The Incredible Hulk 710: Return to Planet Hulk Part 2

This is the first issue of The Incredible Hulk I’ve picked up since he briefly took the mantle of the Horseman of War under Apocalypse.

The Cover

The cover features the Hulk carrying a giant sword and riding some kind of dune buggy.  Given the story arc involving a return to Planet Hulk, I’m betting there’s a lot of conflict inside.  This is probably the most savage I’ve seen this incarnation of The Hulk, as he looks a lot more rough around the edges than in the Champions series.

The Art

Greg Land does the duties on the interior of this issue.  There are several scenes where the Hulk looks quite impressive, but the issue is artistically a little bland.

Other than the Hulk, a lot of the other characters look fairly generic, just with red skin.  He does do a good job making the Hulk look tough, but I’m not feeling the sort of ‘Thunderdome’ vibe they’re going for.

The Story

This issue was written by Greg Pak, and while not bad, it didn’t really stand out.  Amadeus Cho has apparently been drawn to Sakaar, the setting for the famous Planet Hulk storyline.  It’s pretty slow paced and didn’t do much to draw me in, other than a brief page where Amadeus is reigning in the savage aspect of his Hulk personality.

I would have liked to see a lot more of this inner conflict, as I believe it’s something that this Hulk hasn’t explored as much.  This page is the best part of the entire issue, and made me want to see him pushed beyond his limit to give this ‘Savage Hulk’ more power and to showcase more of a battle for control between the two.

Hulk, near as I can tell, is trying to fight his way home, and soon enough gets caught up in a fledgling revolution to overthrow a brutal warlord.  As a result, he is having to give more and more control to his Hulk persona, hence the inner conflict that was the best part of the issue.  After three reads through, I still haven’t been able to pull that much more from it.

All in all it wasn’t a bad issue, but one that didn’t have a lot standing out.