Writer: Greg Pak
Art: Manuel Garcia, Cam Smith, Chris Sotomayor, Carlos Pagulayan, and VC’s Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 29th, 2023
A thousand years in the future, green-skinned Haarg, like Tala and her brother Balo, are reviled and persecuted on Planet Sakaar. So when Balo was kidnapped by an evil priestess, Tala enlisted the help of her Grandpa Cho, the Jen, and Korg of Krona to break him free. But as the priestess reveals her true endgame, only the power of Banner, the Green Scar himself, can stop her. But is that just part of the priestess’ plan? Let’s dive into Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5 by Greg Pak to see how this story wraps.
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THE DISPATCH
So, readers open with the High Priestesses, cult, mumbo jumbo about innocence and sanctification, which has frankly been getting old, paralleled with Cho doing his best impression of a Calculus Meme to try to develop a plan. And then, using Cho’s Calculus Meme, the Hulk’s find the machine in order to save the day while Banner smashes stuff. That’s it, folks. The lack of Banner and story development all connect together at the end with a small amount of smashing from the Green Skaar. Yet, as one would expect, smashing things doesn’t always work out so well. And there’s normally a secret plan under the surface “pun totally intended”.
However, Tala out of nowhere steps up as some kind of symbol to “reignite” Banner and attempt to join the world back together which leads to Banner smashing the core and “reigniting” the planet. Now, if this sounds confusing… it’s because it is. Readers, there is no big fight. No epic battle. Just a crazy lady attempting to blow up a planet and a Hulk that finally smashes a core to start everything back up. Moreover, it gets worse. There is no real plot or premise to Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5. Heck, I couldn’t even tell you the point of the series. I believe Pak was going for something metaphorical and deep. However, that connection didn’t come until the last five pages of this issue and frankly the entire series. The purpose is lost. The direction is lost and the point of the narrative is lost.
Readers, Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5 had no rhyme or reason to it. Plus, I swear I read through the issue in under five minutes making the multiple reads almost a breeze. However, there is no reason a culminating issue should be so quick. It needs to tie all the loose ends up. It needs to wrap a bow on the series. Nevertheless, I don’t know what was wrapped or frankly why Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker was needed. For symbolism? Ok… but why add on to the legacy of Planet Hulk just to use it as symbolism for our culture at large? And worse yet, the characters go nowhere. Sure, Banner and Cho grew a bit… I think… But prior to this story starting, we didn’t even know they needed to grow which begs the question as to why we needed Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker in the first place.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This story was unnecessary. Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5 has very few answers and fewer plot threads to grab onto to drive this mini-series home. The overall intent from the Priestess is never totally understood and ultimately, this issue in particular, felt like so much story was written off panel and left on the cutting floor. Why was this only five issues? Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5 raced through to the end providing little answers while throwing symbolism at all of the narrative problems.
Ambiguity became the plot device coupled with silly solutions and pointless story beats that were either never answered or deemed insignificant as Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker comes to a close. Truly, the main purpose of this series was to draw people in with the name, and attempt to find the same success the recent Maestro runs did in hopes to extend the brand. Sadly, that was not the case and I’m afraid only did damage to the original Planet Hulk. I would not recommend this issue or this series. Feel free to check out the rest of my Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker reviews HERE to see just why every step of the way.