What If? Planet Hulk #1 Review

WHAT IF? PLANET HULK # 1
Written by Greg Pak
Art by Various

If you hate stories that are just throw away tales or that have no lasting effects, this issue probably isn't for you. If you like fun, done-in-one tales that feature great action and some good characterization, then read on.

The first story, and the one most probably care about, deals with the scenario of what if Caiera lived and Hulk died when his ship blew up at the end of Planet Hulk. It's a neat premise and basically mirrors World War Hulk in execution.

Upon the death of her husband, Caiera the Oldstrong, who draws her power from the planet itself, takes all of that power and sets out to avenge her husband. The entire death of the Hulk was really well done. I liked how he chose to throw Caiera away from the blast instead of the actual ship, choosing to save his wife and child over the rest of the city. It seemed like a much more natural response if you ask me and plays out well here.

Back to World War Caiera, the Warbound head to Earth and Blackbolt is jobbed out off panel yet again in this WWH-style Moon shattering entrance by Caiera. While the Moon cracking was pretty bad ass, I can't believe Pak disposed of Blackbolt off panel again. I think he just hates Blackbolt or something. He even has Caiera forcing him to speak, killing both Sentry and Dr Strange as they rush off to try and stop her, which is something, while a nice visual, I could never see Blackbolt doing. He would take any amount of punishment inflicted upon him before killing his friends or allowing someone to force him to speak. Since it's just a What If? tale, I'll let it slide, but seeing Blackbolt get treated like this again by Pak is disheartening.

After Strange and Sentry are taken out, Caiera goes about the systematic destruction of most of Marvel's heroes and accomplishes everything WWH has dragged out over 4 issues, and dozens of tie-ins, in a matter of pages. What's sad, though, is that it works so much better here than it does in the actual WWH series. While Pak could have used a few more pages for the fight scenes with the Avengers here, this issue still flows much better than what's going on in WWH and is just an enjoyable "end of the world" tale as Caiera conquers Earth.

However, I wish we could have seen more of Caiera and Hulk's child at the end. He only gets a few panels and we never get a good view of him. Loved the tribute to the Hulk, but with people like Thing and other Marvel heroes subservient to her will, I'm surprised it took so freaking long for them to complete the mammoth statue.

The second story deals with the premise of what if Hulk had made it to the paradise planet the Illuminati had originally planned for him. It's a fun story that does a nice job playing with the Banner / Hulk relationship. I liked how each tried to one-up the other as they each awoke to different locations the other had brought them too. Hulk stranding Banner on the small island in the middle of nowhere was especially funny as Banner realizes Hulk just screwed him over in their little game. The line in the sand was another nice scene. This was one of the best displays of their relationship and made me glad I bought this book.

Verdict - Must Read. Unless you hate fun, highly enjoyable books, there's no reason not to pick this up. If you're a Tony Stark hater, you get to see Caiera decapitate Iron Man during her take over. If you're a Hulk fan, you get a great Banner / Hulk tale and everyone goes home happy.

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