Secret Wars: Planet Hulk #2 - Review

Written by Sam Humphries. Art by Marc Laming.
Published by Marvel Comics; June 24th, 2015.
Worth Your 3.99?: Yep. This book continues to be pure, entertaining fun.
Rating: 4/5.

You wanted more Gladiator Steve Rogers riding a red t-rex through a land filled with Hulks? You GOT more Gladiator Steve Roger riding a red t-rex through a land filled with Hulks!

THE GOOD
Another solid, fun issue by Humphries. We catch up with Steve and Devil Dinosaur resting in Greenland. They're in the middle of a long journey and it's fair to let them take a rest, but upon waking up they find a hulk nearby picking at a Gamma Grub. The Hulk has not torn Steve apart, much to his surprise. And that's when we get the good news... this is Doc Green! For any fan's of Gerry Duggan's recent run of Hulk, this is exciting because Doc Green is 616's Hulk/Bruce Banner. Admittedly, I miss his beard, but I'll take what I can get.

The rest of the story is fairly simple, Doc Green outlines the travel plan for how they're going to get to the Mud Kingdom so Steve can kill the Red King and rescue Bucky. This is clearly driving the story forward, although it's light on much plot development. What we do get, however, is some nice character development, something Humphries does well. Doc calls out Steve on what his plan is after rescuing Bucky. Fighting for "justice" is not such a simple thing on the Battleworld and Doc poses some questions Steve clearly hasn't thought through before.

Doc Green's ramblings are the most interesting part of this issue. He starts quoting Hemingway (which is amazing just on it's own) but attributes it, snidely, to Doom. It's clear that Doc Green sees through all the pretense that Doom has put around the world. What isn't clear though, is whether he remembers the world before. We've seen that most people on Battleworld have no memory and I think it's safe to assume he doesn't, so I'm curious to see if his rantings about Doom become a bigger thing somewhere down the line for our version of Hulk.

There's also a very interesting flashback for Steve to how he and Bucky became soldiers in his reality. In a world at war, it appears that Sam Wilson was the original Captain America and is seeking recruits for a Super Soldier plan. A simple, but fun twist.

Also good: the art by Laming issue continues to be great. It's the kind of comic book art that you almost forget (in a good way). It's fun and exciting, but it's so clean that you can just get lost in the story and not even think about it. Then you can go admire it afterwards.

THE BAD
Not much bad, mainly that the book felt too short! Like a few of the other Secret Wars books that have entered issue #2, it felt like a little bit of filler story-wise. The thing is, Humphries writing is so entertaining that I didn't care. I'm hoping next issue will drive us further into the actual journey while still giving us that fun banter that we got here between Doc Green and Gladiator Steve Rogers.

PREDICTIONS
Will Devil Dinosaur be okay? Yes, I think he'll survive and show up just in time to join Steve in his battle with the Red King. Come on, it wouldn't be Gladiator Steve Rogers without a red T-Rex.

With the revelation that this is our Doc Green, I'm wondering how he's going to play into the larger Secret Wars story. For the first time, I'm wondering if each of these tie-in books will eventually lead into the characters from them rising up against Doom in some massive crazy battle. Wouldn't that be awesome?! The answer is yes, yes it would.

Secret Wars: Planet Hulk #1 - Review

Main Story: Written by Sam Humphries. Art by Marc Laming.
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.

There are some interesting choices in this version of the characters. The brief flashback of this Cap and Bucky has Cap appearing very MCU-feeling garb and Bucky is already Winter Soldier, although the two seem to still be buddy buddy (there's even an American flag on Winter Soldier's non-metal arm). I like this because it sets up a similar but different enough world. We understand this Cap, even if we don't quite know him.

Greenland is a genuinely cool setting, and honestly why I bought this book. The secondary story in the back of this issue sets up an alterna-Earth where Bruce Banner and Amadeus Cho (MCU fans may know his mother, Dr. Helen Cho, who appeared in Age of Ultron) create the tech that goes into a gamma bomb and instead of just creating Banner's Hulk, changes the entire city. Side note: I love that this back story was called "Amazing Science." It's not a real book, but it's definitely a silver age book that was published on a parallel Earth somewhere.

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).

Reasons: He walks up and his first word to this Steve is "Incredible." The Mohawk is a staple of Doc Green (although he's missing his new trademark goatee. He recognizes, but is surprised, to see Steve Rogers. And lastly, he asks Steve "what forgotten kingdom did Doom dig you up from?" It feels like the language of someone who has knowledge of the entire world, not just where they live and I'm working under the assumption that anyone who will eventually challenge Doom will be characters we are familiar with (also, I just really liked Doc Green and want more of him).

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!