SKAAR: SON OF HULK #1Written by Greg Pak
Art by Ron Garney
I'll be honest, I was expecting more from Skaar: Son of Hulk #1. Planet Hulk channeled some great Gladiator themes and, for what it was, World War Hulk was a great, mindless summer blockbuster.
However, Skaar seems to be lacking a direction or focus. It looks like it's trying to channel a Conan-like vibe, but the jumps in narrative and time just ruin any momentum the story starts to build.
For instance, we start the issue with what looks like shortly after Caeira's death. She explains the events of Planet Hulk, her relationship with Hulk, where he went and tells us Oldstrong children grow within days and does it's best to explain why Skaar grows up so fast.
We spend a few pages covering his first steps out of the lake of fire he was born into and see him witness the cruelty of man (alien? Sakaarian?) first hand as a little girl is killed by marauders right in front of him.
Pretty compelling opening pages, but what does Pak do? He jumps ahead a year. Skaar is now looking to be maybe the equivilent of a 12 year old and he's leading a wandering group of people away from the red skin barbarian tribes.
Of course, the barbarians find them instantly and kill most of the group with one of their creatures' flame breath. They finally see Skaar using his Oldstrong powers and the leader of the barbarians promptly cuts Skaar down, shattering his stone body.
We cut to a victory feast where the barbarians are planning to eat some survivors of the raid. One of the soldiers' goes to boil a captured Brood-like creature and we get glimpses of something cutting everyone to pieces. As the Barbarian leader checks on the commotion, we see him confronted by Skaar, all grown up and looking like the cover version above, weilding a giant axe of his own this time, as the people celebrate that he is alive.
On top of that, Ron Garney, fresh off his excellent work on Wolverine, is back to his "scratchy" style from his Amazing Spider-Man run. I don't know why he chose to do it this way as it looks terrible in comparison to his clean and beautiful work on the Get Mystique! storyarc. I was so excited seeing his name attached to the project and now I'm just disappointed.
Verdict - Check It. It has a lot of great concepts and I want to like this story, but it's just rushed along too soon and too many unexplained events, like his "death" or the change in appearance post-resurrection. Also, where's the mysterious human the solicits spoke of?
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