Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound #4
Marvel Comics
Pak, Kirk & Sandoval
Hiroim and Korg fight to the death. The Leader is further pushed by the remaining members of the Warbound. Miek tells Kate about Brood in the backup story. My interest is fading in this mini series. I don’t really understand all that happens in the plot of this issue and I can’t help but feel this whole arc could have been wrapped up in three issues instead of five. I turn my attention towards the Son of Hulk mini series and wonder how those twelve issues will go. Based on how I felt about this five issue mini series I think they may need a bigger boat.
The issue opens with Korg and Hiroim are fighting. Korg is trying not to hurt Hiroim, but Hiroim is trying to force Korg to kill him in order to cancel out the power feeding off Hiroim to power the gamma dome. Heavy stuff. Turns out that Hiroim’s idea and subsequent plan was all wrong. More on that later.
Meanwhile, Brood, Kate and Elloe fight the Leader and his zombies. Apparently he created the gamma dome to get a bunch of test subjects to see how the humans react to the gamma rays. It’s a strange plot.
Elloe and Brood eventually figure out that they were sent to the Leader so that Hiroim could force Korg to kill him. They try to intervene, but it’s not enough as Korg kills Hiroim.
Kate then reveals that Hiroim’s power was keeping the dome intact, but the dome was keeping everyone alive and not killing them. Okay, at this point I am lost in the plot. So with Hiroim dead does the dome go down? Also, how does Kate figure all this out and Hiroim doesn’t? Also, after Kate tells everyone the plot we watch Hiroim stand up, alive and well. This section of the story left me absolutely lost.
The issue ends with the Leader’s Robot death squad ready to attack the Warbound. The backup story is the lowdown on the Brood. It actually doesn’t show much of a weakness and it didn’t show much in the way of interesting information. It was the weakest of the backup stories to date.
So the issue gives a lot of action. The fight between Korg and Hiroim was pretty good. The involvement of the zombies was pretty good too. That’s about it for the positives from my perspective.
The artwork was also good. My only problem with the art was the vast difference in the detailed anatomy for Elloe and Hiroim versus that of Kate and the Leader. One side was so detailed while the other one was just really unpolished to me. The art captured the action really well and the backup story paints a nice picture of Miek and the dungeon he lives in.
The plot feels so half baked. Perhaps the last issue will tie up loose ends, but the overall idea just hasn’t gelled for me. I still haven’t gotten past the fact that no other super powered heroes would show up to stop the Warbound and yet the military would. Add in that the Leader is involved and no capes show up and I am not buying this concept at all. I am starting to think that the Hulk was the glue that held these characters together and that them alone just isn’t enough to hold a good story.
I don’t know what happens to the Warbound now. Maybe they should team up with the Hulk’s son and have him invade Earth. Just a thought. With only one issue left it would be hard to recommend this comic at this point. The trade may be the way to go when it comes out.
2 out of 5 geek goggles.
 World War Hulk Aftersmash Warbound #4 |
