Broken Frontier

Greg Pak has been writing the Hulk and Hulk-related stories pretty much non-stop for five and a half years. First on a distant planet, then smashing his way through the entire Marvel Universe, to ultimately expand the Hulk family with a son, a Hulk-ed out former girlfriend and the whole shebang.

Five and a half years worth of stories, and last week the man posted a pic of him sending in his final Hulk script. August’s Incredible Hulks #635 is where he bids farewell to the jade giant, and you bet submitting said script was an emotional moment.

“It was, but in all honesty, it felt good,” Pak tells BF. “I stretched it out as long as I could, just to make sure I was happy with every nuance, and maybe to savor it a bit. I'm definitely going to miss these characters. But when I hammered out the last few pages, it just felt right.”

With the masterplan he started in 2006 coming to a close, Pak decided it was time to step aside and let this be it for him and the Hulk family.

“No one stays on any of these books forever,” he says. “Someday I was going to have to move. And I realized that this huge thematic super-arc I'd been working on for the past five and a half years was coming to a natural climax. A genuine ending can be a rare and special thing in comics. In the end, it felt just felt like the right way to do it, for the story and for the characters.”

Speaking of a genuine ending, Pak of course can’t and won’t spill the beans on how he’ll wrap up his run and set the stage for a new creative team to take over the Hulk. Incredible Hulks #635 will end the ongoing series as well, and it’s a safe bet it’ll be quite the climax.

The writer teases, “The Hulk and his friends and enemies have uncovered a genuine wishing well. So during the course of this storyline, everyone is going to get exactly what he or she always wanted. But the problem with wishing wells, of course, is that they never quite give you exactly what you expected. We're in for some shocking twists and massive emotional repercussions for the Hulk that lead to the final climax of this huge cycle of stories about rage and family that we've been building for half a decade.”

When he first came on board the Hulk with Incredible Hulk #92 in February 2006, Pak had no idea he’d be shaping Bruce Banner’s adventures for as long as he did.

“Back when I started, my job was just to write Planet Hulk. But that was well received enough that I got to stick around for World War Hulk and keep my finger in the Hulk universe with Skaar: Son of Hulk, and eventually come back to a Hulk book proper with Incredible Hulk #601.

“You never know exactly how long you'll be able to stick around in comics, but it became pretty clear fairly early on that I had some room to build some long term themes, and I ran with it. It's been an enormous blast and a great privilege and I'm hugely grateful to all the editors at Marvel who gave me the chance.”

Perhaps that’s also why Planet Hulk (which ran from Incredible Hulk #92-105 is number one on Pak’s list when asked to pick the three arcs he liked writing best.

“Planet Hulk was the most fun I'd had in comics up to that point. Everyone who worked on that storyline felt it was something special and gave it his or her absolute all. It was a total blast.

“The Son of Banner storyline from Incredible Hulk #601-605 comes in second. I'd concentrated almost exclusively on the Hulk in Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. It was great to flip the record and focus almost entirely on Banner. We got to do something very different and very special with this storyline and I had a huge amount of fun doing it.

“Third would be The Spy Who Smashed Me storyline from Incredible Hulks #626-629. I'd been hungry to explore the Hulk/Banner/Red She-Hulk/Betty relationship for years, and this was the big, crazy storyline that let me do it. Putting the Hulk in a tux and sending him on a spy-smashes-spy adventure across Rome was too fun for words.

“And now that I’m at it, my favorite individual issues have to include Incredible Hulk #110 (the Hulk/Amadeus Cho showdown) and #611 (the Skaar/Hulk confrontation). Both were emotional culminations that we'd built towards for months and both delved deep into the essence of who the Hulk is. Our final issue, #635, may have a bit of that kind of vibe. Don't miss it, kids!”

For more on Greg Pak, make sure to stop by the Marvel Comics booth and attend the Marvel Comics panels, as that’s where you’ll hear it announced first which projects he’s working on next.