History Comicbook / WorldWarHulk

%% green link * KickTheSonOfABitch: The Illuminati may not have been responsible for the explosion that wrecked Sakaar, but they still deserved an ass-kicking.

''World War Hulk'' is a 2007 Marvel CrisisCrossover; it occurs after the events of ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' and takes place between ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' and ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion''.

Before the Civil War, the Illuminati--a group consisting of ComicBook/IronMan, [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]], Comicbook/DoctorStrange, Prince Namor the ComicBook/SubMariner, [[ComicBook/XMen Professor Xavier]] and [[ComicBook/TheInhumans Black Bolt]]--decided that [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk The Hulk]] was a threat to the world because of his unstable and dangerous mood swings. Instead of killing him, they shot the green giant into space and towards a planet without intelligent life, hoping that he would find peace. But due to a malfunction in the spaceship, The Hulk landed on Sakaar, a harsh world where he was captured, enslaved, and turned into a gladiator. Thus began ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'', where Hulk fought for a living and eventually found friends and true love. He eventually toppled the local tyrannical ruler, effectively becoming the new king, and lived HappilyEverAfter with his allies and his new wife...

A sequel was announced on December 1st, 2017, called "World War Hulk II: Smashback", which sees the ComicBook/TotallyAwesomeHulk returning to Earth after being dragged to Sakaar and having the Hulk persona finally regain control after having Amadeus Cho keep him back for so long, prompting [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Carol Danvers]] and Alpha Flight, ComicBook/BlackPanther and [[ComicBook/{{Champions2016}} the Champions]] to try to stop him.

-->'''Mung:''' "I have been known... from time to time... to answer to ''that name'' too. Although I am a ''god'' [[GodOfEvil far removed from the concept of 'good.']]"

''World War Hulk'' is a 2007 Marvel CrisisCrossover; it occurs after the events of ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' and takes place between ''Comicbook/CivilWar'' and ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion''.

* AlmostDeadGuy: ''The Irredemable Ant-Man'' ties in with the opening issue, where Eric O'Grady gets involved in the fight between Hulk and Iron Man. Eric, an ordinary human with no superpowers, gets beaten all to Hell, and spends months in a coma when struck by an oblivious Hulk.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: A near-literal version of this trope happens as Hulk is trying to break through [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Sue Storm's]] force field to get at Reed. She pleads with The Hulk to stop, so he asks her, "If I sent a bomb, killed your husband, your children, your whole world... would you '''ever''' stop?!" Sue is so taken aback by the question that she lets down her guard, which allows Hulk to shatter her force field with the next punch, incapacitate her, and beat the living hell out of her husband.

-->'''Black Bolt''': [''to Hulk, very very quietly''] [[MakeMeWannaShout Enough]].

* CrisisCrossover: Duh.
* CurbStompBattle: It is hard to describe what Hulk did to the X-Men in any other terms.

* DarkActionGirl: Elloe, No-Name was this at first.

* DuelToTheDeath: See the ArcWords above.
* EleventhHourSuperpower: The Hulk's "Worldbreaker" form basically counts as this. Hulk's basic power is that the angrier he gets, the stronger he gets, seemingly without an upper limit. The "Worldbreaker" form is when he gets so angry that his strength is enough [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin to break a planet]].

* HeroicRROD: A variation occurred with the Hulk himself in the climax. The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets. He'd never been that mad before, and he got so strong he actually couldn't control it anymore. He actually ''asked'' the heroes to knock him down before he started, well, [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds accidentally ripping the world apart.]]]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The Illuminati may not have been responsible for the explosion that wrecked Sakaar, but they still deserved an ass-kicking.

--->'''Strange''': He was ''HAPPY!!''

* OhCrap: This was the reaction from a lot of Earth's heroes after Hulk announced his return. Making things worse: Hulk did it after having beaten Black Bolt, one of the few beings on Earth considered more powerful than Hulk. Not only did The Hulk prove how much stronger he was after being sent to Sakaar, he also showed off his posse of super-strong pals, most of whom wanted a heaping helping of {{revenge}}.

** Rick Jones tells him ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is dead in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/CivilWar''; Hulk is shocked and appalled to hear this.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: The aforementioned InterruptedCooldownHug.

* SuddenSequelHeelSyndrome: [[spoiler:Miek]] turned out to have been responsible for the destruction of Sakaar all along.
** To be fair, [[spoiler: Pak had been laying the groundwork for this since the middle of ''Planet Hulk'' -- their conversation in ''Incredible Hulk'' #96 in particular. Miek wanted to punish the Red King's people at any and all costs and all but worshiped the Hulk's destructive ideology.]]

* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: Not one nonviolent attempt to stop The Hulk or talk him down from his rage succeeds. The characters who try appealing to Hulk's friendship or better nature get slapped down just as brutally as the ones who are out to kill him.

* WhatTheHellHero: Learning about what the Illuminati did -- combined with PlethoraOfMistakes surrounding the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' -- led many of Earth's people to root for Hulk and the Warbound.

* TheWorfEffect: [[ComicBook/TheInhumans Black Bolt]] was considered to be one of the most broken characters in Marvel's cosmic realm. Hulk takes him down first, and almost entirely off panel, to prove how much stronger he had become on Sakaar.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite his hatred for the Illuminati and the contempt he shows towards the rest of Earth's superheroes, Hulk is still saddened to hear about the demise of Captain America. His vengeance is also ''not'' ruthlessly blind: he only fights heroes that fight him rather than trying to start fights with anyone besides his targets, he spares Xavier and Namor for a variety of reasons, chief of which they ultimately held no responsibility over what had happened to him.

* ThouShaltNotKill: Hulk insists that no one will die by either his hand or the Warbound's, just to show that they are better than the Illuminati.

* NobleDemon: Hiroim.

* ComicBookDeath: Rick Jones gets impaled by [[spoiler:Miek]]. It doesn't take even a year for him to crop up inexplicably alive again in Jeph Loeb's ''Hulk''.

* TranquilFury: Though Hulk is "madder than he's ever been", he is nowhere near as savage as he usually is. His time on Sakaar helped make him smarter, and his training with Hiroim helped him focus his anger into this.
* UnstoppableRage: Hulk gets stronger when he gets angrier, but the birth of the Green Scar persona is implied to have happened when Hulk reached heights of anger even he had never known before. By the end of the event, his rage reaches such heights he can't keep it in check, and nearly cracks the Earth in half just by ''taking a step''.

Hulk turned the Earth's heroes--''especially'' the Illuminati--into gladiators so they could feel the struggles and suffering he went through on Sakaar. He spared only Namor, who voted against sending Hulk into space, and Professor X, who wasn't present. (After seeing the result of ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', Hulk decided that Xavier had suffered enough.) He set the Illuminati against a monster, then forced them to take up weapons and try to kill each other. The moment is eventually interrupted by Sentry, who had overcome his SplitPersonality problem just in time to bring the battle to Hulk. The two fought each other into exhaustion, but it was enough to shake Hulk out of his rage and remember his humanity and their friendship--just [[InterruptedCooldownHug in time for one of Hulk's allies to kill Rick Jones in front of Hulk]]. That same ally had also caused the destruction of Sakaar in the first place. Hulk became enraged and slayed him, then turned his attention back to his original "foes". The day was "saved" when Iron Man activated a satellite beam that subdued Hulk and turned him back into Bruce Banner. (Jones soon came BackFromTheDead once again.)

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite his hatred for the Illuminati and the contempt he shows towards the rest of Earth's superheroes, Hulk is still saddened to hear about the demise of Captain America. His vengeance is also ''not'' ruthlessly blind: he only fights heroes that fight him rather than trying to start fights with anyone besides his targets, he spares Xavier after understanding his losses and the tragedies he's been through on top of him not being in the Illuminati at the time, and the same for Namor because he had tried to stop the rest of the Illuminati from launching him into space in the first place.

** Dr. Strange had one when he find out that Bruce Banner actually agree with Hulk's revenge.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite his hatred for the Illuminati and the contempt he shows towards the rest of Earth's superheroes, Hulk is still saddened to hear about the demise of Captain America.

[[quoteright:265:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wwhulk-001_8686.png]]
[[caption-width-right:265: HesBack, and guess what? You're all screwed.]]