For all the latest news, announcements and interviews, plus live panel blogging, video features and much more, visit Marvel.com's San Diego Comic-Con 2009 Hub Page!
By Marc Strom
The Hulk family comes to blows in December, with two prologues to the biggest Gamma-irradiated event yet: World War Hulks.
The epic storyline will bring a number of plotlines to a head in a saga that the Hulk's current writers have had in mind for quite a while.
"This was in place almost right after [writer] Greg [Pak] finished World War Hulk," reveals HULK scribe Jeph Loeb, who worked with Pak in planning the upcoming epic. "The introduction of two new characters in the Hulk mythos-Skaar, the Son of Hulk, and Red Hulk-meant that eventually all these stories were going to converge."
Beginning in WORLD WAR HULKS ALPHA, the Hulks' world will begin to shatter as the Marvel Universe meets the Intelligencia.
"The Intelligencia make their first-not secret-appearance in WORLD WAR HULKS ALPHA this December," promises Loeb. "Greg and I-and [writer] Jeff Parker and [editor] Mark Paniccia-have been mapping out the Intelligencia's agenda for quite some time now. Their origin dates back to the earliest days of Marvel and [they have had] a hand in nearly every
 |
| World War Hulks promo art by John Romita Jr. |
The revelation of the Intelligencia's existence will also have lasting ramifications for the Marvel Universe in general, vows Loeb.
"As we've been hinting, the best battle plan is where the war is over before it's even been fought. The Intelligencia has been waiting to make this move for a very long time. If it works, the Marvel Universe will be a very different place. Given the surprise ending of the Secret Invasion, anything is possible!"
The action continues in WORLD WAR HULKS GAMMA, written by Loeb, who assures fans of the current Hulk saga can't miss this storyline.
"This is what's been brewing for quite some time," the writer relates. "The first stage was to spend 12 issues of both HULK and SKAAR getting our major players into the Marvel Universe. That culminated in INCREDIBLE HULK #600. In #600, Banner's life-and the Hulk's-changed forever. The Hulk books split in two, [with] INCREDIBLE HULK going off with the Incredible Greg Pak and Ariel Olivetti and HULK continuing with me and Ed McGuinness. In order to give Ed enough time to do the entire World War Hulks series on the HULK side of things, Ian Churchill steps in for five issues to tell the story of what happens to someone when they learn the Red Hulk's most carefully guarded secrets. It involves Wolverine, X-Force, the Punisher, Deadpool, Elektra and a host of others. Again, all planned to be part of the bigger picture that leads us into World War Hulks."
Looking back at the last year-and-a-half of Hulk stories, Loeb teases that much of what has come before will have an impact on World War Hulks.
"It all matters. Everything. If you've been reading HULK and SKAAR for the past year, you will see all the seeds we've planted. Now, Greg and I will be harvesting what hopefully be the biggest Hulk story ever told."
When the dust settles, Loeb guarantees "real consequences" for Bruce Banner's world, as well as "all your questions answered. Yes. All."
For all the latest news, announcements and interviews, plus live panel blogging, video features and much more, visit Marvel.com's San Diego Comic-Con 2009 Hub Page!
Not a subscriber to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited yet? Join now!
Check out the official Marvel Shop for everything Hulk!
Download episodes of "X-Men: Evolution", "Wolverine and the X-Men" and "Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes" now on iTunes!
All our questions will be answered? I won't believe it till I see it. The solicits to Incredible Hulk #600 said it would reveal the identity of the Red Hulk and it didn't, so I'm not holding my breath here.At least Mc****ss is drawing World War Hulks. That's MUCH, MUCH better than JRJR who can't draw to save his life.I'm hoping Pak's brilliance will be enough to subdue Loeb's stupidity and ...
View More
All our questions will be answered? I won't believe it till I see it. The solicits to Incredible Hulk #600 said it would reveal the identity of the Red Hulk and it didn't, so I'm not holding my breath here.At least Mc****ss is drawing World War Hulks. That's MUCH, MUCH better than JRJR who can't draw to save his life.I'm hoping Pak's brilliance will be enough to subdue Loeb's stupidity and make this a decent series.
View Less
:a423008c87="archer9234"]I hope they do actually resolve all the questions. And restore all the characters to their proper states, after the whole mess. Tossing Jennifer Walters to the side for the story and other She-Hulk characters, was stupid.[/quote:a423008c87]Lets see we five months until this offically kicks off, so that means five months of to actually really develop a good story line ...
View More
:a423008c87="archer9234"]I hope they do actually resolve all the questions. And restore all the characters to their proper states, after the whole mess. Tossing Jennifer Walters to the side for the story and other She-Hulk characters, was stupid.[/quote:a423008c87]Lets see we five months until this offically kicks off, so that means five months of to actually really develop a good story line. OH PLEASE OH PLEASE BRING BACK THE OFFENDERS AND WENDIGOS, they were awesome. LOLOLI think the idea is great and i am a huge fan of JRJR's art but please for the love of Utau (not sure if spelled right) have the writing chops to back up his art and the idea of the stoy
View Less
[size=24:072f129ef4][u:072f129ef4][i:072f129ef4][b:072f129ef4]AWSOME[/b:072f129ef4][/i:072f129ef4][/u:072f129ef4][/size:072f129ef4]
Is this event REALLY going to be bigger than WWH?
So now Greg Paks run on Hulk is like:Planet Hulk (Incredible Hulk #92-105)WWH (WWH 1-5 + Incredible Hulk #106-111)Skaar 1-12Incredible Hulk #601-World War Hulks?