Greg Pak wowed readers with the most distinctive run on Hulk since Peter David left the title after a definitive 10-year run. With the Hulk movie release, interest in the character is high, and with Jeph Loeb writing the most ridiculously crap Hulk stories since John Byrne’s attempt to relaunch the character years ago, readers are bound to look to Pak to provide some quality Hulk-esque action with the “secret third part” of his Planet Hulk/World War Hulk trilogy.

Marvel have been pushing Skaar hard since the World War Hulk crossover ended, so we know they want it to succeed. It’s not exactly a safe bet, though - Pak, despite his credentials, is still widely seen as second-tier talent, and however enjoyable his Hulk/Hercules runs are, he’s no Millar or Bendis yet. To have someone in his position writing an entirely new character in a largely new environment - and a COSMIC one, at that, which traditionally spells doom - it all shows nothing short of astonishing faith from Marvel that Skaar is going to be a hit.

And, for a first issue featuring virtually unknown EVERYTHING, it’s not half bad. It’s very much a continuation of Planet Hulk in tone and story. There’s nothing in it that’s making it must-read comics on a technical or story level, but y’know, it looks like it could be fun. Pak has set up Skaar, aged him to a reasonable point and already given him some stuff to fight. For now, that’s enough. At the moment, his character is little more than a blank slate, but it’s not hard to see how this’ll get filled in soon. At least, let’s hope.

Skaar pretty much feels like Pak’s attempt to have a proper stab at the “Conan” analogue that Planet Hulk was often attempting to be. He’s now free to do this without the caveat that one day his lead character has to go back to Earth - after all, Skaar could potentially stay on this alien world forever, and although the likelihood of a visit to Earth isn’t exactly a small one, the planet Sakaar is well-realised enough that there’s plenty Skaar can do there. Sakaar is actually the most familiar element of the book, and seeing the place all gone to hell following the departure of Hulk is actually one of the more entertaining ideas the book is using.

The book should be accessible to non-Hulk readers, though it’s questionable how it’ll be expected to outsell Planet Hulk when it’s using a subset of ideas from the run. Who’s the target audience? Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with it and it’s always nice to read a first issue that doesn’t tease anything out, instead jumping right into the action - but the real issue at stake is whether Pak can make readers care enough to stick around. There’s nothing here that’ll send readers away - but so far, not a lot to keep them here either.

Tags: Greg Pak, Hulk, Ron Garney, Skaar
Publisher: Marvel