Skaar Son of Hulk #2 ( Marvel / Pak / Garney / Guice )
“ Whose terrible stride shakes the war-torn wastelands of Sakaar? Whose blind Shadow Priest calls for the blood of babes? Whose barbarian horde rides monsters through your nightmares? Behold and lament, my beautiful son, for the Axeman Cometh!”
This book is dangerously close to going on the “death row” of my pull list. I was very pumped when this book was announced at the end of World War Hulk and waited with bated breath because I lived Pak’s Planet Hulk arc. Plus, there is the addition of Ron Garney whose work I fell in love with over 10 years ago when he worked with Mark Waid on Captain America.
Then the fist issue came out and I was so disappointed that I couldn’t bring myself to review it. The story has very little direction so far and, even after issue two, I’m still trying to see where they are going to take this. We see Skaar physically mature at a hyper accelerated rate to what I can figure would be teen-hulk age, but he is totally primal in this thinking. I’m talking grunting, growling, and screaming primal. No words at all. I can see why Pak is taking this route, but I’m not into books where the main character can’t speak.
But what about the other characters? Surely, they can speak! Yes they can, but there conveying a story that seems like a bad Conan novel. Wait, that’s too good, more like a bad 1980’s barbarian film. Like Yor or The Adventures of Hercules. You’ve got our good guy tribes (with Skaar), and they bad guy tribes lead by a guy with a big axe. Yep, still waiting for some drama…..oh, look more grunting!!
Then to top it off, readers are treated to a back story of the how not everyone on planet Skaar saw the Hulk as a hero. This is interesting, but why not work that into the regular story?
The pencils are still up to par for Ron Garney, but the inks by Guice and colors by Paul Mounts give everything a very rough and unfinished look, and not in a good way.
As for me, I’ll Skaar Son of Hulk until issue #6 to hook me in. If it hasn’t happened by then, you’ll have to do somewhere else to read review of Skaar. But do stop by to see what takes it place in my comic budget.
Grade: D
