
Pheonix Burning mini: Written by Greg Pak. Art by Takeshi Miyazawa.
Published by Marvel Comics, May 20th, 2015.
Rating: 4.5/5.
Welcome to the new Marvel's Secret Wars game show! The game where the writers come up with the most ridiculous idea they possibly can and then somehow craft it into a good story. Today's entrant is Sam Humphries, the writer behind the recent "Black Vortex" crossover series. And for his entry, he's going wiiiiiiiith: A gladiator version of Steve Rogers and his partner, Devil Dinosaur, must sneak into a land populated entirely by Hulks in order to rescue Bucky Barnes. Yes, you read that right. That is the story going on in Secret Wars: Planet Hulk.
The story is fun, full of action and deeply engrained into the Battleworld mythos. We opened on the Killeseum, a gladiator death match that is apparently broadcast on television to an unknown amount of the Battleworld. It is an interesting piece of the world, because even in the parts that have that Marvel's Game of Thrones feel, there is still technology at work and more modern day horrors (i.e. reality television).
The bit about Arcade (the sadistic man behind the recent Avengers Arena series) and the Killeseum, is built perfectly, with reveals falling at just the right time to be dramatic and still funny because of the absurdity. Speaking of absurdity, of all the Marvel characters they could have paired with Cap... they went with Devil Dinosaur. Back at this year's WonderCon, Humphries was asked about pitching stories and said something along the lines of that he pitched 'Steve Rogers with an axe, slicing at a bunch of Devil Dinosaurs trying to get to Bucky.' Well, we got something pretty damn close.


A great moment at the end of the issue came as Steve, reeling from a battle with Gamma Worms, is saved by TWIST: an intelligent, mohawk Hulk with some kind of gamma ray weapon strapped to his chest. One thing the books so far have lacked is representation (or at least, acknowledged representation) of our 616 heroes. That said, I think this actually might be OUR Hulk (aka Doc Green).

FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a fun story. Steve Rogers dressed like a gladiator is just.... awesome. It expands the Battleworld with the addition of the Killiseum (which I believe will also be the setting of Ghost Racers) and is taking us into an entire land of Hulks. Who will we meet? Banner? Ross? Walters? Betty? Is the "Red King" our classic Red Hulk? If you're a fan of Hulks of any kind, I feel like this is going to just be a great story. Here's looking forward to issue #2!
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