World War Hulk

Ok, so this may have happened a couple years ago or so, but I just finished it.

oh, and spoiler alert

I have to say this was a decently entertaining read that could never truly deliver on the build up to it. Planet Hulk was an inventive storyline that was able to keep the hulk distracted while the heroes had their little civil war because we all know Hulk would have messed it up pretty bad. But as I was saying the long build up of sending the Hulk off and having him do battle on an alien world for well over a year was fun, if not maybe a little fast (almost like classic marvel storylines).

When the Hulk returned there was this kind of inevitable end looming over the heads of everyone. They could not kill the heroes. They could probably not even kill one of the heroes. With the knowledge of Secret Invasion on the way (Marvel can work up to two years in advance) they could not just kill a major person (he or she may be a skrull later on). So no one was going to die, and as usual there were a bunch of useless tie-ins from other comics like Ghost Rider, Punisher War Journal, and Heroes for Hire (not to mention the absolutely useless World War Hulk: X-Men, Hulk doesn't kill and he definitely wouldn't have killed on a hypothetical). Aside from some filler, there is some pretty good action in the main storyline along with the bickering between Rick Jones and Amedeus Cho and his Defenders.

It may sound like I'm bashing this storyline, but I would rather say that it acts like most most crossover events that say the world will never be the same and it really is and that it has a bunch of extra dumb tie-ins. The concept is pretty cool, Hulk beating every last person down is cool, heck, even the destruction of NYC is cool, because in the next issue it'll all be fixed again. Spider-Man's writer's don't have time to worry about him swinging around on dilapidated buildings, he's too busy getting his mind wiped, erasing one of those long lasting effects of the civil war.

My suggestion, read the main story in TPB form for however long it takes you to finish it, then move on, and pick up the new Hulk series starring the Red Hulk.