- ISBN13: 9780785120124
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Savage alien planet! Oppressed barbarian tribes! Corrupt emperor! Deadly woman warrior! Gladiators and slaves! Battle axes and hand blasters! Monsters and heroes… and the Incredible Hulk! Let the smashing commence! This deluxe hardcover collects the entire “Planet Hulk” saga, plus extras! Collects Incredible Hulk #92-105, Giant-Size Hulk #1, “Mastermind Excello” story from Amazing Fantasy #15, maps, character designs…. More >>
Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk
the art is great, but the story is totally derivative, probably good for much younger readers , its a bust, the Bruce Jone’s hulk run is much better, lots of suspense Rating: 1 / 5
I really can’t rate the product as I never received it. We purchased it through one of the dealers that Amazon associates itself with and over a month later I still have not received it. Granted I am in the military and stationed in Germany, but I have never had anything take longer than two weeks to arrive. Very disappointed… Rating: 1 / 5
i picked this up based on buzz and reviews that made this book look like the best thing since sliced bread. also it didn’t hurt that ladronn did some absolutely stellar cover work. maybe this run is so well regarded because it followed bruce jones’s run, which started out rather great but floundered. the premise is fine, and there is a lot of smashing, but i didn’t quite see what all the fuss was about. there isn’t a whole lot of story for 14+ issues, and the padding really shows in places. i really think the pacing would have been much better if there was some down time on the planet to give the hulk and the reader a sense that he really was sent to a peaceful planet and create some tension and maybe do some character work on the hulk before he’s attacked.
the portrayal of the hulk is good, but i thought there was something really missing in the appearances of bruce banner. i like the hulk, but i would really have loved to see banner’s take on the situation he and the hulk have been thrown into. he shows up three times, and each appearance comes off as awkward for some reason or another. of particular interest is his appearance where a character wants to see “all” of the hulk, so he transforms into banner for her. the idea of hulk accepting banner as a part of himself should have been a landmark moment for both hulk and banner (perhaps the most important and central moment in the character’s history considering that for hulk’s entire existence he’s been at odds with banner), but the moment is completely glossed over. this is the story for all of banner’s appearances. there’s so much potential in the hulk’s duality. it could have been a compelling and fascinating element of the story, and it’s all just glossed over. wasted potential really. and with all the “extra” room in these 14+ issues there was plenty of space to explore the hulk/banner relationship, but of course that would have required some true character work. i can’t disagree that pak “gets” the hulk, but there’s not a whole lot to the hulk. banner is more interesting, and pak’s banner is just plain confusing. in a way banner’s story could be the most compelling part of the whole saga, since for all he knows he’s trapped inside the hulk on this planet forever and will never return to earth again, but there isn’t even an effort to make that come across. the same goes for hulk’s friends’ reactions (or lack thereof) to banner showing up. wasted potential.
the art is fine. it gets the job done, but that’s about it. and the supplemental material bothers me. honestly i never like it when these books come out with a stack of background material, except when they’re interesting, of course. and sketchbook material is always welcome. but what we have here is a handbook-style documantation of the culture and miscellany of this planet. for my tastes it’s all a wasted effort. if none of this information came across in the story i don’t understand why anyone besides the exceptionally bored or exceptionally geeky would be at all interested. even at the same price i’d prefer this material be excluded from the collection, just to save some trees. life’s too short to read even a little bit of it.
all-in-all this is an above average read. it’s not deep by any means, and you’re sure to be disappointed if you expect a five-star book, but if you like to read about the hulk smashing things you should like this. and i can’t say enough good things about ladronn’s cover work on this series. maybe not quite worth the price of admission alone, but pretty close. Rating: 3 / 5
As other reviewers have said, this is a fantastically creative tale which is unlike any of the 200+ other Hulk comics which I’ve read. The premise of the story is fresh & upbeat — not only does the Hulk travel to another planet, but he assembles a motley group of different aliens and personalities around him, becomes a gladiator, defeats the evil king and eventually assumes control of the entire planet. Not only that, but people seem to *like* the Hulk in this storyline, and at times he even appears happy — quite a step away from the angry loner which he’s been portrayed as, so often in the past. Nonetheless, the Hulk still seems true to character (at least, true to *one* of his characters, as the Hulk has had so many differing interpretations over the years): his brooding, cynical, “brute of few words” persona matches closely the original Hulk that Lee & Kirby did in the 1960’s.
This storyline is not without its drawbacks, though. Foremost is the art — which is both a strength and a weakness at the same time. The illustrations themselves (mainly by Pagulayan & Lopresti) are beautiful to look at. But writer Pak uses so few captions and explanatory dialogue that often you’re left with nothing but the art, to figure out what’s going on — and while it looks good, it doesn’t always convey the details of the story very clearly. When I was collecting the individual issues, I would often read the “what’s happened so far” synopsis at the beginning of the current issue, then go back & reread the previous one, so that I’d know what to look for. This was too bad, because some of the story-turns really are entertaining, but not always clear by the layout of the artwork.
Also, one of the perennial appeals of the Hulk has been the uneasy relationship he has with Banner — a relationship which has taken many turns over the years. Here, Banner almost never appears, and the internal conflict is almost completely absent. Many criticized Bruce Jones’ earlier run on the Hulk as being “too much Banner, not enough Hulk.” This is just the opposite — and while it is fun to see “Hulk smash,” the story would have been strengthened if the Hulk’s alter-ego had played more than just a token role.
Finally, while the story is good, it runs a little long. I wondered while I was reading it if writer Pak originally conceived of a 15-part storyline, or if the editorial front-office gave him those parameters to allow Marvel’s “Civil War” to finish up, before Hulk returned to Earth in the next major crossover-event, “World War Hulk.” While the story of “Planet Hulk” is good, it’s not 15-issues good, and some of the in-between issues begin to feel a little redundant, like they’re just rehashing what already happened earlier in the story.
If you’re a Hulk fan, or you want to see what led up to “Work War Hulk,” this is certainly good reading, and one of the more compelling Hulk plots to come out in a while. All in all, a fun story, even if it could have been a little better. Rating: 4 / 5
I love the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk series, but when I opened the Planet Hulk book for the first time, the first page was torn in half. At first I though it was a gimmick page, but soon realized the the page was just plain torn. WTF?!!! Great content, but disappointed with Amazon about the damaged book. Rating: 3 / 5