World War Hulk came out today and was the only thing on my pull list. While I was originally disappointed only having one comic to read this week but the fact that the one comic was WWH got me in a better mood. Here’s my review of, not only issue 4 of 5 but of the entire story so far.

World War Hulk sounded like an amazing premise when I heard about it a couple of months ago and to be honest, it’s been pretty good so far. It’s nowhere near as ground breaking as some of the other stories that have involved several different titles (Ie: Civil War or House of M) but it’s still been fairly entertaining overall. The part that I really enjoy is that this story has been building up for longer than Civil War since the actual discussion of sending Hulk into space began in the first Illuminati issue of New Avengers back in July of 2005.

For those of you that don’t really know the back story, the Illuminati, which is a group of heroes that basically make all of the important decisions for everyone, decided that Hulk was far too powerful for anyone to contain and should be shot into space where he would be free to wreck whatever he wanted without hurting anyone. Well, things didn’t quite go as planned and Hulk wound up on the planet Shakaar where be fought his way to the top and became king. All this happened in the Planet Hulk arc for those of you that are wondering.

So Hulk was the king. He had a wife, who was carrying his child and everyone pretty much got along. Then, out of nowhere, the craft that Hulk used to travel to the planet blew up and killed about a million people including his wife and unborn child. He blamed this on the Illuminati and decided that the only was to get his revenge was to travel back to Earth with his alien buddies and kill the heroes who exiled him. This would be where WWH starts up.

Issues one through three basically saw the Hulk attack Black Bolt on the moon and then continue on his way to Earth. Once there, he attacked Iron Man taking down Avengers Tower in the process and then moved on to Mr. Fantastic. After making short work of pretty much every other heroes that stood in his way, Hulk turned his attention towards Dr. Strange, which is where things begin in issue four.

The battle wasn’t very exciting but managed to show Hulk as more of a hero than a villain for the first time in the story. Strange, who was using a magic spell to become some sort of demon, realized that he had far too much power for his own good. During his moment of weakness and self-reflection, Strange is attacked by Hulk and imprisoned alongside Black Bolt, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic. The end of the comic shows The Sentry FINALLY leave his house and rush towards the other heroes so he can save them and have a final battle against Hulk. I like Sentry. He’s one of my favorite characters. Laugh all you want but I really like powerhouse heroes. Regardless, WWH was pretty awesome and totally worth reading. If you’ve been following the title, get this issue. It’s a fantastic bridge leading towards the final battle in issue five.

Did you read WWH? What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know!