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Incredible Hulk #106
Writer: Greg Pak
Artists: Gary Frank & Jion Sibal

World War Hulk Prologue
Writers: Peter David, Chris Giarrusso
Artists: Al Rio, Sean Phillips, Chris Giarrusso, & Takeshi Miyazawa

Marvel's next event launches this week, and it's starting out strong. Two issues came out this week, Incredible Hulk #106 and the World War Hulk Prologue. Having not read Planet Hulk, I'm coming into this event fresh and was hoping that these issues would give me enough information to understand the plot of the event other than "Hulk Smash Marvel U," and I was pleasantly suprised. Both manage to tell a cohesive story leading into the main World War Hulk mini-series. Incredible Hulk starts out with She-Hulk meeting Amadeus Cho, Hulk's biggest fan, and talking to him about the Hulk and how Hulk is not the hero Amadeus thinks it to be. Doc Samson shows up at Mr. Fantastic's request to try to take Cho in, or stop him from what he is planning to do, whatever that is. A fight breaks out and Jen winds up smashin Samson into the next state. Pak writes some good dialogue between the three, summarizing the arguments for both sides without sounding tired like some of the registration arguments did. Gary Frank does the art here, and does a great job. This book has set me up for World War Hulk, and I think that I'm going to be getting the Incredible Hulk issues along with the main series. B

The World War Hulk Prologue picks up where Incredible Hulk 106 left off with more conversation between She-Hulk and Doc Samson, so pick up both and read Incredible Hulk first. It also focuses on the Hulk and his "warbound" as they travel towards Earth in thier stone spaceship. The Hulk has to stop some aliens from taking over his ship and goes beserk on them, and when his allies come to help, he sees them as the Illuminati, and not his allies. This causes concern amoung the "warbound," because they worry that Hulk's rage will consume him and even they will not be safe. One of the warbound takes Hulk aside and helps Hulk meditate and focus his rage. Hulk tells him about the Illuminati, what they did to him over the years, and what their weaknesses are. What we're seeing here is an actual plot devoloping rather than Hulk just going down a checklist. I thought that this book would tell the Planet Hulk saga in 32 pages so I would not have to read it. Rather, it summarized it in a few sentences and set up these warbound characters from it so well that I now want to go back and read the Planet Hulk arc as well as the World War Hulk mini. That says a lot about this comic. Along with the main story, the comic contains a mini-marvels short by Chris Giarrusso which is hilariously funny. The 6 pages alone are worth the $3.99. Also included are is the Amadeus Cho short story from Amazing Fantasy #15, also written by Greg Pak. This is the story of how Amadeus Cho met the Hulk that was recounted in Incredible Hulk #106. Overall, this was a good comic, and really was not what I expected. B