Home > COMICS > THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK: PG. 3
THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
A water-cooler review of this week's comics
By The Wizard Staff
Posted 6/12/2008
BOOK OF THE WEEK
SKAAR: SON OF HULK #1
Marvel Comics
Greg Pak (W)/Ron Garney (A)
JOSH: I think that Skaar is the best fictional baby since the kid from "Look Who's Talking?" He's awesome; he's killing bugs at one day old, he's saving planets at a year, I thought it really set the tone for what could be one of Marvel's best ongoing series. Everything that Pak has been doing with him since "Planet Hulk" has been pure gold.
MATT: I want to give props to Ciera's womb, the toughest womb of all time! She's dead and still manages to plop that stone egg out of her belly to keep baby Hulk safe!
[LAUGHS]
JOSH: I think that could have been explained better. That's part of the mystery: How could she have a son when she's already dead? She craps out a stone egg that's strong enough to survive the apocalypse.
ANDY: I just love the post-apocalyptic scope of Sakarr in the wake of the end of the world. It's just awesome, eat or be eaten. That's what it boils down to. Forget politics, religion, whatever; it's all about pure survival of the fittest. And whose more fittest than the son of Hulk?
JOSH: To steal a line from Jim Gibbons, this is like intergalactic Conan the Barbarian. And who wouldn't want to read that?
MATT: Right out of the gate, he's got his own arch-enemy, and his own Red Giant guy to fight, just like his daddy: Check out Axeman Bone!
ANDY: That name sounds like a jazz musician.
JOSH: Or a porn star!
[LAUGHS]
JOSH: Not only that, Skaar's super-tough, but he's also more of a tactician as well. He's just cutting off limbs left and right, and he's doing it from the shadows. He's throwing stuff from the woods! It combines the best of Ciera and Hulk's powers.
MATT: So he turned to stone when he got blasted with the fire?
JOSH: Yup, and when he comes back, he's got hair, because he's bald when he gets blasted. He's the best baby ever!
ANDY: What did you think Ron Garney's art? He's been absolutely tearing it up for a while now, going back to his Amazing Spider-Man stuff in the "Back in Black" arc, through his Wolverine run with Jason Aaron and now here. And he even tweaks his style a little bit here; it's rougher, a little sketchier, which suits the book's look. He's going straight from pencil to color, so there's less slickness to the lines.
MATT: It's kind of Joe Kubert meets Guy Davis for me; I get that kind of vibe off it.
ANDY: Interesting permutation; I think that's a great description!
JOSH: There's a lot of big splashy panels, and here, it works. It looks awesome.
ANDY: It's almost scary how good Pak's been the past few years. He's doing his own thing with his own corner of the Marvel U, and it's almost all pure gold. Going back to "Planet Hulk" and following up with "World War Hulk" and even making Incredible Hercules a must-read; the guy's just a magic man.
JOSH: Putting Hulk in space in the first place was awesome, because it led to a lot of big changes; I don't know what the ultimate plan for Skarr is, but I think this would make a great ongoing series, just wrecking sh—left and right. And I hope Hulk comes to find him on Sakaar instead of him coming to Earth; that puny planet's too small for the Jade Giant!
MATT: You've got space cowboys with the Guardians of the Galxy, why not have a space barbarian? He should fight Wolverine's kid! I just want to see kids fighting each other! Where's Daredevil's kid? He'll blind him at 13!
[LAUGHS]
JOSH: Pak's the man. I wasn't a big Hulk fan to start with before reading his stuff, but that fixed everything up for me. He's in a place where he can kill and rip things apart and not feel guilty about it. That's what works for me with the Hulk.
MATT: And that's why you became an exterminator!
[LAUGHS]
THE LAST WORD: There's a new 800-pound gorilla in the Marvel Universe, and he's only one-year-old. Baby Hulk (aka Skarr) looks to be a worthy addition to the pantheon of gamma bruisers, as creators Greg Pak and Ron Garney team for a blockbuster spinoff series that should catch fire in the wake of "Incredible Hulk" movie fever. It's a good time to go green!
For our Thursday Morning QB Quick Hits reviews, click here!
