World War Hulk (or) How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Gamma Bomb

OK, so World War Hulk #5, then.

I confess I'm a bit baffled by some of the more prominent online reviewers who seem to think that A) this issue sucked and B) the miniseries overall wasn't that good. Let's start with World War Hulk #5.

Here's what happens:

1) The Sentry shows up and get his "uberpowerful asshole" on. He and Hulk proceed to beat the bejeezus out of each other for about 20 pages.

2) One of Hulk's Alien War Buddies cops to the fact that he blew up the ship on Planet Whatever, in order to blahbity blah blah blah doesn't matter. Hulk, who lost Mrs. Hulk in the explosion, gets understandably pee-yossed at this and starts smashing the Alien War Buddies. Oh, and Rick Jones gets ventilated with a spear.

3) Tony Stark uses his Stupid New Powers™ and calls down some sort of satellite beam thingamajig to del-Hulkify the Hulk, game over, that's a wrap, etc. Banner gets sent back to Omega Base. Elsewhere on Planet Whatever, some Hulk-y looking thing rises from what I can only assume is Green Hulk Emotion Goo (ye gods, did that sound dirty) and based on the solicitation on the last page, I'm assuming this is Skaar, Son O' Hulk.

(No, I didn't read a single tie-in, spin-off, or issue of Planet Hulk. Does it show?)

The Romita/Janson art was as good as it's ever been, and with the exception of a couple pages of Sentry/Hulk smashery, relatively easy to follow.

(Side note: two great sound effects in this ish as well, the first being the "JRJRKJCS" effect for the satellite beam --- love those little easter eggs to the artists there --- and the second was "VJJJWOMMMWWWB" when the Sentry 'splodifies the Hulk. I'd like to know if that was some sort of easter egg as well.)

So if you actually, honest-to-god believed in your heart of hearts when this miniseries began that:

A) The Hulk wouldn't get stopped at the end
B) Any major characters would be killed
C) It wouldn't use some deus ex machina at the end to wrap things up

...then you probably haven't been reading any sort of Marvel comic for the last 20 years or so.

Because when it comes to all-out throwdown Marvel superhero fights, those things never happen.

And frankly, we all bought into it at the beginning, and many of us got exactly what we wanted: 5 issues of the Hulk going medieval on the Marvel Universe. People complaining about things like "lack of consequence" or "emotionally flat" or "nonsensical" probably shouldn't be reading something called World War Freakin' Hulk.

So yeah: predictable, by-the-numbers issue that nonetheless delivered on the original promise and gave us 5 wonderful Pak/Romita/Janson issues and didn't try to do too much.

What exactly is the problem here, again?

Comic Book Goodness Overall: 4/5. Still don't believe me? Compare WWH to House of M, Civil War, Infinite Crisis, or any other Major Event Miniseries of the last 5 years and tell me which one you're most likely to reread on a rainy day. Yeah, that's what I thought.

The Point of World War Hulk?

So, at first, after hearing about this upcoming event, I was quite excited.

Basically, its Hulk Smash those who pissed him off, shot him into space, blah blah blah.

Great! Who doesn't like to see Hulk Smash? I mean, that's what he is best at, right?

So, some slothed through Civil War, others read about it, some casually overheard about it, some outright avoided it (good luck with that if you are a Marvel reader.)

We had fight(s), and at the end, no real change other than:
1. Every fan and their mother basically thinking Tony Stark is a pompous dick.
2. Dead Clor, some other dead people, some now already ret-conned (or whatever the term is.)
3. A new law.

Anyone ever mentioned laws get challenged and sometimes thrown out every day? (I would like to claim that I am happy that years ago the state of Washington disallowed all airplane radar speeding tickets- and that was back in the 80's, so may have changed 89 times since then.)

Anyway, back to my point...

What the hell is the point of World War Hulk? Is anything really going to change? Does it matter that Hulk comes back and beats up some heroes, and, rumourly speaking, has heroes either lining up with him, or against him?

I mean, so what? Its not like Hulk is going to kill Tony Stark, or Professor X. Is all this just going to make Hulk "feel better" that he punched a bunch of people in the face?

Hulk comes back, smashes people, then its back to status quo for Hulk, et al. Oh boy!!

I mean, technically, can't we see this in any issue of Hulk? Oh no, Hulk meets Tigra in the Arizona desert, and punches her. OK, next panel.

I"m still interested in seeing what Hulk does upon his return, but I"m starting to lose the excitement. EXCEPT, if the rumour mill is also true, about the last ish being Thor vs. Hulk. Not Clor. But hopefully a segueway (ugh, spelling) into the new Thor series.

I seem to be choosing sides...the Hulk side...and didn't we all read some kind of ad about 'choosing sides' not too long ago on a whole 'nother event?

My excitement for this has suddenly lessened even more just now. I think I've had too many friggin months to soak this all in.

Any other thoughts out there on WWH?