Previously
This is the part 16 in my continuing insane effort to try to read EVERY MARVEL COMIC EVER PUBLISHED and write about them. You can see previous posts using the tag "complete-marvel-run".
Life has been busy, but I wanted to get in one more entry before the year ends. This one is the second entry focused on Hulk. The first one can be found here (written over 2 years ago!). This entry focuses on Hulk stories from around 1999 to 2008.
Incredible Hulk v2 (1999-2008)
113 issues: #1-112, #0.5
The first 11 issues of this volume released under the adjectiveless title "Hulk".
The first part of this volume largely concerns Bruce Banner suffering from a degenerative disease and as a workaround he allows one of each of the Hulk personas (savage Hulk, Mr Fix-It, and the "Professor", aka Smart Hulk) control of his body to delay the disease's effects. This is mostly a plot device to let them feature different hulks in each arc. Most of it was written by Paul Jenkins working with various artists. His run ended with #32 where Banner was cured of the disease.
The second part of the volume is written by Bruce Jones and has Banner on the run after the Hulk is accused of killing an innocent child. Hulk is pursued by agents of the enigmatic "Home Base" organization who are trying to get a sample of Hulk blood. Bruce Jones' run ends with #65 and involves the complicated return of Betty Ross (previously killed by the Abomination in v1).
After that are a series of short runs, including a return by Peter David involving the Strange villain Nightmare. The Nightmare story arc kind of retcons most of the Home Base storyline and implies they were fabrications by Nightmare. This was followed by another Peter David story arc detailing where Hulk was during the House of M alternate universe.
The most interesting part of the volume is the final arcs. "Peace in Our Time" (#88-91) sees Nick Fury send Banner/Hulk out into space to stop a rogue space station. Despite agreeing to help, at the end of this arc the Illuminati take this opportunity to exile Hulk into the far reaches of space, starting the infamous Planet Hulk storyline by Greg Pak! (Part of this storyline was adapted for Thor Ragnarok.)
I had never read this storyline before, I enjoyed it a lot. The biggest surprise for me was that Korg (made famous by Thor Ragnarok) was actually a callback to one of Thor's earliest adventures!
Planet Hulk runs from #92 until #105, when Hulk's reign over the planet Sakaar ends in a tragedy that kills his wife Caiera and his unborn child. This starts the even more infamous World War Hulk crossover, which runs from #106 to #111 concurrent with the event (see below). The WWH issues cover an unlikely assortment of heroes gathering together to try to help Hulk: Amadeus Cho, Hercules, Angel, Namora, and even Rick Jones.
The final issue of this run is #112, which actually transitions this book to become Incredible Hercules. The retitled book will follow the same numbering which is very messy. I am yet unsure how I will cover it.
Annuals
Oops, I forgot to read the annuals, including the ones for v1! I'll save them for the next Hulk run.
World War Hulk
Crossover event: 28 issues
World War Hulk #4 cover
(I think it was the Civil War event that started this Marvel trend of having multiple side series for their major events.)
World War Hulk Prologue: World Breaker
This is mostly setup for the event.
World War Hulk #1-5
These are the only issues in this post that I have read previously; everything else is brand new. Anyway, this volume (and actually the entire event) is an excuse to pit a very very angry Hulk with various Marvel heroes, and the fights in this volume are absolutely brutal, with Hulk taking down the ones he blames for shooting him into space and getting his wife and child killed. Black Bolt goes down first, followed by Iron Man, then Mr Fantastic and the rest of the heroes of New York; Strange even summons a powerful demon to match Hulk in strength and eventually Hulk takes down even the Sentry. In the end it is revealed by Miek of Hulk's Warbound allies that the bomb was actually set by the previous ruler of Sakaar and he chose to let it explode to turn Hulk into the prophesied "World Breaker". Hulk is eventually defeated and captured.
Unfortunately, this series suffers from being drawn by John Romita Jr.
World War Hulk X-Men #1-3
Hulk blames the Illuminati for his exile, but Charles Xavier was not among the ones who voted to exile him. Nonetheless, Hulk visits the X-Men and demands to see Xavier. The X-Men refuse, and what we get is 3 issues of every active mutant hero (and the Juggernaut as well) thrown at Hulk to try to stop him. In the end, Hulk takes pity on Xavier and leaves him
World War Hulk Front Line #1-6
I believe this is the second event-focused Front Line limited series (the first one was in Civil War). This covers the efforts of Ben Urich's scrappy indie newspaper to cover the World War Hulk events. It was okay, but might have been more interesting if I read the Civil War one first.
World War Hulk Gamma Corps #1-4
Features a gamma-powered mercenary unit all with grudges towards the Hulk who try to intervene in World War Hulk. Largely uninteresting, except one of them was the dad of Jim Wilson, Hulk's friend who died of HIV in v1. (And probably the Falcon's brother.)
World War Hulk: Aftersmash
An aftermath story for World War Hulk, mostly setting up what happens to Hulk's earthbound allies (Amadeus Cho and company), Hulk's warbound (Korg and company) and other stuff.
What If Planet Hulk
Some alternate universe scenarios revolving around Planet Hulk. Skaar's first appearance is actually in this book, predating his 616 appearance. Unfortunately, ever since reading Immortal Hulk, I can't take seriously any alt-universe stories that involve the Hulk dying!
World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound #1-5
Korg and the remainder of Hulk's Warbound (minus the treacherous Miek) go on the run from SHIELD and end up facing off against The Leader.
World War Hulk Aftersmash: Damage Control #1-3
I have not read any Damage Control stories before so the characters here are largely unfamiliar to me, though apparently the organization has been around since the late 80s! The tone here is a bit absurdist/comedic; it was very meh.
Screenshots
I didn't take any screenshots during this period.
Progress Bar
Total issues covered in this post: 141.
Total number of titles/volumes covered in this post: 10
Total issues covered so far: 4,990 + 141 = 5,131
Current total (released) according to the reference reading order: 35,277 (+81 since the previous post)
Progress: 14.54% (14.18% last post).
Ah too bad, I was hoping to hit 15% by end of this year! I am okay with the progress slowing down this year; life happens.
Up Next
The succeeding era of Hulk will be a challenge to write about, because from here his storyline fragments: Hercules takes over the main title, a new Red Hulk is introduced, etc. I am hoping the next Hulk entry will be the last one, covering 2008-2018. (2018 onwards is already covered since I already read Immortal Hulk and the current Hulk volume is still ongoing.) That will be a problem for future me; at the current pace, who knows when we manage to rotate back to Hulk!
Assuming we are sticking with "MCU order", the next entry should be focused on Captain America post-Heroes Reborn.