Wanted on Earth for supposedly murdering a bar full of patrons in El Paso, Bruce Banner’s turned Hulk into a starship and piloted it into deep space, never to return - though the Avengers are still after him. So when the grieving, newly-crowned King of Asgard, whose dead dad now inhabits Mjolnir, hears the Starship Hulk is nearby, Thor realises he can do some Avenger-ing and work out his grief at the same time. Is time for Hulk vs Thor - ding ding!
Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War has no right to be as good as it is. It embodies the quintessential superhero cliches of a forced crossover where one infallible character fights another infallible character for no real reason (talking beforehand? Pfft!), with no real stakes or consequences, with no real result - in theory? I should hate this. And yet it’s brilliant.
Like most sequels, Donny Cates does what he did in the first book again: having Hulk battle in ever-more-intense encounters as the story progresses, escalating the tension until it reaches a fever pitch. Why it’s so impressive, and stands out from so many other superhero battles (not least previous Thor/Hulk matchups - a fact that’s referenced too), is the level of intensity it begins at: it starts with Hulk lifting himself through Mjolnir leaving a gaping hole in his chest!
From there, it’s the nuttiest fight ever. Iron Man adapts a Celestial into the most insane Hulk Buster armor and it gets more bonkers in each succeeding chapter. You think Hulk’s reached his zenith of fury but nope - here’s another level of madness! Cates takes full advantage of the fact that he’s writing two of the most powerful Marvel superheroes by crafting the most extreme scenes of devastation. It’s genuinely exciting stuff to read and I loved it.
There’s a flashback that explains what went down in El Paso (so it turns out that you don’t need to have read Al Ewing’s preceding Hulk run after all) which only makes the mystery behind the carnage all the more puzzling and interesting.
The only weak spot in the book is the final chapter. Even without knowing Cates bowed out for that one and Daniel Warren Johnson stepped in, I could tell it was a lesser writer taking over. Suddenly the pacing slowed at a time when it should’ve crescendoed and clunky exposition and overwriting takes over. The ending itself is way too neat as well. The story was over and the characters needed to be reset and it’s executed in the most artless way to do that.
Martin Coccolo’s art was really good. The splash pages stand out beautifully, like Hulk and Thor initially squaring off in a Street Fighter 2-type screen, or the aforementioned extreme scenes of devastation being rendered perfectly. The design for Tony’s Celestial armor was amazing and Odin’s never looked better. Gary Frank’s covers are fantastic too.
The book follows the well-worn path of most superhero vs stories and yet Cates found a way of making the template so much fun to read. Imaginative, exciting, cleverly-structured, and (mostly) superbly written, Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War was shockingly good, considering what it is. If you enjoyed Smashtronaut!, you’ll get the same kick out of this follow-up - what a Hulk series this is turning out to be!
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