Planet Hulk

By Greg Pak

Banished to outer space, the Hulk crashes on a treacherous planet where he incites an uprising in this adaptation of the blockbuster graphic novel.

When a rogue general's attack on the Hulk outside Las Vegas ends in deadly tragedy, a group of Earth's heroes known as the Illuminati must make a difficult decision. While scientist Bruce Banner is not a killer, his alter-ego the Hulk is a threat to everyone—including himself. The Illuminati's plan is to trick Banner into boarding a space shuttle to repair a dangerous satellite, only to send him to a peaceful planet where he can harm no one and no one can harm him.

But when Banner learns of their betrayal, he loses control and transforms into the Hulk. In a fit of rage, he sets himself on a new course, crashing into the planet Sakaar where the tyrannical Red King rules through violence and anger. Captured and sold into slavery, Hulk becomes Green Scar, the planet's mightiest and most popular gladiator. But his masters underestimate their new warrior . . .

Forging a pact with his fellow gladiators Miek, Brood, Korg, Hiroim, and Elloe Kaifi, the Hulk sets a foundation for a revolution. It will either improve Sakaar or destroy it—and help Hulk satisfy his hunger for revenge.
Adapted from the graphic novel by Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan and Aaron Lopresti.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: Mar 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9781504092968

Book preview

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Planet Hulk

A Novel of the Marvel Universe

Greg Pak

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover Art by Ladrönn

Stuart Moore, Editor

Design by Jay Bowen with Salena Johnson

MARVEL PUBLISHING

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C.B. Cebulski, Editor in Chief

ISBN: 978-1-5040-9296-8

This edition published in 2024 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com

© 2024 MARVEL

Dedicated to Bill Mantlo.

The monster saved them all.

And in their fear, they betrayed him.

As they always have.

As they always will.

This is the story of the Green Scar.

The Eye of Anger.

The Worldbreaker.

Haarg.

Holku.

Hulk.

And how he finally came home.

PROLOGUE

The puny human opened his eyes and sobbed.

He lay in a crater in the middle of the desert, chest bare, pants shredded. He couldn’t remember a thing. But his muscles tingled, alive and burning.

He knew what had happened.

He’d smashed.

He could still feel the sting on his knuckles, the tight thrum of joy in his heartbeat. It had been glorious and violent and entirely out of control. An image of shattering stone and glass flashed through his brain. A thunderous crash and thrilling, vertiginous disorientation as 20 stories of concrete and steel twisted, swayed, and crumbled—

He gasped for air, sobbing.

He’d toppled buildings. Destroyed a block. Maybe even a city …

Oh, god.

Had he finally killed someone?

A sharp, hissing whine filled the air and he spun, rising to a crouch, as dust and sand swirled around him. A piercing ray of sunlight reflected off a curve of titanium and burned his eyes. And then the thing was upon him with a great roar.

A shuttle descended before him, engines blazing, turning sand to glass as it touched down. Its hatch cracked open and a tall, thin figure shimmered into existence, his long arms impossibly extended, swirling around his body.

This was the age of heroes, when humans and mutants and gods walked the Earth with unbelievable powers. Fantastic, amazing, uncanny, and strange, they had banded together to save the world, time and time again.

A holographic projection of Dr. Reed Richards—the smartest man on the planet, with the ability to stretch his body impossible lengths in all directions—gazed down at the puny human and smiled gently.

Bruce, how are you?

Bruce Banner, his face crumbling, stared up at his old friend.

Reed … What happened? What did—what did I do?

Reed took a breath, composing his face, and Bruce’s heart plummeted into his gut. Reed was brilliant. But he never could hide anything he was thinking.

It’s not your fault, Bruce.

"What the hell are you talking about? What happened?"

A rogue general tried to take you out. Hit you with a gamma MOAB a mile outside of Vegas. You rampaged. Tore into the city, smashed some cars, ripped up some streets. And then he hit you again.

Wait, what?

He bombed Vegas. Three buildings fell. Thirty-seven people died. And two dogs.

Bruce stood in silence, swaying slightly. His head felt light, his skin cold. A great shudder rippled through his entire body. He was going into shock, about to pass out … or worse …

Bruce. Listen to me. Reed’s voice took on a subtle tension. "It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t bring down those buildings. You’re not a murderer. You never have been and never will be."

Bruce turned away and stared out over the desert. Thirty-seven people. He pictured their bodies. Imagined their relatives in the morgue, coming to identify them. Their faces breaking, their terrible grief flowing like blood from an open wound. And two dogs? What kinds of dogs? He closed his eyes, shook his head. Dumb question, didn’t matter … but he imagined a corgi and a medium-sized mutt with gray hair and a big, goofy grin, and tears welled in his eyes. And what about kids? Babies? He opened his mouth but couldn’t form the words. Didn’t matter who pulled the trigger, who dropped the bomb. If he’d never come to their town; if he’d never entered their state; if he’d never existed …

Bruce … Reed’s voice pinged away in the background, quietly but insistently. Something about the shuttle. A crisis. A mission. An artificial intelligence taking over a satellite controlling 10,000 nuclear missiles …

"We need you, Bruce."

Reed’s hologram stepped aside and gestured toward the shuttle door.

You’re the only one with the technical know-how and the brute strength necessary to handle this threat.

Bruce blinked. His brain ran over Reed’s words a thousand times in an instant. But he couldn’t wrap his mind around them. What was Reed offering? Cracking open a door, filling the room with light, with hope? No. Thirty-seven people. Two dogs. Bruce squeezed his eyes shut.

"Bruce. Listen to me. You’re a hero. You always have been. Now get in that shuttle and save the world."

Reed smiled gently. Then his image shimmered and vanished.

Bruce stood alone in the desert, staring at the gleaming shuttle. He felt the hot sun on his back. A hundred miles behind him was Vegas. Mayhem and blood and death and guilt forever and ever.

But cool air from the shuttle’s interior drifted over his face. Screens inside glowed with images and data streams of the threat in the stars. His brain had already begun to manipulate the information, puzzle through the code, find a solution. The door in his mind creaked open. Light filled the room.

Save the world.

Bruce took a shuddering breath. A broken smile trembled on his lips. He stepped inside.

Amadeus Cho, a 16-year-old Korean-American super-genius with a coyote pup tucked into his oversized army jacket, raced down the highway on his Vespa. He screamed into his headphone mic, his heart pounding with righteous fury as he stared at the sky.

Banner! You gotta get out of there, now!

But high in the sky, the sun caught the shuttle’s gleaming hull with one final wink; then the engines fired and the shuttle disappeared, blazing up into the stratosphere. Amadeus screeched to a halt, pulled a small tablet out of his pocket, and began tapping furiously. He focused hard, staring at the code, puzzling through it, and his brain did what his brain did and kicked into high gear like a rocket catching fire. Amadeus grinned.

Inside the shuttle, Bruce blinked, confused, as the boy’s voice crackled out of the hacked comm system.

"Banner! Can you hear me? You gotta Hulk the heck out and rip through the hull right now! It’s all a trick! You’ve got 30 seconds before you hit the exosphere and—"

Amadeus’ voice crackled and broke off.

Reed’s hologram shimmered before Bruce. Three other solemn, shining heroes stood behind Reed—Iron Man, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange. So righteous, so just. But when Reed spoke, his voice was tight and strained.

"I’m sorry, Bruce. I know it’s not your fault. Like I said, you didn’t kill those people in Vegas …"

Bruce’s heart began to pound.

"… but they’re dead nonetheless. Time and time again, your anger and power have endangered innocents. Someday, someone could use you to threaten the entire planet."

Bruce hunched, clenching his fists, feeling the blood surging through his veins and muscles. Amadeus had told him to Hulk out, to let out the monster, to tear this stupid shuttle to pieces. But Amadeus didn’t understand. He’d only met Bruce a year before, just after the Hulk had saved the boy from secret agents in black helicopters in the desert. They’d bonded for an instant—a puny teenager and a green giant whose shared impulse-control issues seemed to terrify everyone else on the planet. Amadeus loved the Hulk, thrilled at his righteous anger. But the boy had no idea what Banner was really capable of … what the Hulk could do if he ever really …

Banner pictured the Hulk tearing through the hull, tumbling through the sky, hitting the sand in a shower of fire and debris. And then grinning darkly and bounding east across the landscape, heading for the stupid, puny heroes in their shining towers. He’d tear them to pieces, rip them out of the sky and smash and smash and smash …

Banner fought his racing heart, fought the anger welling up in every cell in his body. He whispered to himself, scrambling through the countless mantras, prayers, and wards he’d tried over the years, all adding up to little more than one eternal word echoing in a thousand different ways:

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

I have always thought of us as friends, Bruce, Reed continued. So I am truly, genuinely sorry for the trickery. But for your sake and ours, we’re sending you away. It’s the only way we can be sure. I know that you must hate us, but I believe in my heart that this may be the greatest opportunity of your life. We’ve picked your destination carefully. A lush planet, full of vegetation and game, but no intelligent life-forms. There will be no one there to hurt you. And no one you can hurt. You always said you wanted to be left alone. May you finally find peace. Goodbye, Bruce.

But Bruce Banner was gone.

Now there was only the Hulk.

Book One:

EXILE

Chapter one

Hulk stared at the stupid puny humans on their stupid puny screen. They talked and talked and lied and lied and soon he couldn’t hear their thin, buzzing voices over the furious pounding of the blood surging through his veins. But he didn’t need to hear them to hate them. Their floppy mouths opened and shut and their moist eyes blinked and he reveled in the titanic contempt and rage that filled him at the sight. So he roared and smashed through their dumb, glowing faces and tore through the hull of their stupid shuttle.

The icy cold of space burned his face and he welcomed it because it made him madder. And the madder he got, the stronger he got. He felt the shuttle creaking and spinning. Red lights flashed and a panicky computer voice shouted about navigation errors. Good. The stupid humans couldn’t tuck him away on their stupid prison planet. He’d make it back, and when he got his hands on them—

Blazing light hit him and suddenly he was burning. Were they shooting him into the sun? His heart leaped with fierce joy. Yes. Now he was even angrier.

But then the fiery light split open and spun in a great clockwise torque, revealing its dark eye, and the shuttle tumbled into the yawning portal.

Hulk roared in pain and fury as he felt his body stretched and pulled across light-years in an instant.

And then he was tumbling alongside the falling shuttle through pink clouds, sweet air filling his lungs.

Hulk blinked. Giant, pink, tentacled creatures floated around him in the clouds. He bared his teeth, but the nearest alien just raised the tip of a tentacle and gently angled its long, squid-like head at him. For a split second, his heart slowed. Reed had said they were sending him to a peaceful world, with nothing to hurt him …

But then the Hulk crashed into the debris field beneath the portal hovering in the sky over the alien planet. A dozen yellow-shelled, six-limbed, insectivorid humanoids clattered their mandibles and let loose ear-piercing battle screams.

Hulk grinned as their mismatched spears and blades bounced off his hide. Stupid bugs. Just like the humans. Picking a fight they’d never win. He could tear their crummy world in half. They couldn’t stop him. They couldn’t even hurt him.

Then an insectivorid raised a battered blaster. Its rusty muzzle glowed, a shot split the air, and the Hulk felt a searing pain in his hand. Green blood oozed from his knuckles. His eyes widened with shock. Now that he saw his own flesh sliced open, he felt it in his bones. Something had happened to him in that portal. On this planet, he could be cut. He could bleed. He could die.

So he grinned again.

Good.

Angrier.

Governor Denbo of the Imperial Wukar Province of Planet Sakaar stifled a yawn, then stroked the thin, fleshy tendrils dangling from his chin. He stood on a bluff over the debris plain, watching as the huge green alien plowed through the pack of chittering Hiver scavengers. It was late afternoon, the hottest time of day, and the governor was uncomfortably conscious of the sweat trickling down his crimson skin beneath his helmet and armor.

The green creature was one of the biggest aliens he’d seen fall through the Great Portal; it could bring a decent sum at the market. But the governor’s head ached. He was a red-skinned Imperial, a member of the dominant species on the planet. What’s more, he was an oligarch—stuck in the sticks, maybe, but possessing four chin tendrils and the rich, crimson complexion of the best blood. He shouldn’t be sweating like a fool in the field. He should be back in the mansion, soaking with his mistress in his peace pool, sipping chilled egg nectar …

Kill him, he murmured. Kill them all.

Sir … said his lieutenant, and Governor Denbo didn’t even bother to suppress his sigh. Never just a nice, quick yes, sir! around here. Always the sir … with that little pause afterwards. It was his own fault. He was too kind, encouraging discussion, hearing out his subordinates.

"This is first one I’ve seen who could even stand after passing through the portal, said the lieutenant. He might prove valuable … "

The governor pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, trying to focus. He’d noticed the size of the green thing himself, of course. He considered sharply informing the lieutenant of that fact, but then thought of how magnanimous it would be if he didn’t. He listened to me, the lieutenant would say at the bar. He actually listened. The other soldiers would raise their eyebrows, then slowly nod.

The governor smiled.

Heat waves rising from the ground distorted the governor’s view of the monster as it swung its huge fists, knocking a few Hivers into the air. The monster reared up, letting out a deep, rumbling roar that reverberated across the wasteland. The governor felt something shift in the pit of his stomach, and his eyes widened as he recognized the emotion:

Fear.

He blinked. This, at least, was new.

The Hulk snarled as a sharp pain exploded beneath his ear. He pawed at the back of his neck, knocking away a small, silver dart, but the pain ripped like fire through his skin, along his spine and up to his brain. Alien words filled the air; he turned to face the puny red-skinned man walking down the rise in his gold armor and funny plumed helmet. Then the nanobots burrowing into the Hulk’s brain completed their work, and the alien’s words became comprehensible.

—and judging by the comically moronic expression of surprise spreading over your face, I assume the talkbots have reached whatever limited organ you use for cogitation. So hear ye, hear ye. I am Governor Denbo of the Wukar Province, and by order of the Hero Protector and Lord Emperor of Sakaar, all detritus that exits the Great Portal is henceforth designated as Imperial property. Therefore I claim—

This isn’t right! shouted an insectivorid, clicking all four of its claws in agitation. "First pickings to kik first finders! That’s forever been the law!"

The law has changed, Hiver, said the governor.

"But the Red kik King promised! His hunt destroyed our crops, and now the Wildebots are coming. The life of our hive depends on the right to—"

Enough! shouted the governor. Now kneel!

The Hivers stared

Reviews for Planet Hulk

[Acua · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Trapped in a strange world where there is nothing left but to fight to survive and to satisfy the desires of the crowd. (Translated from Spanish)

[GDC · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Betrayals, pain, and revenge, this is what we will find in Planet Hulk. (Translated from Spanish)

[mickyfine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After saving Earth from a cataclysmic attack, Hulk is outraged when he discovers that the superheroes he thought of as his allies have rigged his spaceship to take him to an isolated planet where he'll be unable to attack anyone. Unfortunately, when his ship is pulled off course by a wormhole, Hulk ends up on a planet filled with gladiatorial warring species and a prophecy about an individual who will come to save the planet or destroy it.

This was an interesting read for me as I've never found Hulk to be a particularly compelling character in the films. This story arc, however, is beautifully compiled and it's fun to see Hulk in an alien context and still kicking butt. It was also really interesting to see the original source material for elements of Thor: Ragnorak. While only a few panels really wowed me and most of the art I found meh, the story is worth reading.

[ptdilloway-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It starts like Gladiator and then becomes more like Robin Hood. Then there has to be a lame plot twist to ruin the happy ending to set up the next story line.

[marcush_42 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I haven't followed any storylines in the Marvel Universe for many years and on a whim picked this collection up. I'm very pleased that I did. Some of the more prominent heroes in the Marvel canon decide to remove the Hulk from Earth before his anger can hurt anyone. They trick him onto a ship and rocket him into space. The ship gets sucked into a portal and the Hulk finds himself enslaved and weakened. He becomes a messiah figure to the downtrodden much to his chagrin. The Hulk may find happiness, love, and companionship or he might become a Worldbreaker. It's well worth the money or trip to the library to find out.

[mikemillertime · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An epic science-fiction adventure that truly belongs in the pantheon of all-time great fantasy literature, terrifically spinning all of the classic elements of the genre (love, adventure, destiny, faith, war) into a superb read. I never even really liked the Hulk as a character until I encountered this magnificent work of art - one of the best graphic novels of all time as well.

[schatzi_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I tend to dislike universe-wide crossover events, which is the reason that I'd been avoiding Planet Hulk for a while now. But I decided to take the plunge after reading a "What If" comic involving Planet Hulk, and I was glad that I did.

The Illuminati, tiring of the menace that the Hulk presents to the world and seeing the opportunity to be rid of him, send him off to a planet that is uninhabited by intelligent life. Unfortunately, the Hulk's ship veers off course, and he lands on a world that is much like ancient Rome. Hulk, enslaved by the cruel emperor, is forced to battle for his freedom like a gladiator, and he makes friends along the way.

I've heard that the plot is very similar to the movie The Gladiator. I've never seen the movie, so I can't comment about that, but I can see some similarities between this story and Spartacus' revolt. The art is good, and I like the cast of secondary characters, especially Miek and No-Name.

***there are spoilers below this***

That said, I thought that the story ended very abruptly. Of course, we knew that Hulk would not have a happy ending; that seems to be impossible for any comic book character, especially one such as the Hulk. He finds a woman who accepts him as the Hulk, even his "puny Banner" side, and she has to die. Of course.

But what I don't understand is WHY his wife died. She's able to turn herself into stone; she's survived explosions and fires and being hurled into the air by the Hulk without so much as a scratch, but when it was convenient (or, perhaps, necessary) for her to die, she died in an explosion. It's never explained why she was vulnerable to that explosion when she had survived others. Was the intensity greater? I don't get it.

***end of spoilers***

It's a good story for the most part, but it ultimately left me unsatisfied.

[daedalus18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read World War Hulk first, but had been following the hype for Planet Hulk in the year of its publication. I bit the bullet and coughed up the 35 bucks (35 dollars for a paperback comic?!).

The artwork is really wonderful - and the story is entertaining. Just about everything about the story is derivative and I've seen it dozens of times before - every character, the main and side plots - but still it was a good read (probably because of it, rather than despite it - something of a tribute, while forwarding the difficult-to-expand-upon character of The Hulk).

Not a 35 dollar read, mind you, but a good read.

Highlights for me were the fast moving detailed scenes (Flash Gordon meets Gladiator), and The Spike (not quite zombies, or the techno-organic virus of Warlock fame).

Borrow it and give it a read!