"Planet Hulk"

 

            The following is a review and analysis of the Marvel Comics graphic novel event “Planet Hulk” as presented on Marvel Unlimited. I will focus on the early stages in the storyline in ways to avoid spoilers as best as I can.

            Okay, first we’ll start with the story. There was a secret cabal of scientific and representative superheroes, including Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four), Tony Stark (Iron Man), Doctor Stephen Strange, and Black Bolt (king of the Inhumans) who call themselves the Illuminati, who meet in secret, so secret that even their teammates are unaware of their group meetings.

Doctor Robert Bruce Banner was a nuclear scientist. He was caught in an explosion of gamma radiation, and in times of great stress, anger, and fear turns into a super strong and uncontrollable creature called the Incredible Hulk. The Hulk causes harm and destruction every time he transforms.

The Illuminati made a decision after Hulk’s latest rampage: he was just too dangerous to stay on earth. A satellite near earth was going out of control, and S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Directorate) called in Banner to fix the problem. The Illuminati take advantage of this and plot Banner’s spacecraft to send Hulk to a planet devoid of intelligent life where Hulk will not be able to hurt anyone, nor can anyone hurt Hulk, and finally be at the peace he has wanted ever since the accident. Unfortunately, a wormhole knocks Hulk’s spacecraft off course and ends up sending Hulk to the planet Sakaar. Hulk has been weakened during the ordeal and when he is found by the people of Sakaar, Hulk is sold off in slavery into the arena where Hulk is forced to do battle while given a control device causing subjugation and preventing resistance. While in the arena, he meets Korg, Brood, Hiroim, Elloe, and Miek. The gladiators form a Warbound (an alliance) to each other no matter what might come. Of course, this being a comic book, the Warbound escape and swear revenge on the man who forced them into the position, the Red King, Emperor of Sakaar. Hulk is also believed to be part of a prophecy, the Sakaarson, savior of Sakaar, or the Worldbreaker, he who will destroy Sakaar, and Hulk and the Warbound are determined to learn which he is and his contribution to the future of Sakaar.

Okay, I’m sure now you know the direction of the story, and this was only the first story arch of the event. There were also three other arches to the event, but going past this would be too much of a spoiler to the event and I don’t want to ruin it for you readers who are considering reading this event.

Now, you’ve probably been waiting for my scoring to help you determine if you might want to be interested in reading this event. Now, I highly stress that this is all MY OWN PERSONAL opinion. I honestly can’t outright say it was good or bad, that’s all for you to decide should you choose to read “Planet Hulk” (and if you do or have read the event I’d love to hear from you to share your opinion as well, that would be THE BEST!). Here’s the rundown of the following three paragraphs. I start, again with MY PERSONAL opinion on what I liked and disliked. Then I tell you the accessibility, how much I feel is important to know prior to reading “Planet Hulk” to fully enjoy the story. Finally, I give my numeric score based on MY enjoyment of the event.

First off, this event made me feel a little wishy-washy. There were parts I loved, and parts that I felt were dragged on too much, parts that bored me, and parts that I honestly didn’t like. And I also found this story to be highly predictable. From the start of him arriving on Sakaar and sold into slavery and into the arena, I knew how this story arch was going to go, and the ending just didn’t “wow” me. I did enjoy the Hulk’s battle with the Silver Surfer in the arena, BUT it seemed rushed and wasted and had almost no impact or payoff at any further points of the story, it was like he was just there to have a familiar face as every other character was created and original to the event. This also made it difficult to for me connect with the characters as they were only ever going to be in the one event. I only knew them from this story and will probably never see these characters again, so I just didn’t feel invested in the characters, their storylines, their history, I just didn’t feel for the characters. There were also parts that seemed a little too rushed, like if they had focused more on those parts and less at some of the other points that seemed slow. I just didn’t feel it was balanced.

Okay, enough on that, let’s move on to accessibility. This, to me, was very self-contained. As I said, the cast of all new characters just there for the event didn’t have history to the comics, so the backgrounds were, to me, self-explanatory. It wasn’t like they had these characters with history dating back to 1962 who appeared dozens of times with intricate storylines with all the characters in the Marvel Universe. Even the Hulk’s prior stories had no impact on “Planet Hulk.” I feel anyone could easily pick it up. So even if you know absolutely NOTHING about the Hulk, if you read this review and feel interested, even after my score, I feel you’d be able to pick up on the story with little to no problems at all. And I know that to some of you, this story might seem familiar, and if so, here’s why: part of the film “Thor: Ragnarok” was inspired by the “Planet Hulk” comic book event. So if you loved the film “Thor: Ragnarok,” I totally recommend this comic book event to you.

Now, here it is, the moment you’ve been reading for, the clinch to determine “Yeah, I‘ve got to read this” or “Hard pass.” My score is given on a one-to-ten scale. One is, like I said “hard pass,” ten is “Yeah, I’ve got to read this” I slam it right at the middle: Five. Did I hate it? No. Did I love it? No. It was okay, but it could have been better for me. There’s a word I want to throw in here: potential. Look at the title: “Planet Hulk.” Do YOU think it has potential? If you can answer yes, I actually recommend it. If your answer is no, however, then the chance of your liking it might not be there, but still, if you want to read it, feel free to read it. I leave it all up to you. You are not me, I am not you, this is my mind, not yours, I can’t make yours for you. This is the whole point of these reviews, or anything I do on this blog for that matter. I have opinions, I share them with you, that is it, that’s all I can do.

So, if you liked this post, I’ve done dozens of posts on this blog, totally keep coming back, I post regularly, I hope there’s other content here you like. I do other things than reviews, like short stories, poetry, essays, editorials, I do quite a bit. So pick my brain, come back, and I’ll just say, Tim Cubbin… out!