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Skaar - Son of Hulk 1

by Greg Pak, Ron Garney (Illustrator)

3.33 · rating details · 40 ratings · 7 reviews

Born in fire. Raised by monsters. Destined to smash On an alien planet shattered by war, no one is stronger than Skaar, the savage Son of Hulk. But as a Fillian warlord, an Imperial princess, and a mysterious Earthman spread chaos through the wastelands, will Skaar save the puny survivors - or eat them? Another epic fever dream from Greg Pak, writer of Planet Hulk and Wo...more

Hardcover, 192 pages

Published April 8th 2009 by Marvel Comics

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May 01, 2011

Trekscribbler rated it

Having read Greg Pak's thrilling PLANET HULK and (less thrilling but still greatly entertaining) WORLD WAR HULK, I feel very qualified in saying that he's capable of so much more than what he delivers in SKAAR: SON OF HULK. A comparison may not be entirely fair, but, given the 'shared destiny' and obvious relationship between the subject matter, I think it's entirely warranted.

The chief similarity that sets the HULK works and SKAAR apart is the narrative: whereas PLANET HULK and WOR...moreHaving read Greg Pak's thrilling PLANET HULK and (less thrilling but still greatly entertaining) WORLD WAR HULK, I feel very qualified in saying that he's capable of so much more than what he delivers in SKAAR: SON OF HULK. A comparison may not be entirely fair, but, given the 'shared destiny' and obvious relationship between the subject matter, I think it's entirely warranted.

The chief similarity that sets the HULK works and SKAAR apart is the narrative: whereas PLANET HULK and WORLD WAR HULK rely on stories told chronologically, SKAAR does so only about 50% of the time. While the narrative is an admirable attempt to try something different for Pak and his fellow contributors, I didn't find it serving the story favorably in the slightest. Unfortunately -- as we're dealing with a few alien species that bear similarities to one another -- it grows increasingly difficult to identify and recognize them in the flashbacks, which may or may not take place over a period of ten to twenty years (again, it's difficult to determine). So the six part story is broken up repeatedly for flashbacks -- some dealing with Skaar in his youth, some dealing with Old Sam (Skaar's apparent mentor), some with the Axeman (Skaar's nemesis), and some with others -- and, come the conclusion (which I'll touch on in a moment), I found it extremely challenging to understand the who, what, where, when, and (most importantly) "why" of all this stuff.

To be perfectly honest, I can't imagine that author Pak intended for his story to be told this way. Given the ease he demonstrates with the narrative in his work on HULK, I can't believe he would've thought telling the story of the Hulk's offspring would've been greatly accomplished in such a herky-jerky fashion. I have to wonder if he conceived this story before, during, or after the events depicted in PLANET HULK. He clearly creates an impressive world (think THE SAVAGE TALES OF CONAN but on massive steroids!), complete with several cultures and cities and histories, and what author wouldn't want to play to greater creativity in such a place? In fact, his world-building skills displayed in PLANET HULK were what drew me to pick up this volume of SKAAR's origins. I have to wonder whether or not he intended to tell Skaar's beginnings in chronological order, and, perhaps (it's only a theory), the good folks at Marvel said, "No, no, no, that'll take way too long to get to the interesting smash-smash-smash stories of the young behemoth," leaving the author to retool his take on the son of Hulk into a more marketable piece, starting out with the son in his teens and then divulging the related history in flashbacks. As I said, I don't think it serves the narrative very well. It's hard to "care" about these characters when you're still discovering who they are.

And now ... about that conclusion I hinted at? One of my biggest complaints regarding graphic novels or trade paperback collections based on an ongoing title has to do with the fact that, with an ongoing title, you MAY NOT get a complete story when you buy it. It's the ultimate "buyer beware" curse, and SKAAR suffers from it. There isn't a complete story here, and that's a major disappointment, given the already stated problems with the book's start-and-stop narrative. The book ends with no climax but the arrival of another character (a long-time Marvel Comics fan favorite, so, at least, that's a plus). None of the collections major plotlines are resolved. I read an awful lot of graphic novels -- I stopped collecting monthly titles a few years back -- and I've had this problem more with Marvel's lines than I have with any other comic book publisher. Couldn't they at least advertise that it's a part one of two? Since it's an ongoing monthly title, I understand that that may not be the case, but most comic book writers have stated in interviews that they're encouraged to plan these storylines out in 're-publishable' formats, so I don't see what that would be such a bad thing. In this case, the disappointment at reaching no climax only further hurts the book, and I so much wanted to enjoy this one. Outside of the second visit to Pak's wonderfully envisioned universe, there wasn't a whole lot here to love let alone like, but maybe I'll pick up the next collected installment. Or maybe not.

I think Skaar deserved better than a disjointed narrative, and I strongly want to believe that Pak had planned it out that way (not the way it's presented here). The flashbacks hint at something that could've been far more epic in conception and (probable) execution. All I can say, come the last panel, is "better luck next time." (less)

· see review

Jun 21, 2009

Dan rated it

Shelves: 2009, comics

How disappointing, especially considering this is the same writer who handled so well the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk books. The entire story basically feels like a retread of the first half of Planet Hulk, with Skaar traveling across the planet with a small caravan of hangers on. Trouble here is, none of his entourage have nearly as much personality as Hulk's group did. The muddled art doesn't help either when you're trying to differentiate between vaguely similar characters. It's also rare ...more

· see review

Apr 20, 2010

Fizzgig76 rated it

Shelves: graphic-novels-and-trade-paperbacks

Reprints Skaar: Son of Hulk #1-6; Skaar: Son of Hulk Presents--The Savage World of Sakaar, and Hulk Family #1. Skaar fights to survive on Sakaar and battles Axeman Bone while determining if he is the savior the people have been waiting for. Skaar is like a combination of Conan the Barbarian and Hulk and branches directly off of the Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk storyline. The story should be simple, but is made overly complex and the format of the story sometimes hinders the story (the back...more

· see review

Nov 19, 2011

J. rated it

Shelves: books-i-own

This book attempts to really build upon the mythology started in Planet Hulk, and to expand and further explore that world. But it really is just a wreck.

Now there are some cool ideas in here, but the book itself has serious problems. First, the writing style of now - flashback - now - flashback, while an interesting storytelling device, just ends up confusing everything. It's just too unclear and makes me have to read too carefully, so that I keep being taken out of the story to tr...moreThis book attempts to really build upon the mythology started in Planet Hulk, and to expand and further explore that world. But it really is just a wreck.

Now there are some cool ideas in here, but the book itself has serious problems. First, the writing style of now - flashback - now - flashback, while an interesting storytelling device, just ends up confusing everything. It's just too unclear and makes me have to read too carefully, so that I keep being taken out of the story to try and remember where everyone is and fill in the context. This is further exacerbated by the second problem: the art.

It is important, in this book, that we can tell who these characters are. There are a bunch of muscle-y red guys, some normal-sized red guys, and some grey guys. But the various people of each type all look the same. (There's even an ancient, wrinkled old grey guy and a young pre-teen grey guy, but I can't even tell them apart! In fact, ALL of the grey guys look exactly alike.) The only characters I never misidentified were Skaar (he's the green one) and the princess (the one with robotic arms.) In complete honesty, I think the artist is terrible: everything looks like he just sketched it and then stopped, so there's all these extraneous lines and fuzziness everywhere. But THIS book is a particularly bad choice for this style, because we need the little details to be able to tell which character is which, and this artist is completely incapable of that level of detail. To further drive this point home, halfway through we get an interlude with other artists and things suddenly become much clearer for one chapter, since I can actually tell who's who.

The third problem is that the pacing is very stilted. The first half of this book is pretty much nothing but fighting. It makes it a little hard to really care about what's going on. Then the second half has a bunch of stuff happen really fast, and lots of interesting details were given, and then a "to be continued..." But it was really too little, too late, because I had already sort of given up by that point. I finished the book, but the first half had already sort of ruined it.

I loved Planet Hulk, and I've been wanting to follow up the storyline. I avoided World War Hulk because Romita's art drives me crazy, but it has to be better than this, so I think I'll turn my attention back to Earth.(less)

· see review

Oct 13, 2011

Jose R rated it

I think this is one very good book it tells the story of skaar son of hulk.One of my favorite parts is when how he was born.I'm thinking of reading part two of this book.

· see review

Apr 01, 2011

Danny Hogan rated it

Total kaka. Made no sense. Really bad writing, total gibberish. Avoid.

· see review

Oct 26, 2009

BCPL Youth Services Librarian added it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels

link to book in BCPL's catalog

· see review

Jan 31, 2012

Tucker Matheson rated it

Jan 30, 2012

Justin Mathieu rated it

Shelves: comics

Jan 30, 2012

Samuel Oakden marked it as to-read

Jan 01, 2012

Aaron Ewing rated it

Nov 01, 2011

Steve Vingua added it · review of another edition

Oct 28, 2011

Brad rated it

· review of another edition

Oct 14, 2011

Justin rated it

Oct 06, 2011

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Sep 15, 2011

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Aug 12, 2011

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Aug 05, 2011

Squirrely G added it · review of another edition

Sep 17, 2011

Brian rated it

Shelves: marvel-comics

Jul 17, 2011

Todd rated it

Jul 17, 2011

richard rated it

Jul 01, 2011

Gregory rated it

Jun 22, 2011

Pete rated it

Jun 01, 2011

Ben marked it as to-read

Apr 11, 2011

Anne marked it as to-read

Shelves: comics, graphic-novels

Apr 07, 2011

Brian Dickerson rated it

Shelves: marvel, hardcover

Feb 03, 2011

Newborn007 rated it

Jan 22, 2011

Grant Alter rated it

Nov 29, 2010

Raph rated it

Shelves: comics

Nov 11, 2010

Dennis G rated it

Shelves: tpbs-from-the-library

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