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!