Rave reviews for “Incredible Hulk” #611

“Incredible Hulk” #611, written by Greg Pak, pencilled by Paul Pelletier, and featuring the much-anticipated showdown between the Hulk and his savage son Skaar, has already nabbed a slew of rave reviews. Here’s a taste:

“Incredible Hulk #611 was about as close to perfect as a Hulk comic can get. It’s got everything I love, great action, powerful emotions and big scope. Pak is quite simply a perfect writer for the Hulk and his work here is nothing short of brilliant on every single page. He and Pelletier make an incredible team that work serious magic.”
Comic Book Revolution
“After two years, I’m ecstatic to have Banner’s King Hulk persona back, one who actually remembers what he lost in his failed quest for vengeance. It makes the rivalry between father and son carry much more meaning than it did during Planet Skaar. But surprisingly, the most emotionally arresting portions of the issue involve Hulk/Banner’s recollections of his father’s abuses. This is hardly a new element of the Hulk mythos, but it’s one Pak mines to excellent effect throughout the script. ”
IGN
“The ending was very touching; it was a very satisfying conclusion to the past few years’ worth of Hulk’s stories. Readers on board from the beginning will walk away pleased as events from Planet Hulk, Son of Hulk, and World War Hulk come to a closure not only for us but also the characters we cherish.”
A Comic Book Blog

BrokenFrontier.com interviews Greg Pak about comics and mythology

Tony Josepf of BrokenFrontier.com has interviewed Greg Pak about comics and mythology (and Hercules and the Amadeus Cho). Here’s an excerpt:

BROKEN FRONTIER: A lot of your comics have a mythological angle, like Incredible Hercules and Planet Hulk. Do you think comic books function as a kind of modern mythology?
GREG PAK: I think that there are some very interesting parallels between these ancient myths and comics. One of the biggest things is that they’re both concerned with the education and development of heroes, and with individuals coming to terms with tremendous power. You know, what are the responsibilities of those who have tremendous power? There are lots of stuff in myths that are really applicable to writing comics. Also, if you look at the Greek tragedies for example, a huge part of that is that the gods do what the gods do and humans suffer. There’s an interesting parallel with the whole notion in comics of super-powered people, people who have powers that rival those of the gods from ancient times. That creates opportunities for stories that deal with those kind of themes, like: what are the limits of powers that an individual person should have? How much power is too much? And what are the consequences of claiming and wielding this kind of tremendous power?

Click here to read the whole thing.

iFanboy.com interviews Pak and Van Lente about Amadeus Cho and “Heroic Age: Prince of Power”

An excerpt:

Matt Adler: Amadeus Cho seems to be a rare character, in that very few new characters have caught on and taken hold in readers’ minds the way he has. Why do you think that is?
Fred Van Lente: I think partly it’s because his creator, Greg Pak, never gave up on him, and found opportunities use him in big events like World War Hulk, where he could get maximum exposure — and WWH led directly to Incredible Hercules, of course.
Greg Pak: Editors Mark Paniccia and Nate Cosby deserve huge credit here. They loved the character from the start and were as eager as I was to engineer his next appearance. And Marvel’s David Gabriel gets a gold star for suggesting the Hercules/Amadeus team up book in the first place.
In terms of the character himself, you can never predict just what readers will pick up on. But Amadeus seemed to fill a certain niche in the Marvel Universe at the time, and by providing such a contrast, he made a great foil for established Marvel characters like Hulk and Herc. We were also incredibly lucky to have the amazing Takeshi Miyazawa do the original character design and have fantastic artists like Gary Frank, Carlo Pagulayan, Leonard Kirk, and all of the Incredible Hercules artists put their spin on him. Reilly’s new design for Amadeus in Prince Of Power is the icing on the cake, growing the kid up a bit while maintaining that irreverence that makes him so fun.

Click here to read the whole thing.