It's been so quiet since Civil War ended.  Time for another great big crossover.

Alright, so World War Hulk isn't anywhere near as big as Civil War - and most of its issue count is made up from special miniseries, not regular titles.  But it's still awfully big.

Fortunately, this is not a retread of Civil War, and it has a good year and a half of plot momentum behind it.  For those who haven't been following it, it's quite simple.  A bunch of pro-registration heroes tricked the Hulk into getting aboard a spaceship - and then blasted off the planet.  They intended to dump him on an empty world.  They botched it, and dumped him on a gladiator planet where he got to smash things in an entertaining fashion for most of a year.  Hulk wins, Hulk rules world, but then his capital city gets blown up, and the Hulk thinks it's another plot to kill him.

Hulk and his mates come back to Earth for revenge.  Hulk is angry.  And that's basically the premise.  The big man is righteously annoyed.  He's come to beat the hell out of people.

Greg Pak has been doing some very good work on the Hulk's monthly title.  He managed to make the potentially corny "Planet Hulk" storyline into something more rounded.  His wider track record is more hit and miss - some of his work has been great, others have been clunky video game tie-ins, and as for X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong, the less said the better.

But when he's given a decent concept to work with, Pak can make the most of it.  Fortunately, Pak clearly understands the idea here.  There's just enough moral ambiguity to make the characters interesting.  His Hulk has a fair complaint but hasn't got much of an agenda beyond pummelling people.  His Iron Man, remarkably, is much more convincingly heroic than most other recent takes on the character, perhaps because he's shown as openly accepting the blame for the whole mess.  And he makes good use of the Sentry, as a psychiatrically crippled Superman who has all the other characters walking on eggshells around him.

Fundamentally, though, this is all just a backdrop against which the characters fight for a whole issue.  John Romita Jr is a great artist for visceral power, and he's given plenty of space here to do what he does best.  Lots of fighting.  Lots of action.  Great to look at, and a bit of dramatic weight to it all as well.  The creators clearly understand where the appeal of this series lies, and that's precisely what they intend to deliver.

I have no complaints at all about this.  I suspect it's going to wear a bit thin after fifty issues of crossover, but the core series is off to a great start.

Rating: A

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