The following was originally posted on WizardUniverse.com:
As the Green Goliath gets ready to unleash his wrath on the world that rejected him, writer Greg Pak recalls the big guy’s metamorphosis into a righteous warrior
The Hulk’s rage is about to be let loose on Earth. As Marvel gets ready to launch World War Hulk in May, writer Greg Pak talks to Wizard about the defining moments in the “Planet Hulk” story running through Incredible Hulk #92-#105.
The Illuminati exiles the Hulk
The Hulk’s rage has always been an ever-growing threat to humanity. At the beginning of the “Planet Hulk” arc, Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange and Black Bolt come together as the Illuminati to exile the Hulk from Earth after he sets his rage loose on Las Vegas. Banner was placed in a shuttle headed toward an uninhabited planet where he could harm no one, but the shuttle flew off course, entering a wormhole and taking the Hulk to the savage planet Sakaar.
PAK: When he first arrived on the planet, he could be injured and possibly even killed because his body had been weakened passing through the wormhole to get to this planet. For one of the first times in a while, the Hulk had been vulnerable. He is full of rage! His so-called friends exiled him. He hated everybody and everything.
The Warrior
Once the Hulk landed on Sakaar, he was captured and sold into slavery. He eventually made his way into the Great Arena as a gladiator.
PAK: What makes it a special story in terms of the Hulk’s development is that he went through a lot of changes, not just in terms of the role he was playing on this planet but in terms of his attitude and who he is. He’s actually bonded with his fellow gladiators. They are his warbound companions, and over the course of the story, he’s identified with the oppressed people on the planet and has become a freedom fighter. That’s a huge transition for the Hulk.
Rejects the offer to be free
When a rebel crew of freedom fighters offers him salvation from the arena, the Hulk refuses their offer and opts to stay as a warrior, presumably because he has gained much popularity as a gladiator and wants to bask in the glory.
PAK: I think it’s one of the points of development the Hulk has gone through. He’s gone from angry and selfish to angry in a righteous way, in a way that is based on a community. In the first part of the story, it is unclear which way the Hulk is going to go. When he first teams up with these other warriors, he isn’t doing it in the sense that this is a great community and he wants to be a part of it. He’s doing it in the sense of, this is how I’m going to survive. And it’s touch and go exactly what he is going to do.
At that point, it doesn’t make sense [for the Hulk to decide], “Yeah, I’m going to join your freedom fighting group.” Partly it’s because he doesn’t trust anybody when he arrives onto the planet. That’s one of the first times somebody asks him for his trust. And he has no reason to do it at that point. It’s only later when he sees what is going on in this planet that he makes that transition.
Warbound
Hulk eventually comes to trust the freedom fighters and they make an agreement to fight as a team. They swear an oath that no matter what may come, they will suffer it together.
PAK: Usually when the Hulk is joining a group of earthbound heroes, he’s seen by them as the crazy wildcard. They do it sort of knowing there is something off about him. Basically, they do it with caveats. What makes it different [with his fellow warbound on Sakaar] is that the Hulk and them have all risked their lives together. They were all on equal footing and they all needed each other to survive. The Hulk’s experience with the warbound has been more intense because it has been a life-or-death situation all the way through.
The remarkable thing about the warbound is that these are a group of monsters that come together to do the right thing. It’s like when you put these monsters together and give them the right kind of context, it’s that kind of notion, you’re only a monster if you accept it.
Refuses to leave with the Silver Surfer
The Hulk and Silver Surfer find themselves on Sakaar, where they are enslaved and placed under obedience disks. Under the emperor’s control, Silver Surfer had to go up against the Hulk. Of course, Surfer wasn’t strong enough for the Hulk. Once freed from mind control, Surfer destroyed all the slaves’ obedience disks and then offered the Hulk salvation: to leave the planet with him. However, Hulk refused, and opted to stay with his new friends.
PAK: I love the way the Silver Surfer worked into the story. When I was doing research for this, I was reminded of the first meeting between the Silver Surfer and the Hulk. It’s one of these Silver Age stories, but it’s incredibly moving, actually. The Hulk had been hounded by humans and he’s running off, and he sees this gleam up in the sky and thinks it’s a UFO or spaceship, and he’s like, “I’m going to go track them down and make them take me off this planet, to find somewhere else where people will leave me alone.” The Surfer in that early encounter realizes he is miserable and not at fault for his rage.
So later on, in issue #95, the Hulk tells the Surfer that years ago he wanted him to take him away, and the Surfer says he can do that now. And Hulk replies, “You don’t get it, I’m already there.” Now he’s gotten to that planet he wanted to go to, where he could be who he was and find a place. That’s a huge admission for the Hulk—he isn’t a touchy guy. He is the Clint Eastwood of comics. He doesn’t talk about his feelings.
Green vines grow where Hulk’s blood is spilled
Throughout Planet Hulk, the big question is if the Hulk is the Sakaarson, the savior of Sakaar, or Worldbreaker, the destroyer?
PAK: That’s an ongoing thing because that’s really almost part of every superhero, it’s almost part of all of us. We all have this capacity for doing great things and doing terrible things. And sometimes the very things that make us able to do great things make us do terrible things. That is an ongoing tension in human life, so these stories of the Hulk allow us to explore that.
Amadeus Cho discovers the truth
We know the Hulk shall return to Earth. Thanks to the help of 16-year-old boy genius Amadeus Cho, maybe he’ll return a little less angry. The only voice that actually defends the Hulk, Cho criticizes the Illuminati for its actions against the Hulk.
PAK: Yeah, there is definitely a different side to this story, and these various heroes are going to have to think about that and face that when the Hulk returns.
Liberates the planet from the Red King
The malevolent emperor of Sakaar meets his end at the hands of the Hulk, ending the war on the planet.
PAK: What I always had been interested in, is that people always ask, “Is the Hulk a monster or a hero?” On Earth, people are always calling him a monster because when he gets angry, he starts smashing things. In the civilized world that’s not really permitted, but if you break it down and look at each one of the times he goes nuts, he’s always sticking up for the little guys or he’s fighting someone who has done something wrong.
“Planet Hulk” gave us the opportunity to see what would happen if we put the Hulk in a world where his anger and strength were virtues, where the world needed someone with his kind of rage and strength.
Crowned emperor
After liberating the planet from the Red King, the Hulk is crowned emperor of Sakaar.
PAK: In issue #102, the Hulk finally defeats the Red King and in #103 he marries the Grace King Warrior, who first started off as his opponent but later joins him. And that’s sort of a meeting of tribes that bonds this world together, and the Hulk becomes their king.
Reveals who he is to Shadow Guard
The Hulk shows Shadow Guard, and readers, that he is more than just a savage beast, that he is also human. Quite possibly one of the most intimate moments readers have had with the Hulk.
PAK: People typically think of Hulk and Banner in this Jekyll and Hyde relationship, where the Hulk is all the rage that Banner keeps bottled up. During the course of “Planet Hulk,” something different has happened. The rage of the Hulk has become more focused and righteous instead of childish. It’s not just personal fury, it’s become rage that has a use and moral purpose behind it. And as Hulk has found a place on this planet, Banner has reconciled with it. I think that indicates something in the relationship between Hulk and Banner, that there is a way in which Banner may be understanding and accepting of what’s going on in a way that he wasn’t before. Maybe he’s pretending to be that way. But there is definitely a development there.
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