Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got 3 new comics plus a hard cover collection and a graphic novel:

Echo – 1 (I got this off of Ebay so now I’ve managed to track down the first four issues)

Usagi Yojimbo – 113

Supernatural – Rising Son – 4

The New York Four – A Minx graphic novel. The new DC Comics “Manga-ish” (i.e. B&W and small 5×7 inch) imprint.

Howard The Duck Omnibus

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

World War Hulk TPB by Greg Pak and John Romita Jr.

I’ve been looking forward to reading “World War Hulk”. I’d read and enjoyed “Planet Hulk” and this was the next book. I’ve only one word for it. Disappointing.

The “philosophy” of “World War Hulk” is on the level of a comic book. I hate that phrase, “on the level of a comic book”. Being a comic book fan I’ve read a lot of comics that have sophisticated themes, ideas, and philosophies in them so using the phrase “comic book” to describe something as overly simple is an anathema to me. Plus the phrase is usually used by film critics to describe bad movies. Like movies are in any way a more sophisticated than comic books. But film critics don’t know that. This book unfortunately made that phrase pop into my mind.

But back to “World War Hulk”. Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, and Iron Man blasted the Hulk into space to get him off of the Earth. Hulk landed on a dangerous planet of monsters (see the Planet Hulk book) but now has found his way back to earth and wants his revenge. Hulk shows up in a spaceship with his new friends from Planet Hulk and gives 24 hours notice to evacuate Manhattan then he’s going to kick the ass of the four who sent him into space and level the city.

What plan do all the super heroes on Earth come up with? Pretty much nothing. Black Bolt takes him on by himself as does Iron Man and Dr. Strange. Mr. Fantastic comes up with his own dumb plan that doesn’t work either. It was like one of those kung fu movies where one guy takes on twenty guys but they all fight him one at a time. Everyone watching says, “fight him all at once and he can’t win” but that never happens.

It’s even mentioned three times early on that Dr. Strange can, with a flick of his fingers, send Hulk away to some other dimension. But he doesn’t. Why not? Because Hulk would eventually find his way back and be madder says the good doctor. So what? Send him away again then. Or come up with an actual plan. Too many dumb things in this book.

And the “philosophy” part is all about who are the heroes and who are the villains in this book. Hulk thinks he’s been wronged by the big four and is justified in his revenge. Tell that to all the people Hulk kills in his revenge rampage. I’m sure plenty died in the 24 hour evacuation alone. You think they could empty all the hospitals in Manhattan without losing anyone in such a short time?

Oh, and the Sentry, the only super hero who could go punch for punch with the Hulk, finally decided to join the fight at the end of the book. Imagine that. How convinient. The rest of the time he literally just sat there. Dumbness abounds. I could go on and on but I wont.

The reason I liked “Planet Hulk” is because it was fun. There is little fun to be found in “World War Hulk”. Even the nice John Romita Jr. and Klaus Jansen art work couldn’t save it for me.