World War Hulk: Incredible Herc

Collects Incredible Hulk #106-111 written by Greg Pak with art by Gary Frank, Leonard Kirk and Carlo Pagulayan.

This book rolls along in pretty much exactly the same time frame as the main WWH book, and, although it does have a story of it's own, it serves as more of a complimentary story to that book. Super genius and annoying teenager, Amadeus Cho, wants to repay the Hulk for saving him a while back by helping him in his battle against everyone else in the MU. Joining him in his quest are the new selfproclaimed Defenders, consisting of Hercules, Angel and Namorra, and standing in their way is the evermore ubiquitous post-Civil War Shield. She-Hulk, Doc Samson and Rick Jones also have minor appearances, and, as expected, the Green Goliath himself shows up a couple of times! Many of the events of WWH are portrayed from a different view in this book, and in some cases, e.g. the ending, some minor details are also added. None of this, however, is so interesting or radical as to make the book a must-buy...

The book is written with more humor than the WWH main book, and this does feel refreshing, considering WWH's dark tone. Considering the characters banding together here, this book would probably have read pretty strangely had it not been spiced up with high doses of humor.

I have to say that the Amadeus Cho character does not work for me. Ok, he may be super smart, so much so that he can quickly calculate the trajectory required to throw a small piece of adamantium shrapnel so that it will take out an incoming missile. But that shouldn't give him the ability to actually throw the piece of shrapnel with the required precision. I know, it's nitpicking but still, people pay good money for this, godammit! The part where he hacks Iron Man's armor with a Game Boy is kind of a nice touch, however...

The art is pretty good in some places, but having three artists over six issues does leave a negative impact on the overall impression. Gary Frank delivers the best art here, but the book would have been better had the art been more consistent.

I recommend this book as a decent companion piece to those who haven't had enough of WWH yet. If you're not into WWH, you should probably avoid it. The story doesn't read very well on it's own, and the characters are, well, really not that interesting. I know that Hulk was restarted after WWH, so if you want to read Hulk, wait for that.

5/10