Planet Hulk #3 Comic Recap/Review
Planet Hulk #3 Recap/Review – The Storm
Planet Hulk #3 Comic Recap
Captain America struggles to get free of the monster pulling him underwater. Luckily Devil Dinosaur arrives, and a battle begins. The monster is much bigger than Devil, who falters, but he and Captain America are brothers. They will never give up on one another. It is he that kills. It is he that lives. It is Devil Dinosaur!
[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]
Doc Green is impressed at this, and the victorious group take a moment to rest on land. They are far off course now, so the Hulk suggests they risk travelling straight to the Mud Kingdom through the barrens. Tribal Hulks dwell this area, and it is very dangerous. Steve takes a moment to thank his brother at arms, though Doc Green comments that Devil is a beast like any other, and that Rogers puts too much faith in his companion. He reiterates that this place is Gamma. It is the world ending, with all the pomp and circumstance of humanity boiled away until all that is left is war and death.
The Captain then flashes back to his time in the Super Soldier unit. He and Bucky did battle with a villain at this time, and managed to defeat him using the same strategy they once employed to steal a pie as children. That was the last time the Captain saw home. Before all the death and destruction. But nothing he has seen compares to this – the Barrens of the Tribal Hulks.
They arrive at a cave, which is decorated with the bodies of Tribal Hulks thanks to the Red King. Suddenly lightning strikes within the cave, and Doc Green says that the storm has come. It is too late for them. Everything falls to darkness. The Captain suddenly finds himself alone, and he is attacked by a series of spears, many of which gruesomely impale him. Now badly injured, Steve Rogers finds himself surrounded by Tribal Hulks.
Planet Hulk #3 Comic Review
Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Planet Hulk #3!
So I was a little down on last issue. It felt full of a lot of dialogue that didn’t engage me, and little in terms of moving the story going forward. Still, in the two weeks since that review I have been thinking that I was a little hard on Planet Hulk #2. Some of that dialogue was very important to establishing character, and the art was phenomenal, so maybe it wasn’t that bad. So when it came time to read Planet Hulk #3, well, I was willing to approach it much more optimistically and with an open mind.
All told… well, this isn’t a bad comic, but I don’t think it is all that great either. Once again this comic’s best selling point is it’s art. I have no problem with the art here. It’s very well done, we get a lot of amazing panels, and it 100% works for the story in question. I also think that the first scene in the comic is perfect. It’s everything I want out of this tie-in, with Captain America and a T-Rex battling it out in an epic moment truly worthy of this tie-in’s awesome premise. I also really enjoyed the flashback, as it reiterates importance of finding Bucky quite nicely and was a fun scene overall.
[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]
But that fades quickly to more clumsy dialogue, more walking, and the party once again being split up and in danger at the end of the issue. So it ends the exact same way as issue number two! That really bugs me, because you’re just using an identical premise for a cliffhanger all over. How will The Captain and Devil Dinosaur get out of this mess? The answer this is likely the same as what happens in this comic. They will escape the Tribal Hulks somehow and will make it to the Mud Kingdom, because they will need to be there by issue five. Ooh, so exciting. I can hardly wait for the next comic…
And this is awful dialogue to the point of frustration. It’s okay, great even, to spend some time building you characters, establishing their motives and values, and all that other stuff, which this comic does a decent job at, but it just isn’t that well written. Well, at least in my eyes. To me, the problem really stems from Doc Green’s dialogue. He speaks like a person trying to sound smart. He uses long words just for the sake of using long words which feels at odds with his gruff persona and how an intelligent person would actually talk. I should be digging this, watching as the Hulk poses philosophical questions to the Captain, but all I see is somebody acting like his words are all profound when really it’s just bragging about how tough he is. It’s… boring and not very enjoyable.
And I don’t think I’m asking for the moon here. This isn’t a comic I expect to take seriously. I just want to see awesome stuff with Captain America and the T-Rex. I know I must sound like a broken record, but that’s literally all I expect out of this comic. Just five issues of this. Yeah, some dialogue is fine and definitely important, and there was a lot of great set-up in the first issue featuring some excellent lines and conversations. But these last two issues have felt like a chore every time these three are just wandering around and talking. Not once have these scenes worked for me, or stimulated any kind of interest, be it academic or emotional.
So once again I can’t really recommend a comic that I have these mixed feelings for. If you want to buy this for the art you won’t be disappointed and it is totally worth your time. If you want to buy this comic for it’s awesome idea and story, then prepare to be frustrated because I really feel it under-delivers.
Maybe issues four and five will turn this around but that feels unlikely. Those issues would have to be really good to outweigh the mediocrity of the last two. But who knows? That’s the nice thing about comics, you can never know for sure until you see it for yourself. Let me know what you think of Planet Hulk #3 in the comments section below. And, as always, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and keep reading comics.
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