World War Wow!

I had little or no expectations around Marvel's World War Hulk event that started up this month. It comes hot on the heels of Civil War, as well as Planet Hulk, after all, causing many fans, like me, to go, "Another big crossover? Sigh." As such, it seemed a little too manufactured to have any real "wow" factor for me. Plus, it was being billed as a big ol' "Hulk smash!" miniseries, which can be fun but generally not all that interesting.

Having read the first issue now, though, I'd say I'm somewhat impressed! While there was certainly a fair bit of Hulk smashing - some of it happening off-panel, strangely enough - more important from a story point of view: the ante seems to have been upped considerably. Usually in this sort of thing, the fights take place out in the desert somewhere; in WWH # 1, ol' Greenskin, recently returned to Earth after an extended sojourn on a hostile, faraway planet thanks to the connivances of folks like Tony Stark and Reed Richards, informs the residents of New York City they have 24 hrs to evacuate before he throws down in Manhattan with the 'villains' who shot him off into space. I'm not sure that even these days Marvel would go so far as to have the battle significantly damage NYC, but at least there appears to be that possibility. And Hulk has already laid a beating on Black Bolt, the leader of the Inhumans, the likes of which that character has never seen before!

I have to give Marvel a lot of credit over the past year or so. They've been willing to tell very large stories, in terms of the effect they're having on the status quo. Joe Quesada, Marvel Editor-in-Chief, has said many times that he thinks operating that way is actually more in line with how Stan Lee did it, back in the 60s. After all, you never used to know what to expect in a Marvel comic back then, since Stan was making up so many of the rules - and then breaking them - as he went along. And under Joe Q, even the stories I haven't really appreciated the endings of - see Civil War - are impressive in their scope nonetheless.

I just wish DC would get their act together, as right now Marvel's handing them their head on a pike, whether you measure such things in terms of editorial vision, risk-taking, or even just sales.