The Hulk becomes the most fascinating character in the story, and ultimately he gets all he never thought he wanted, which makes the twist ending such an emotional punch to nuts it makes you almost cry.
If you haven't already, buy this book. Yeah, it's expensive, but it's one of the few Graphic Novels I'd say is worth the price. It's endlessly entertaining, well-drawn, and god damn, if it isn't just the best Hulk story I've ever read. It's better than the movie, actually, and if they made a Planet Hulk movie, it would be FUCKING AWESOME.