Thoughts on World War Hulk What If? (Spoilers)

[seekquaze]

Saw this at the comic shop today and looked through it. It's divided into three stories. What if the Hulk died? What if he landed on the planet they sent him to? and What if Banner arrived on Sakaar?

For the first story my initial thoughts were: "This is the way WWH should have been done!" By that I mean Caira's lightning quick strike to take down Earth's heroes before they had a chance to form a defense or even know what they were up against.

The defeat of Black Bolt is again left off panel so we have no clue what happened other than a big chunk of the moon was blown off. We have no clue as to how that happened.

The death of the Sentry makes some sense because he did not have a chance to power-up and Black Bolt hit him with a very powerful attack.

The only thing is once again the Avengers fell too easily, but considering the whole story had to be told in about ten pages I can give it some leeway.

We off course get the obligated conclusion where Caira joins the Hulk forever.


Would Earth's heroes have fallen so easily? It is a What If? So pretty much anything goes. What made me like it better than WWH main is the attack was quick enough that Earth's heroes could be taken out before they had time to prepare instead of the warning the Earth's heroes got from the Hulk, twenty-four hours to prepare, and failing so miserable.

As to the second story: It was well done. Turns out in the long run both Hulk and Banner would have been happier if they had not gone to Sakaar. It does raise a question about the Hulk's age. But being a What If? that point is largely irrelevant.

The third story is a one page comedy that is a nice end.

Overall I enjoyed this better than the main series:

4/5

[Omega Alpha]

The first story symbolizes what's the main problem with Greg Pak's writing on IH, what Brian Cronin defined as Pygmalion characters (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/09/05/comic-book-dictionary-pygmalion-characters/). The main symbol of it is Amadeus Cho of course, but that applies to most of them. His creations are smarter, stronger, tougher than everyone, and are able to outsmart Reed Richards like it was no big deal, or be better sorcerers than Dr. Strange, and so on. Caiera kills the entire MU with extreme ease, one panel is enough for Strange and Sentry together, another one for the entire Avengers, another for Iron Man and Reed Richards, etc, and is able to do what Dr. Doom or Kang couldn't, and also with extreme ease: conquer the world and keep it easily for decades. And that, of course, because he's Greg Pak's creation. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it, though.

The second story reminds of Hulk: The End (and I'm sure it's intentional) but lacks the depth of it, and fails to be interesting.

The third was just meh. I love the mini-marvels, but this one didn't worked. If Pak had bothered to develop the story, it could have been better than the previous two, but didn't worked even as a comedy.

[drwho]

I thought this issue was kind of bleeh. I would have preferred one whole issue rather than the two separate stories we were given. Just didn't seem enough story for either of them. Felt like they should have developed the first one more. Seemed like it didn't have much substance similarly to the whole WWH event. This isn't a must have and I would not recommend it unless you just want some action with little substance.

[seekquaze]

The first story symbolizes what's the main problem with Greg Pak's writing on IH, what Brian Cronin defined as Pygmalion characters (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/09/05/comic-book-dictionary-pygmalion-characters/). The main symbol of it is Amadeus Cho of course, but that applies to most of them. His creations are smarter, stronger, tougher than everyone, and are able to outsmart Reed Richards like it was no big deal, or be better sorcerers than Dr. Strange, and so on. Caiera kills the entire MU with extreme ease, one panel is enough for Strange and Sentry together, another one for the entire Avengers, another for Iron Man and Reed Richards, etc, and is able to do what Dr. Doom or Kang couldn't, and also with extreme ease: conquer the world and keep it easily for decades. And that, of course, because he's Greg Pak's creation. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it, though.



Being a What If? and limited to about ten pages I gave the first story a lot of slack. More than I do other stories Everything did happen too quickly, but that is what tends to happen in What If?s.

The main point I liked about it was Caira's method was better than what the Hulk had done by taking out the heroes before they could form a plan or defense which has been one of my major beefs with WWH and why I think that series is below average story wise.

[CMBMOOL]

You know this isssue sure does question which tourture of the Heroes is better: Hulk or Cieira ?

Also what would have occured on Earth if both King and queen of Sakaar had survived the planet explosion ? :(

[CMBMOOL]

Okay we all saw the What if of Planet Hulk, which showed what would have happen if Cieria had survived instead of the Hulk.

We also see that World War Hulk is the result of Cieria's death and the population and the planet's destruction.

Now I'm asking this question as to what would had happen if BOTH the Hulk and Cieria survived Sakaar's explosion ?

What would be come of Earth and it heroes once they learned that the Hulk lives and he has a queen and his new "friends"?

Now that is a What if that I'm willing to see. :D

Who else agrees with me ? :(

[CMBMOOL]

Okay based upon the results of What If: Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, who would you say showed the heroes mercy the best:

The Hulk or his Queen Cieria

[Jack-o-Lantern]

I am sorry but the whole first story was beyond weak. You mean to tell me Caiera and her ship were able to take out everyone that easy. The Kree and the Skrulls should be so damn lucky. Another thing I don't like about the whole "What If" is that somehow the whole human race banished the Hulk.

The second story was rather good.

[Dorsai]

Okay based upon the results of What If: Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, who would you say showed the heroes mercy the best:

The Hulk or his Queen Cieria

Hulk.

SPOILERS!!!! (Hightlight to read)

Caiera's 2nd action was killing The Sentry and Dr. Strange with her 3rd action being killing Iron Man and Reed Richards, I would say she has one-upped the Hulk. 21 years of slavery is also kind of harsh. I also doubt that she gave 24 hrs. for evacuation since she was planning to break the continent in half. Also, no toying with Earth's heroes. She immediately went into smackdown mode. However, the statue of Hulk was quite cool.

[Mr Fixit]

Okay we all saw the What if of Planet Hulk, which showed what would have happen if Cieria had survived instead of the Hulk.

We also see that World War Hulk is the result of Cieria's death and the population and the planet's destruction.

Now I'm asking this question as to what would had happen if BOTH the Hulk and Cieria survived Sakaar's explosion ?

What would be come of Earth and it heroes once they learned that the Hulk lives and he has a queen and his new "friends"?

Now that is a What if that I'm willing to see. :D

Who else agrees with me ? :(

Oh let me play please :)

Now I am going to use my whole "it's Banners fault" thing so bare with me....


Okay with the explosion done there is a sense of wonder and shock within Hulk and Cieria and they set a huge investigation to work.
It uncovers little and Hulk suspects but does not place automatic blame on The Illumanti because he feels an inward "something" pulling him back from such a total accusation.

So the investigation continues and Hulk continues to rule with his Queen in reltive bliss....

One night the two share an intimate night where they both emtionaly opon with each other,after the shock of the explosion they are bonded closer to each other and Cieria ask for accses to the full inner space of Hulks mind,body and Soul.

Whilst joined with Hulk she picks up Banners frustration and believing him to be at least harmless to herself and Hulk she tries to probe his turmoil...

However she is violently rebuked by Banner she can sense something has gone badly wrong and can see a sense of hatred in his eyes towards her.
The Hulk being aware of this joins with Ciera to force open Banners mind and after a fearsome struggle he relents.
Once open both Hulk and his Queen witness Hulk arming a bomb on the ship and making an uneasy allience with the Red King.

On the physcic plane Hulk moves to tear Banner apart but a past master at physcic battles Banner matches Hulk and seeing this as a possible last stand goes for the kill against Hulk.
In panic and fear for her King Ciera uses a huge amount of her Old Strong energy to cast Banner out of Hulks body.

After the struggle Hulk and his Queen are holding each other both weakend and pleased to survive the conflict.
Meanwhile Banner has landed in a dessert plane on the planet and a couple of anti-Hulk rebels are seen aiding him.

Cieria now serverly ill by the efforts of forcing Banner out of Hulk is being doted on by her beloved Hulk.
He is griped with the horror of possibly losing his wife and a deep fire of bitter vengence against Banner is burning inside him and he raises a huge army to search the planet to bring back Banner in order to kill him.

Banner meanwhile is recovering in a rebel strong hold a high ranking soldier recognises him as an ally of the Red King and tells Banner they will help him to control his beast Hulk if he promises to aid them in making Hulk a non-threat.
Banner Agree's but tells the rebels that he did not like thier leader dispite his alligence to him because to Banner the allience was a matter of necessity.

The rebels led by Banner and renforced by his deep kknowledge of the Hulk and the Hulk leading the planets most powerful forces fight skirmishes and many battles niether one gaining any real advantage.

Meanwhile Cieria is getting stronger by the day but notices that Hulk is becoming weaker graduly and when she asks him what is effecting him he doesn't awnser...however he does know.

Banner finds himself working on plans for a new form of technoligy that will make it possible for him to tame Hulk on the psychic plane but rebel doctors and surgeons are discovering that Banners health is deteriorating.
When asked Banner says nothing but the doctors have had reports of Banners skin appearing translucent at times.

In fear of what is happening to her husband Cieria tells Hulk that she is strong enough to help Hulk and with his help can reduce Banners physcic presance to the point that he can never bother her King ever again.
Hulk in the knowledge he can not truley survive with Banner reluctently agrees.

Banner urges for a final strike against Hulk to implement the technoligy he has been working on,the rebels tell Banner it is unready but he convinces' them everything will be fine as he can compensate for any small lack in the machenary.
The dramatic showdown presents itself and we see many fallen warriors on both sides and both leaders prepare to play thier trump card.
However as they do so they suffer a server trauma and thier moulcules become unstable.
Cieria tries to help but Hulk finaly shouts to her the reason for what is happening to them.
Cieria pleads with Hulk to reform with Hulk for sake of her love,the rebels tell Banner to stay away from Hulk and avenge not only the Red King but his own houner.
Cierai focuses and begs the Old Strong for unbound power in her hour of need and interviens,the rebels retaliate and use thier technoligy to counteract the Cierais efforts.
With the malfunction of the technoligy causing Cierai to become unfocussed a MASSIVE inversion of the Oldstrongs power is caused.

So instead of Cierai joining to seprate beings toghter the power emits to every living being on Sakaar and joins them up as one whole being.
This mutated titan whose mind is crippled with unrelting pain and conflict stands the last being on Sakaar and a personifcation of all conflict on the planet.

More importantly Hulk,Banner and Cierai are one....in the most perverse way ....



...It may just be crap but there it is ;)

[Mr Fixit]

Can I just say that post is grammaticly shabby and technicly lacking,it was written in the form of "heads down and fingers furious" ;)

I will edit it at some point but right now I am doing one million and one things ;)

[seekquaze]

You forgot an option:

Neither

Caira kills them quickly than enslaves the Earth without any evidence and because she holds all of Earth responsible even though Hirom points out she is wrong.

The Hulk threatens to destroy the entire Earth if they don't surrender to him. Instead of just killing them he decides to try and force them down to his level by humiliating them in front of a bunch of cretins despite all they have done for the Earth. Than to add to it he decides to force them to kill each other while their loved ones watch with the possibility he will every hero in the end. (Never stop making them pay)

Add to that the insects are threatening to unleash brood spawn that would wipe out all life on Earth and I can't see the Hulk bothering to stop it.

So in my opinion they are equal.

[MakeshiftHero]

How is it that Black Bolt can vaporize Sentry by whispering. He shouted at the top of his lungs at hulk and fails to KO Hulk. But when Black Bolt whispers "n-no" the Sentry, with the power of 1000 exploding suns, gets obliterated into nothingness in 2 seconds.

Uhhhhhhh did they not have enough time to figure out how to deal with Sentry and draw out of a hat of "horribly written scape goats" and thats the one that was picked?

Other than that, I enjoyed the whole book. I always like reading the What If? books and look forward to the Annihilation one.

[dabig2]

Well, Caiera got a huge boost in power when she absorbed the energies of an entire planet. I think this is a detail being missed here. She was obviously boosted up to insanity powers, thus making her killing everyone and not being beaten reasonable. Not to mention they had no time to prepare.

It's literally BOOM she's here and no one has an idea of what the hell is going on or who she is. Then she's cutting off heads left and right and they're focused on the moon raining down on them. I liked it.

[StoneGold]

Well, Caiera got a huge boost in power when she absorbed the energies of an entire planet. I think this is a detail being missed here. She was obviously boosted up to insanity powers, thus making her killing everyone and not being beaten reasonable. Not to mention they had no time to prepare.

It's literally BOOM she's here and no one has an idea of what the hell is going on or who she is. Then she's cutting off heads left and right and they're focused on the moon raining down on them. I liked it.

Which still doesn't explain Sentry going down to a whisper. But whatever. It's alternate timeline Sentry. I guess he's more of a wuss than the regular one.

[Siddon]

I dug it, but I would have rather had two issues. Then again I love how quick the destruction of Earth was, it brought me back to my favorite Elseworlds story (JLA & Superboy end of the world). I wanted to see Tony fall slowly let her really take her time beating him up.

[ivesaidway2much]

Which still doesn't explain Sentry going down to a whisper. But whatever. It's alternate timeline Sentry. I guess he's more of a wuss than the regular one.He saw an enemy and he attacked it. Doesn't that make him ten times the man that 616 Sentry is?

[bulbasteve]

Dang maybe the Illuminati should have brought some books or something for Banner, poor guy seemed lonely :(

[CMBMOOL]

even though Hirom points out she is wrong.

The Hulk threatens to destroy the entire Earth if they don't surrender to him. Instead of just killing them he decides to try and force them down to his level by humiliating them in front of a bunch of cretins despite all they have done for the Earth. Than to add to it he decides to force them to kill each other while their loved ones watch with the possibility he will every hero in the end. (Never stop making them pay)

.

You maybe right that the Hulk is forcing the heroes to stoop down to his level, but this was the way that the Hulk has been treated over the years. :(

[JesseJay]

I thought the second story was really good, i loved the bickering between banner and hulk. The first story on the other hand was crap. since when can the hulk die from an explostion? I think pak is an alright writer, as long as he keep his characters away from anyone elses characters. Thats why I liked the second story, there was no one to job to hulk.

[GigaLeo]

Even with the greater suspension of disbelief I go into a What If? with, I really didn't like the first Hulk story. There's only so much you can do with 10 pages to tell a story, and even though I liked the second story, I would happily give it up to extend the first into a full issue.

What I liked:
Did anyone else enjoy the bit involving Miek? I thought that was great, those couple of panels were probably my favorite of the entire story. It made perfect sense considering his hero worship of the Hulk, he'd never believe that the Hulk was dead.

The surprise attack- great strategy and more effective. I loved BB being used as a weapon. I just wish we were given that moment of 'Who the f' is that? Oh wait, we prepared for the Hulk, *not* these guys!" I would have even liked to see them try to use some anti-Hulk measures against Caiera because it was all they had.

Didn't like:
-A bomb that actually killed the Hulk? Really? At the end of Planet Hulk, I always thought that even if he had been point blank with that explosion, he would have survived. He'd be pissed off, but he would have survived. But it's a What If?, so you have to go with it.

-The Sentry's just wonkier than Transformers continuity. It's a What If?, so I guess I have to buy that Black Bolt could nuke Sentry even though he couldn't wipe out t he Hulk and the Sentry's supposed to be the most powerful hero (looks like you were wrong Spiderman!). But man if that's any indication of the Sentry in WWH, issue 5 is going to be 20+ pages of nonstop Hulka-Smasha all over Sentry's face.

-I thought the art was great, if I ignored the story I got a lot of nice food for the eyes.

What I wish we could have seen:
-I thought they were going to lead up to a Sentry/Caiera fight to show off what she could really do by absorbing the power from her planet, going the route of "He was my friend' vs "He was my husband".

-There's the silhouetted image of Hulk's son (so it was a boy eh, not a girl?) but that's all you get. This could have been an entirely different What If?, had they decided to bring Caeira in, have her fail, and then play up a new Hulk taking out his inherited rage (and possibly inherited Oldstrong powers) on the heroes.

I liked the second story, the tit-for-tat was pretty funny and made me wonder whether or not this timeline also staved off the creation of the Maestro.

[Thursaiz]

I loved it!

I would really like to see a story where...somehow...Hulk's son or daughter from his albeit brief marriage with Caiera survived and comes to earth looking for the father.

Since we have no indication as to just how durable Sentry is, it is feasible that Black Bolt's power could destroy him. Maybe he is like a Symbiote, and sonic sounds are his weakness. Who knows.

The second story was interesting. Although I have to assume that someone..somewhere...would go looking for the Green Goliath after a long absence on earth. There would have to be a threat on earth that Hulk was needed for, and the Illuminati might have to find him.

[seekquaze]

You maybe right that the Hulk is forcing the heroes to stoop down to his level, but this was the way that the Hulk has been treated over the years. :(


That is true to some extent, but to be fair time and time again people have tried to help the Hulk, but either due to misunderstandings, failed cures, mind control, the Hulk not getting his way, etc. he comes a menace again forcing the heroes to battle him.

[ivesaidway2much]

That is true to some extent, but to be fair time and time again people have tried to help the Hulk, but either due to misunderstandings, failed cures, mind control, the Hulk not getting his way, etc. he comes a menace again forcing the heroes to battle him.In between the times he saves all of their lives, of course.

[Kevinroc]

In between the times he saves all of their lives, of course.

The people against the Hulk don't like to mention all those times. Despite the fact that there are a lot of times where Hulk saves everyone. :D

[Magneto Rocks]

The people against the Hulk don't like to mention all those times. Despite the fact that there are a lot of times where Hulk saves everyone. :D

Personally I prefer heroes who have less records of going mad and trying to kill people and causing obscene property damage, but maybe that's just me.

[Kevinroc]

Personally I prefer heroes who have less records of going mad and trying to kill people and causing obscene property damage, but maybe that's just me.

We'd all love that, wouldn't we? But we can't all be alcoholics running trillion dollar spy agencies. :D

[Wally_West]

Okay based upon the results of What If: Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, who would you say showed the heroes mercy the best:

The Hulk or his Queen Cieria

The What If story with Ciera is out???

[Mister Jerusalem]

I wouldn't mind both of them showing up to earth for some beat down, because without her death, it would just be pretty pissed off Hulk getting revenge for his people, and not I'm so pissed off Hulk I don't see what's going on around me. Plus I really miss Cieria, i think there was a lot of story potential there.

[Pyro]

I liked it. Leonard Kirk's art is pretty darn good and he deserves a regular, big name title. I think he would be great on Mighty Avengers.

I didn't really understand the second story. Why exactly were the Hulk and Banner fighting? Where the heck did the giant Hulk statues come from? Was it a happy ending? I wasn't sure.

[jackolover]

This is what would happen if Greg Pak was allowed to kill off a Marvel Icon, which he never will be. But if say Pak did get the gig to off the Hulk, or even Caiera believes that Hulk was killed, (but he wasn't), it is one of the saddest stories to come out of the genre. Here is a woman who committed herself entirely to her lover and King, and she finds out the earthlings were the cause of the explosion that tore apart her whole life. Then she went on a vengeful rampage back to the world that would treat her husband like some monster, when he had clearly demonstration he wasn't by sacrificing himself time again, to save others, and redeem the Planet Sakaar to freedom.

Here is a woman so enraged by loss, that she has no compassion, like the Hulk did in World War Hulk, and let her unfetted vengence slay the Illuminati at the first contact. No Arena; no bargaining, no discussions. Just all out slaughter, and to hell with the Planet Earth and any semblance of stability anymore.

Instead, she rears her 21 year old son, while overseeing the construction of her beloved Hulks memorial statue, and when it's finished, what does she do? She turns into the stone that her heart has turned into, to be one with her Holku, at last, while the earth turns as the 2nd Dynasty of the Son of Hulk.

The second story was a little airy fairy, in that the Hulk and Banner were put in a place where there was no danger to them. Nothing happens, and the Hulk and Banner play a little game of how to scew up the others life on the planet. Also the scenario that Greg Pak would have had to write about, if the Sakaar storyline didn't come along, which it had too, because, as we could see, it wouldn't work if Hulks ship stayed on course.

[jackolover]

The first story symbolizes what's the main problem with Greg Pak's writing on IH, what Brian Cronin defined as Pygmalion characters (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/09/05/comic-book-dictionary-pygmalion-characters/). The main symbol of it is Amadeus Cho of course, but that applies to most of them. His creations are smarter, stronger, tougher than everyone, and are able to outsmart Reed Richards like it was no big deal, or be better sorcerers than Dr. Strange, and so on. Caiera kills the entire MU with extreme ease, one panel is enough for Strange and Sentry together, another one for the entire Avengers, another for Iron Man and Reed Richards, etc, and is able to do what Dr. Doom or Kang couldn't, and also with extreme ease: conquer the world and keep it easily for decades. And that, of course, because he's Greg Pak's creation. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it, though.


Greg Pak has had that theme throughout his run on the Hulk, of over-powered characters of his invention, making the MU characters seems trivially inconsequential. It is a tad conceited of Mr Pak. We have this undefeated Marvel U full of characters that have never had their power challenged, and Greg Pak has scripted a story where just that has happened, in What If? Planet Hulk. I would dispute he has done it conclusively to Amadeus Cho and King Hulk, because there is a question mark over the commitment of the Illuminati, to confront the Hulk with the full forces at their disposal. I feel the Illuminati held back, and if they were fair dinkum, the Hulk would have had a greater fight than what he got. (Doctor Strange is the obvious example out of any of them, that the Hulk could be dispatched to Dimensions unknown).

But to your point about how easily the MU characters were destroyed by Caiera and the Warbound, it does appear Greg Pak has this preponderance to oversimplify the capacity of the MU heroes to defend themselves from an unknown threat that just bursts upon the Earth from nowhere, without warning. This would never happen in any other scenario of a similar nature, and for Pak to so casually dismiss the earth and it's defenders, brings to mind the occurance of the Ammeggeddon storyline of the MU; if Marvel ever had to fold for some reason, in the future.

[jigrig]

I liked it. Leonard Kirk's art is pretty darn good and he deserves a regular, big name title. I think he would be great on Mighty Avengers.

I didn't really understand the second story. Why exactly were the Hulk and Banner fighting? Where the heck did the giant Hulk statues come from? Was it a happy ending? I wasn't sure.

I think it was implied that the little creatures evolved & worshipped Hulk, the last page shows Hulk holding the apparently snapped neck of a fanged saurapod looking creature He slew to protect the two inhabitants.

[jackolover]

I wouldn't mind both of them showing up to earth for some beat down, because without her death, it would just be pretty pissed off Hulk getting revenge for his people, and not I'm so pissed off Hulk I don't see what's going on around me. Plus I really miss Cieria, i think there was a lot of story potential there.

That Caiera showed up alive in this What If? proves that Marvel can't let her lie. I too miss Caiera, and I didn't realise how much until this issue. If enough of us fans want Caiera to return, then I don't think Marvel will be able to stop her making a Gwen Stacy resurrection. I also thought the Miek sequence was the best of the story. It was true to Mieks character, which is a love/adoration that Miek has for the Hulk ever since the Hulk rescued Miek when he was just a little Hiveling, and I miss that about the Hulks and Mieks relationship, also.

[stingerman]

I thought this issue was kind of bleeh. I would have preferred one whole issue rather than the two separate stories we were given. Just didn't seem enough story for either of them. Felt like they should have developed the first one more. Seemed like it didn't have much substance similarly to the whole WWH event. This isn't a must have and I would not recommend it unless you just want some action with little substance.

I agree 100%. If I had known it was 2 stories I would never have bought it. Disappointing. I hope the Annilition/Civil War What if? is not the same.

[Brad Barton]

Okay, I wasn't really impressed at all with this book, and though I did get some minimal enjoyment out of seeing Caiera cut Starks head off, both stories were way, way waaaaaay rushed. Neither was really done justice at all.

If they had made this a 2 part limited series, devoting one full issue to each story, it would have been infinitely better. Even then it probably wouldnt have been enough to do the Caiera What If? story justice, but it would have been better than what we got.

Overall grade: C-

I was expecting so much more from this. :(

[Pyro]

I liked it as it was. I was glad we got two possible outcomes as well. It was a nice surprise to me. I had always wondered what would happen if Hulk landed on the planet that was intended for him, and it looks like the Illuminati wouldn't be in the situation they are now, or have been so in the wrong if he had.

[Loner]

My guess is Caiera will be back, somehow drawing life energy from Sakaar. But she will be batsh!t crazy from the resurrection and loss of her child; and an enemy for the Hulk going forward.

Frankly the way she had been depicted before it made no sense that she died in the first place. She was very nearly as strong as Hulk, PLUS he was shielding her from the blast.

[tjarvis]

Honestly, this story really makes me worried for the how Sentry is going to be portrayed in issue #5 of WWH. Black Bolt taking him out with a whisper just doesn't seem accurate at all. He's suppossed to be the strongest hero out there, and it should take more than that to take him out. Certainly the Silent War mini gave the inference that Black Bolt would have to let out with his mightiest scream to take care of Sentry.

Characters getting jobbed out is just a reality of What If? stories, so I'm fine with that. But I am going to be annoyed if we see an equally chumpish Sentry in the main mini.

[XPac]

Honestly, I think some people are making too big a deal out of the MU heroes jobbing to Paks characters in this What if.

As others have said, it is a What If, where heroes often do end up jobbing in situations they normally win. And it's a 10 page What If to boot. I wouldn't buy Sentry and Dr. Strange getting owned so easily under differnet circumstances, but in this instance it's not only understandable but necessary.

[ivesaidway2much]

Honestly, this story really makes me worried for the how Sentry is going to be portrayed in issue #5 of WWH. Black Bolt taking him out with a whisper just doesn't seem accurate at all. He's suppossed to be the strongest hero out there, and it should take more than that to take him out. Certainly the Silent War mini gave the inference that Black Bolt would have to let out with his mightiest scream to take care of Sentry.

Characters getting jobbed out is just a reality of What If? stories, so I'm fine with that. But I am going to be annoyed if we see an equally chumpish Sentry in the main mini.I don't think it was a whisper. I think it was a spoken word. In WWH #1, when Black Bolt whispered you could barely make out the word he said because the lettering was so small:
http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/773/773601/world-war-hulk-20070316093223155.jpg
In the What If? you could clearly see that Black Bolt said "N...no". I think the difference was intentional.

[Brad Barton]

In the What If? you could clearly see that Black Bolt said "N...no". I think the difference was intentional.You know, I was a little skeptical of a single, plainspoken word reducing Strange and Sentry to bones as well, and thought to myself "Why didn't he just have Black Bolt yell? It would've been loads more believable that a BB scream could reduce them to skeletons."

Then I thought about it some more and realized that (going by continuity and past feats) a scream probably would have taken out the entire planet, and understood why Pak didn't go that route.

[Crimson]

The quick killing of Miek makes me think that he's going to be a big player in WWH#5... it supports my idea of him setting off the bomb (Although it kills my other idea of Banner doing it).

[Ogrebear]

I thought the first story was far too short- it could have done with being longer, some more Global fallout from the arrival of the Warbound and the takeover would have been nice. I would have liked to have seen the Hulk's son for a little longer too.

The second story was fun- I liked the territory making Hulk and Banner where doing. Was it me or did the 'cat-men' at the end look cool?

The last tale was silly and probably the mostly likely!

Not a bad What If but defaintly needed more pages!

[Nate Grey]

I wish the first story was 300 pages long, going into exquisite detail how Ceiara took down each hero in one-on-one combat. And I want the thing to cost $3.99.

Wanted to know more about Hulk Jr, too. That could have been a fourth story in this hypothetical 300+ $3.99 What If. Is it too late for Marvel to make this happen?