History ComicBook / WorldWarHulk

-->'''Doctor Strange:''' (to Tony Stark, referring to the Hulk) He withstood Blackbolt's voice. Do you think your machines can stop him?

* FiveManBand: Hulk and The Warbound:
** TheHero - Hulk
** TheLancer - Hiroim, who doubles up as TheSmartGuy
** TheBigGuy - Korg
** TheChick - Elloe sometimes, Brood
** SixthRanger - Miek
** TagalongKid - Poor Arch-E 5912, who gets killed off-panel in a tie-in issue. He came back to life in ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' though.

** A better example would be when he defeated Doctor Strange (bar none ''the'' top sorcerer in the universe), while Strange was channeling a demon so powerful that Umar herself feared it. (But WorfHadTheFlu; see below)

* DeliberateInjuryGambit: ComicBook/{{X-23}} lets Hulk grab her to bring her close enough to [[EyeScream put out his eyes]] with her foot claws, catching him by surprise and making her [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome one of the few people who actually manages to slow him down]], however briefly. Hulk puts her through a wall for her trouble.

* ThouShaltNotKill: Hulk's rule for himself and his Warbound is that none of them will kill a human (showing themselves to be better than the Illuminati). Beating them to within inches of their lives, however? Perfectly acceptable.

* ThouShaltNotKill: Hulk's rule for himself and his Warbound is that none of them will kill a human (showing themselves to be 'better' than the Illuminati). Beating them to within inches of their lives, however? Perfectly acceptable.

-->'''Bruce Banner / Hulk''':[''Seconds later''] Got you. *breaks Strange's hands*

-->'''Hulk''':[''Seconds later''] Got you. *breaks Strange's hands*

-->'''Bruce Banner / Hulk''':[''Seconds later''] Got you. *Breaks Stranges hands*

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Almost literally; as Hulk is trying to break through [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Sue Storm's]] force field to get at Reed, she pleads with him to stop. Hulk responds, "If I sent a bomb, killed your husband, your children, your whole world...would you '''ever''' stop?!" Sue is so taken aback that she lets down her guard, allowing Hulk to shatter her force field with the next punch, incapacitating her, and beat the living hell out of her husband.

* ArcWords: "May he who dies...die well" and "Never stop making them pay."

* FanNickname: "War to See Who Is The Most Epically Brain Damaged By Running Into the Hulk's Fists Repeatedly"
** And [[http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/6/61170/1170302-world_war_hulk___x_men__002_018_super.jpg the winner is]] [[http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/7604/1046055-world_war_hulk___x_men__002_019_super.jpg Wolverine.]]

* WhamEpisode: Issue #3 was likely ''meant'' to be this; it's the one where Hulk crushes Doctor Strange's hands. Up until this point, Bruce Banner hadn't made an appearance in the story, so the possibility of getting through to him and stopping the Hulk that way was still open. This issue revealed that, perhaps for the first time, Hulk and Banner were in complete agreement, and getting through to Bruce simply was not going to happen.

* GenreBlind: Korg doesn't have any clue on hextraterrestrial tropes. When was the last time you saw someone seriously saying "TakeMeToYourLeader"?

* TokenEvilTeammate:Barring Hiroim and Korg, everyone from Sakaar wants to nuke Earth and kill everybody. In their defense, until the Big Reveal at the end it did seem like Earthmen (specifically the Illuminati) had done the same thing to their home planet, so this is kinda [[JustifiedTrope justified]]. Later played straight with [[spoiler:Miek]], though.

** The Ghost Rider originally shows up to stop Hulk, but (being the Spirit of Vengeance as he is) he claims that Hulk's vengeance is justified and rides away rather than defend the Illuminati.

* OptOut: The Ghost Rider originally shows up to stop Hulk, but (being the Spirit of Vengeance as he is) he claims that Hulk's vengeance is justified and rides away rather than defend the Illuminati.

* PetTheDog: Hulk decides to spare Xavier and the X-Men after seeing what he had been through. He comments he came to put through hell, but he's already going through it.

Hulk then turns the Earth heroes, ''especially'' the Illuminati, into gladiators, to make them feel his struggles and suffering before he was King. He spares Namor, who voted against the decision, and Professor X, who wasn't present (and after seeing the result of 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 the Sentry, who had overcome his SplitPersonality problem just in time to bring the battle to Hulk. The two beat 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]]. Oh, and that same ally had been the one who caused the destruction of Sakaar in the first place. Hulk goes off his rocker and slays him; everyone else would've been dead if not for Iron Man activating a satellite beam that subdued Hulk and turns him back to Bruce Banner. (Jones soon came BackFromTheDead once again.)

* BreakThemByTalking: After Hulk has the X-Men at his mercy, Mercury shows him the Xavier School's cemetery and tells him about all of the innocent children who had been murdered by Stryker and the Purifers in the aftermath of [[HouseOfM the Decimation]], drawing a direct comparison between what the mutants have been through and Hulk's own loss, and helping convince him that Xavier has already suffered enough.

----

Before the Civil War, the Illuminati (a group consisting of IronMan, [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]], Comicbook/DoctorStrange, Prince Namor the {{Sub-Mariner}}, [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} Professor Xavier]] and [[TheInhumans Black Bolt]]) made the decision that [[SelfDemonstrating//TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] was a threat to the world because of his unstable and dangerous mood swings. Instead of killing him, they shot him into space, towards a planet without intelligent life where they hoped he'd find peace.

[[caption-width-right:265: HesBack, and guess what? [[MemeticMutation YOU'RE ALL]] ''[[PrecisionFStrike FUCKED!]]'']]

Before the Civil War, the Illuminati (a group consisting of IronMan, [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]], Comicbook/DoctorStrange, Prince Namor the {{Sub-Mariner}}, [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} Professor Xavier]] and [[TheInhumans Black Bolt]]) made the decision that [[Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] was a threat to the world because of his unstable and dangerous mood swings. Instead of killing him, they shot him into space, towards a planet without intelligent life where they hoped he'd find peace.

Unexpectedly, the ship which brought him to Sakaar exploded, shattering the planet and killing many people, including Hulk's wife and unborn child. Hulk got mad. So he gathered his remaining friends and returned to Earth, hellbent on making the Illuminati pay for what they did to him. At this time Hulk was in a new form, the Green Scar, who retained his mind and whose rage, while at levels it had never touched before, [[TranquilFury was dispassionate and icy cold]]. Already disorganized and estranged by Civil War, the heroes were unable to meet him in force. They were also suffering an enormous loss of popular support, which only increased once Hulk revealed what the Illuminati had done to him. In short, [[MemeticMutation they're all fucked when Hulk gets back]].

Hulk then turns the Earth heroes, ''especially'' the Illuminati, into gladiators, to make them feel his struggles and suffering before he was King. He spares Namor, who voted against the decision, and Professor X, who wasn't present (and after seeing the result of 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 Superman CaptainErsatz The Sentry, who had overcome his SplitPersonality problem just in time to bring the battle to Hulk. The two beat 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]]. Oh, and that same ally had been the one who caused the destruction of Sakaar in the first place. Hulk goes off his rocker and slays him; everyone else would've been fucked if not for IronMan activating a satellite beam that subdued Hulk and turns him back to Bruce Banner. (Jones soon came BackFromTheDead. Again.)

* CurbStompBattle: It's hard to describe what the Hulk did to the X-men in any other terms. Ghost Rider gets one in on Hulk during his tie-in to the story, more or less having a response to everything Hulk throws his way. Eventually he just drives off, figuring Hulk is actually in the ''[[JerkassHasAPoint right]]'' here, resulting in an ''[[OhCrap Oh CRAP]]'' moment for the Illuminati when Dr. Strange points this out to them.

** TheChick - Elloe sometimes, and although Brood fits this one better, [[BrainBleach we don't want to think about that too much....]]
** TheSixthRanger - Miek
** [[TagalongKid The Tagalong Kid]] - Poor Arch-E 5912, who gets killed off-panel in a tie-in issue.
*** He came back to life in ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' though.
* ForeShadowing: Banner tricking Doc Strange into lowering his guard so Hulk could cripple him could be seen as foreshadowing for Bruce's more cold, manipulative behavior after he [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] in ''FallOfTheHulks''.
* FreeFallFight: Hulk vs Iron Man ends up like this, with Hulk trashing Iron Man's Hulkbuster suit while they're in a state of free fall with Stark Tower collapsing around and beneath them.
* GenreBlind: Korg does not have any clue on extraterrestrial tropes. When was the last time you saw someone seriously saying "TakeMeToYourLeader"?
* GenreSavvy: Strange starts off like this, realizing that if they sent the Hulk away again with magic, he'd just smash up wherever they sent him to, and come back angrier and stronger. He promptly loses his savvy from there on out, though. Also, in the Gamma Corps one shot, old joke villain The Clown of the Circus of Crime demonstrates a downright scary(though not [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy dangerous]] ) amount of genre savvy when he correctly deduces [[GeneralRipper General Ryker's]] plan before he even gets a word out.

** Hulk and Banner actually take advantage of the cool down hug by letting Doctor Strange think it's working, tricking him into lowering his guard.
* JerkAss: There is no question that the Hulk's persona takes this turn.
** Miek.

** Hardball, when he realises the power-negating S.P.I.N.Tech dart Iron Man was about to use on Hulk was an empty he substituted when he stole the real one for Hydra.

* OutOfTheInferno: After the X-men crash their jet on top of him. [[ImprovisedWeaponUser He kindly returns it]].

* ShootTheShaggyDog: InterruptedCooldownHug, more irritating than ever, of course.

-->'''Doctor Strange:''' (to Tony Stark, referring to the Hulk) ''He withstood Blackbolt's voice. Do you think your machines can stop him?''

-->'''Hulk:''' (to Tony Stark, referring to the Sentry) ''Stupid humans. You think your machines can stop him?''

* TokenEvilTeammate: With the single exception of Hiroim, everyone from Sakaar wants to nuke Earth and kill everybody. In their defense, until the Big Reveal at the end it did seem like Earthmen (specifically the Illuminati) had done the same thing to their home planet, so this is kinda [[JustifiedTrope justified]]. Later played straight with [[spoiler:Miek]], though.
** Not quite everyone; [[GentleGiant Korg]] wanted to leave after a while, thinking they'd made their point.

* UnstoppableRage: The madder Hulk gets, the stronger he.... aw, fuck it, we're sick of hearing it, too.
** Of course, the birth of the Green Scar persona is implied to have been caused by the Hulk reaching heights of anger he never had before, too.

** One version had it that IronMan's nuclear strike to subdue Hulk ended up wiping out most of the heroes, one of them being [[SecretInvasion Skrull Queen Veranke]] (under the guise of SpiderWoman), causing the Skrulls to view Hulk as some sort of prophet of their upcoming invasion. When SecretInvasion kicks in, even ''more heroes die'', but Hulk wises up and joins the resistance against Skrull... and then it turns out Wasp was being impersonated by the Skrulls rather than Hank Pym, and then plants the human bomb serum to Hank, again, wiping out almost all heroes and humanity... except Hulk. When Silver Surfer visits, Hulk demands that Galactus wipe out the Skrull planet as his vengeance, and after being left all alone again, Galactus promotes him as his Herald.
** Another version had [[TheMightyThor Thor and the Asgard warriors]] join in the brawl, but was interrupted when an innocent civilian pleads them to use their strength not to fight each other, but to help them from peril. While doing that, Hulk was reminded of his old friendship with the fellow heroes, and Miek's treachery was discovered before it could result a great disaster. Sentry came too late as eventually Thor told the heroes to redouble their efforts to win the people's trust, and Hulk went back to Sakaar to rebuild the planet and punish the traitorous Miek. Yeah, they really DID live HappilyEverAfter.
** A third has both Miek and the ''Hulk'' dying instead of Caiera, who goes on such an utter [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge retaliatory attack]] that she actually ''kills'' the Illuminati (except possibly Namor and Prof. X), and takes over the planet, forcing the humans and the other heroes to build a massive statue for the Hulk that takes twenty-one years to construct before using her powers to turn herself permanently to stone. Because of Miek's death in the blast, his treachery is never discovered, meaning that ''Caiera's actions make her an utter monster because while she believed herself justified due to the way life on Sakaar works, the human race is now damned to live as slaves to people who pretty much worshiped a monster that was too dangerous to live on their world.'' She even lampshades it when she is convinced by Hiroim to spare the rest of the world after killing the Illuminati because if she didn't nobody would be left to honor his memory, to which she claims, "They'll wish they were dead".

* WorfHadTheFlu: Doctor Strange lost to the Hulk, even though Strange would have won easily if he'd been going for the kill. In Strange's defense, 1. the last thing he wanted was to kill his friend Bruce; 2. his attempt at a non-lethal solution had backfired and left him too crippled for his usual sorcery; and 3. he was struggling to hold Zom back from murdering everyone. When he let Zom have control he was winning easily, but as soon as he saw that ordinary people were in danger he got distracted and subsequently lost the fight.

** A third has both Miek and the ''Hulk'' dying instead of Caiera, who goes on such an utter [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge retaliatory attack]] that she actually ''kills'' the Illuminati (except possibly Namor and Prof. X), and takes over the planet, forcing the humans and the other heroes to build a massive statue for the Hulk that takes twenty-one years to construct before using her powers to turn herself permanently to stone. Because of Miek's death in the blast, his treachery is never discovered, meaning that ''Caiera's actions make her an utter monster because while she believed herself justified due to the way life on Sakaar works, the human race is now damned to live as slaves to people who pretty much worshiped a monster that was too dangerous to live on their world.'' She even lampshades it when she is convinced by Hiroim to spare the rest of the world after killing the Illuminati because if she didn't nobody would be left to honor his memory, to which she claims, "They'll wish they were dead". To be fair, she's probably right, also features the first appearance by an Adult Skaar, one of the sons of Hulk by Caiera.

* IdiotBall: Everyone! None of the heroes try to exploit the Hulk's weaknesses such as gamma dampeners. Iron Man attacks him with the slower and always weaker Hulk-Buster armor, while Reed tries to reason with him. Yes, talk sense to UnstoppableRage.
** Darwin tries gamma absorption, Prof. X and Emma Frost try psychic attacks, Iron-Man tries neutralizing Hulk's healing factor, Doctor Strange tries to get through to the friendly (or so he mistakenly believes) Bruce Banner locked in Hulk's mind, Reed tries simulating the radiation that the Sentry gives off that calms (and thereby weakens) the Hulk. Hulk just {{No Sell}}s it.