Anyone who has ever followed a Marvel crossover event knows that it touches just about every book in the Marvel Universe. Do you need to read all these books to get the story? Absolutely not. In fact, I suggest that you just keep getting the books you do get and the main crossover book. Now that I’m in the comic book review game, I get the fun (and sometimes not so fun) of reading evey title that World War Hulk touches. So here we go.

Heroes For Hire #11
The current Heroes For Hire (H4H) team consists of Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Black Cat, Shang Chi, Tarantula, Humbug, and Paladin. Of all of those characters, I’m only familiar with Black Cat and Shang Chi. I don’t know if that makes me less of a comic geek, but there it is.

We open issue 11 with the H4H team jetting back from a mission in the Savage Land where they were hired to capture Moonboy (Really? Moonboy?) because S.H.E.I.L.D believes that he may be the key to curing many of Earth’s diseases. When they arrive in Manhattan, S.H.E.I.L.D is busy dealing with the coming of the Hulk and his War Bound. H4H is pressured to help with the evacuation when Humbug, who has recently gone thought some kind of change in the Savage Land, runs of spouting nonsense. His teammate follow him and we learn that Humbug is getting incoming chemical communication from a Brood Queen, one of Hulk’s War Bound, and visions of thousands of Brood larva. Basically, Humbug is seeing the Brood Queen’s plan to bring the Brood back to Marvel U.

Reading this book, I got the same feeling I get when I come into the middle of a movie that I know the basic premises of, but none of the characters. I like that they are re-establishing the Brood and I like that Shang Chi is active in the Marvel U, but that’s about it. There were many moments that I just didn’t get because I’m not a regular reader of the book, and those moment didn’t make me want to read any more of the book either.

Issue Grade: C

World War Hulk Grade: C, It didn’t really add anything to the overall WWH story.

Ghost Rider #12

Holy Deceiving Cover Alert Batman! Let it be known that Ghost Rider and Hulk do not actually meet up until the last page of the comic.

I enjoyed this issue, but not because of the World War Hulk tie-in. I just enjoyed the Ghost Rider Story! The premises of the book for the last year has been that Ghost Rider was trapped in Hell and escaped, but when he escaped Lucifer (I guess Mephestio was busy) escaped too. During the escape, the Prince of Darkness was broken into 666 pieces that have possessed humans and Ghost Rider is sending them back to Hell one at a time.

So how does this apply to World War Hulk you ask? Well, it seems that Johnny Blaze and the Ghost Rider have the split personality thing happening with each competing for control of the body and the Ghost Rider’s powers and they have different opinions on if they should get involved in the whole Hulk business at all. The issue opens with the Rider battling a possessed human who has taken control of a passenger jet pilot. During the confrontation, Johnny enacts his will over the Ghost Rider with causes some hesitation and the passenger jet blows up, with everyone inside. To add insult to injury, the bad guy gets away. The Rider and Johnny have some not-so-nice words when Johnny B sees the news cast about the Hulk’s warning to the people of Earth. Johnny then takes control over the Ghost Rider, in a very cool scene, and heads off to New York to confront the Hulk

Issue Grade: B

World War Hulk Grade: B, It’s a great set up issue for Ghost Rider #13 when I expect we’ll see a beat down.

Iron Man #19

This issue shows us that Tony Stark was prepared for the Hulk’s eventual coming. That explains why he had the “hulkbuster” armor and nanobots at the ready. The later half if the issue re-tells the story from World War Hulk #1 from Tony’s perspective. Nothing too new. I did very much enjoy the first part of the story where Tony was dealing “Dum Dum” Dugan and the rest of S.H.E.I.L.D. Basically, Tony does not have the support of his subordinates. They see him as a trust fund baby who’s been give the sweet government job that he doesn’t deserve. It looks like many people in S.H.E.I.L.D are not too pleased with the way Tony runs things and want him out My prediction: Tony will be fired and replaced after the events of World War Hulk.

Issue Grade: B+

World War Hulk Grade: B, Pretty much a rehash of WWH #1

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