Hulk: Return to Planet Hulk (2018)

Even though this arc wasn’t released under the Totally Awesome Hulk title, it’s still definitely an Amadeus Cho story.  It follows directly from the events at the end of the last volume, and it continues Amadeus’s internal struggle with his Hulk (spoilers for the ending of My Best Friends are Monsters.)

Concerned about his lessening control over the Hulk, Amadeus has sequestered himself in a manned space probe where he can research and experiment far away from anyone who might get hurt.  But while he does keep a wide berth from humans, the self-imposed isolation is short-lived.  Amadeus follows a distress call to the planet Sakaar, a harsh world ruled by the oppressive War Lord.  Bruce Banner’s Hulk was once a gladiator in Sakaar’s brutal arena, and now, the planet’s subjugated clans call on Amadeus to be their champion, battling for their survival and freedom.

The basic set-up for Sakaar and the situation of its peoples is easy enough to understand, but having seen Thor:  Ragnarok gave me a quicker “in” to the world and more immediate interest in the story to follow.  There’s even a fun Ragnarok reference in the middle that made me laugh out loud.

The story has some good points, but it does retread a bit.  The last volume took Amadeus to a pretty vulnerable place in regards to his Hulk and made it look like he was ready to confront some of the darker truths to be found there, but this arc puts him back in denial mode, insistent that he’s in complete control and can access the Hulk’s power without facing up to the scarier side of things.

Still, it does go to some interesting places.  Sakaar is a harsh place, and many of the people there want the monster.  Time and time again, they call on Amadeus to unleash the “world-breaker.”  In the fights set to him by the War Lord, they continually see him as holding back, jeopardizing his chances of victory by refusing to kill.  Considering the fact that all of their lives depend on him beating the War Lord’s champions, this worries them.  At one point, Amadeus is even told that it’s selfish of him to risk their lives for the sake of keeping his hands clean.  Yes, it’s kind of a classic genre-hero conundrum – how do the good guys win when they don’t kill, even though the bad guys do? – but it comes off well, especially when combined with the prospect of Amadeus, the one who always counts on himself to solve any problem, having to give up total control of his mind and body in the process (even if only for a short time.)