That being said, the entire series is ruined in just a couple panels, as one of Hulk’s own Warbound admits being responsible for the ship explosion -- he admits that he saw Hulk’s enemies load the old core reactor, and decided not to tell Hulk since it’s for the greater good (i.e. it would keep Hulk Angry).

It's at that very moment that the Hulk became the fool, blaming everyone when the real culprit was his own “friend”.

Since the reader has become so attached to Hulk’s cause, this makes the reader a fool too… and that’s really the problem here. The Hulk’s a chump, and we’re also chumps for taking his side.

That’s just bad storytelling. The author, Grek Pak, was clearly trying to pull a fast one on us, and he succeeded. Like the terrible last moments of Civil War before it, we're left with a great story that is utterly ruined by a pitiful ending.

I don't necessarily think that the problem is "Hulk's Friend was responsible". Nope. The problem is trying to surprise the reader for the sheer sake of surprise. This wouldn't be an issue at all if the reader knew ahead of time who the real culprit was -- the reader never needs to be as "in the dark" as the main character(s).

It reminds me of the movie Misery, when Kathy Bates freaks out on the author because of a bad story. She compared it to old black + white serial tv shows, where the main character is on a train and we see the train crash... but in the very next episode it shows the main character jumping off at the last second! This is kind of how you feel at the end of World War Hulk -- you feel like the author pulled a Bait and Switch on you... and that's just bad writing.

Final rating: C

(Don't forget to check out our World War Hulk HeroClix Scenario!)