Superhero Media: Planet Hulk

I was going to do my review of the Planet Hulk animated film, but realised that I'd be referring a lot to the comic, so it made more sense to do that first. I tend to find that people who only know the Hulk from the films and classic television series aren't aware that the character has a long history of pulp Sci-Fi adventures and battling takes on classic movie monsters, which is a shame, because the more "out there" stuff is a lot of fun to read. Having been tricked into a spaceship by the Illuminati (the Marvel one, not the Hip-Hop one), Hulk is shot into space, aimed at an uninhabited planet, but ends up on the distant work of Sakaar. On this colourful Barsoom/Tatooine/Mongo hybrid world, the Hulk is made a gladiator, fighting for the amusement of the Red King, where he meets the "Warbound", his companions for this story and the next, World War Hulk. Meik is a bug-person, a single Brood, Hiroim the shamed and Elloe, the last two being natives of Sakaar. 

Hulk doesn't remain a gladiator for long, breaking free after a fight with the Silver Surfer (aka Silver Savage) and starting a popular revolt against the Red King. As Hulk frees people from tyranny and forges peace between the disparate races of Sakaar, the locals begin to believe that he may be the "Sakaarson", a messiah figure of the main religion on the planet. There's a writing concept I tend to call the "post-it idea", it's a story idea that fits on a post-it-note and was probably stuck on a writer's wall or computer screen for years before they got a chance to use it. I also imagine that the concept on the note has a question mark after it, as if the writer was not fully committed to the idea. Think along the lines of "Pirate Batman?", "Wolverine but a hot chick?" or, as in this case, "Hulk is Spartacus?". Not to say that it's a bad idea, I think Planet Hulk really works as a story and Hulk playing out a Spartacus story is pretty inspired as a concept. 

The major weakness of Planet Hulk isn't the story, characters or setting, but rather the pacing; the story just moves too quickly when read in collated form. It "feels" like Hulk is on Sakaar for a couple of weeks, maybe a month at the most. The timeline reads as compressed, with sweeping, historical events on Sakaar being glossed over because of a lack of space. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, as comics really have limited time and space to work in, but maybe some kind of framing that glosses over gaps where not much happens? I think that with a little more reworking, Planet Hulk could become one of the best Hulk stories of all time. The animated film does a bit better in this regard, but has other issues, which we'll get to in due time.