What do you think?
Rate this book
Son of Hulk (Collected Editions) #1
Skaar: Son of Hulk
Born in fire. Raised by monsters. Destined to smash! On an alien planet shattered by war, no one is stronger than Skaar, the savage Son of Hulk. But as a Fillian warlord, an Imperial princess, and a mysterious Earthman spread chaos through the wastelands, will Skaar save the puny survivors — or eat them?! Another epic fever dream from Greg Pak, writer of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk — featuring the return of fan-favorite Hulk artist Ron Garney!
192 pages, Hardcover
First published April 8, 2009
4 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Greg Pak
1,647 books579 followersGreg Pak is an award-winning Korean American comic book writer and filmmaker currently writing "Lawful" for BOOM and "Sam Wilson: Captain America" (with Evan Narcisse) for Marvel. Pak wrote the "Princess Who Saved Herself" children's book and the “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel based on the songs of Jonathan Coulton and co-wrote (with Fred Van Lente) the acclaimed “Make Comics Like the Pros” how-to book. Pak's other work includes "Planet Hulk," "Darth Vader," "Mech Cadet Yu," "Ronin Island," "Action Comics," and "Magneto Testament."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 7, 2021
This was such a let down after reading world war hulk and like it starts with so much potential then it loses itself in god knows what it was doing and it drops the ball so hard. It has prophecies and more prophecies and ugh its all over the place. The echoes of Planet Hulk are here too, fabled prophecized man to save the day and ally with the rebel princess Omaka in this case and defeat the evil king, here Axeman bone and with a few tweak to the origin and all, its the same thing, its really bad. And the backup story is so confusing focusing on god knows who, skip this its a laborious and boring read with no direction.
May 19, 2021
2.5 stars. The story story started off decent enough. Plus when I saw the direction Pak was going, I thought it had potential to be good. It ended up being barely average. There was a lot of prophecy this and prophecy that and back story that at times got a little confusing. I mean Pak gave us the awesome Planet Hulk so I figured the follow up with Hulks son would have been good. This book just never found its groove for me. Maybe the next volume will take what little bit of interesting points that were here and build upon them and make for a better book.
October 26, 2023
My first comic in English 😁
A decent sequel to World War Hulk, nothing more.
I enjoyed it more than I expected, despite the negative reviews I had seen. I don't think it's such a bad comic. I've read worse things featuring more famous heroes, like The Avengers.
Considering it's a story about a B-list hero, it's alright.
There are some elements in the comic that I personally don't like so much, especially the part related to the Red King (no spoilers), and the theme is a bit basic. But overall, I find this comic appealing.
Oh! I forgot to mention that a novelty in Skaar: Son of Hulk, compared to its predecessors World War Hulk and Planet Hulk, is that this comic is much bloodier!
A decent sequel to World War Hulk, nothing more.
I enjoyed it more than I expected, despite the negative reviews I had seen. I don't think it's such a bad comic. I've read worse things featuring more famous heroes, like The Avengers.
Considering it's a story about a B-list hero, it's alright.
There are some elements in the comic that I personally don't like so much, especially the part related to the Red King (no spoilers), and the theme is a bit basic. But overall, I find this comic appealing.
Oh! I forgot to mention that a novelty in Skaar: Son of Hulk, compared to its predecessors World War Hulk and Planet Hulk, is that this comic is much bloodier!
May 1, 2011
Having read Greg Pak's thrilling PLANET HULK and (less thrilling but still greatly entertaining) WORLD WAR HULK, I feel very qualified in saying that he's capable of so much more than what he delivers in SKAAR: SON OF HULK. A comparison may not be entirely fair, but, given the 'shared destiny' and obvious relationship between the subject matter, I think it's entirely warranted.
The chief similarity that sets the HULK works and SKAAR apart is the narrative: whereas PLANET HULK and WORLD WAR HULK rely on stories told chronologically, SKAAR does so only about 50% of the time. While the narrative is an admirable attempt to try something different for Pak and his fellow contributors, I didn't find it serving the story favorably in the slightest. Unfortunately -- as we're dealing with a few alien species that bear similarities to one another -- it grows increasingly difficult to identify and recognize them in the flashbacks, which may or may not take place over a period of ten to twenty years (again, it's difficult to determine). So the six part story is broken up repeatedly for flashbacks -- some dealing with Skaar in his youth, some dealing with Old Sam (Skaar's apparent mentor), some with the Axeman (Skaar's nemesis), and some with others -- and, come the conclusion (which I'll touch on in a moment), I found it extremely challenging to understand the who, what, where, when, and (most importantly) "why" of all this stuff.
To be perfectly honest, I can't imagine that author Pak intended for his story to be told this way. Given the ease he demonstrates with the narrative in his work on HULK, I can't believe he would've thought telling the story of the Hulk's offspring would've been greatly accomplished in such a herky-jerky fashion. I have to wonder if he conceived this story before, during, or after the events depicted in PLANET HULK. He clearly creates an impressive world (think THE SAVAGE TALES OF CONAN but on massive steroids!), complete with several cultures and cities and histories, and what author wouldn't want to play to greater creativity in such a place? In fact, his world-building skills displayed in PLANET HULK were what drew me to pick up this volume of SKAAR's origins. I have to wonder whether or not he intended to tell Skaar's beginnings in chronological order, and, perhaps (it's only a theory), the good folks at Marvel said, "No, no, no, that'll take way too long to get to the interesting smash-smash-smash stories of the young behemoth," leaving the author to retool his take on the son of Hulk into a more marketable piece, starting out with the son in his teens and then divulging the related history in flashbacks. As I said, I don't think it serves the narrative very well. It's hard to "care" about these characters when you're still discovering who they are.
And now ... about that conclusion I hinted at? One of my biggest complaints regarding graphic novels or trade paperback collections based on an ongoing title has to do with the fact that, with an ongoing title, you MAY NOT get a complete story when you buy it. It's the ultimate "buyer beware" curse, and SKAAR suffers from it. There isn't a complete story here, and that's a major disappointment, given the already stated problems with the book's start-and-stop narrative. The book ends with no climax but the arrival of another character (a long-time Marvel Comics fan favorite, so, at least, that's a plus). None of the collections major plotlines are resolved. I read an awful lot of graphic novels -- I stopped collecting monthly titles a few years back -- and I've had this problem more with Marvel's lines than I have with any other comic book publisher. Couldn't they at least advertise that it's a part one of two? Since it's an ongoing monthly title, I understand that that may not be the case, but most comic book writers have stated in interviews that they're encouraged to plan these storylines out in 're-publishable' formats, so I don't see what that would be such a bad thing. In this case, the disappointment at reaching no climax only further hurts the book, and I so much wanted to enjoy this one. Outside of the second visit to Pak's wonderfully envisioned universe, there wasn't a whole lot here to love let alone like, but maybe I'll pick up the next collected installment. Or maybe not.
I think Skaar deserved better than a disjointed narrative, and I strongly want to believe that Pak had planned it out that way (not the way it's presented here). The flashbacks hint at something that could've been far more epic in conception and (probable) execution. All I can say, come the last panel, is "better luck next time."
The chief similarity that sets the HULK works and SKAAR apart is the narrative: whereas PLANET HULK and WORLD WAR HULK rely on stories told chronologically, SKAAR does so only about 50% of the time. While the narrative is an admirable attempt to try something different for Pak and his fellow contributors, I didn't find it serving the story favorably in the slightest. Unfortunately -- as we're dealing with a few alien species that bear similarities to one another -- it grows increasingly difficult to identify and recognize them in the flashbacks, which may or may not take place over a period of ten to twenty years (again, it's difficult to determine). So the six part story is broken up repeatedly for flashbacks -- some dealing with Skaar in his youth, some dealing with Old Sam (Skaar's apparent mentor), some with the Axeman (Skaar's nemesis), and some with others -- and, come the conclusion (which I'll touch on in a moment), I found it extremely challenging to understand the who, what, where, when, and (most importantly) "why" of all this stuff.
To be perfectly honest, I can't imagine that author Pak intended for his story to be told this way. Given the ease he demonstrates with the narrative in his work on HULK, I can't believe he would've thought telling the story of the Hulk's offspring would've been greatly accomplished in such a herky-jerky fashion. I have to wonder if he conceived this story before, during, or after the events depicted in PLANET HULK. He clearly creates an impressive world (think THE SAVAGE TALES OF CONAN but on massive steroids!), complete with several cultures and cities and histories, and what author wouldn't want to play to greater creativity in such a place? In fact, his world-building skills displayed in PLANET HULK were what drew me to pick up this volume of SKAAR's origins. I have to wonder whether or not he intended to tell Skaar's beginnings in chronological order, and, perhaps (it's only a theory), the good folks at Marvel said, "No, no, no, that'll take way too long to get to the interesting smash-smash-smash stories of the young behemoth," leaving the author to retool his take on the son of Hulk into a more marketable piece, starting out with the son in his teens and then divulging the related history in flashbacks. As I said, I don't think it serves the narrative very well. It's hard to "care" about these characters when you're still discovering who they are.
And now ... about that conclusion I hinted at? One of my biggest complaints regarding graphic novels or trade paperback collections based on an ongoing title has to do with the fact that, with an ongoing title, you MAY NOT get a complete story when you buy it. It's the ultimate "buyer beware" curse, and SKAAR suffers from it. There isn't a complete story here, and that's a major disappointment, given the already stated problems with the book's start-and-stop narrative. The book ends with no climax but the arrival of another character (a long-time Marvel Comics fan favorite, so, at least, that's a plus). None of the collections major plotlines are resolved. I read an awful lot of graphic novels -- I stopped collecting monthly titles a few years back -- and I've had this problem more with Marvel's lines than I have with any other comic book publisher. Couldn't they at least advertise that it's a part one of two? Since it's an ongoing monthly title, I understand that that may not be the case, but most comic book writers have stated in interviews that they're encouraged to plan these storylines out in 're-publishable' formats, so I don't see what that would be such a bad thing. In this case, the disappointment at reaching no climax only further hurts the book, and I so much wanted to enjoy this one. Outside of the second visit to Pak's wonderfully envisioned universe, there wasn't a whole lot here to love let alone like, but maybe I'll pick up the next collected installment. Or maybe not.
I think Skaar deserved better than a disjointed narrative, and I strongly want to believe that Pak had planned it out that way (not the way it's presented here). The flashbacks hint at something that could've been far more epic in conception and (probable) execution. All I can say, come the last panel, is "better luck next time."
September 1, 2013
I really liked to "Fall Of The Hulks" storyline, and Skaar playing a role in it, I thought maybe I should read up on him and stuff. What better way to do this than by reading this book?
First of all, you should know that Hulk has not only one, but TWO sons. Yep, one that takes after Banner (a tiny kid that can Hulk out), and the other who takes more after Hulk's wife (I forget her name - she has weird powers that are connected to the Planet of Sakaar). There are two concurrent storylines going on in this book: Skaar's own "origin" story and the "Dark Son"'s own story.
The Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk showed us a world very different from our own, with assorted creatures and alien races living on it. The stories in this book happen on the same world, but I found I'd lost patience with it. I just couldn't get myself to care about the characters, the conflicts, etc. Also, I found that Hulk having a son was okay (the Queen was indeed pregnant when she died), but having TWO sons was pushing it. It's as if Greg Pak wnats to milk that alien world for all its worth. The themes explored in "Planet Hulk" - heck, even some of the exact same plot devices - were recycled for this book. And this trend continues in Hulk: Planet Skaar.
First of all, you should know that Hulk has not only one, but TWO sons. Yep, one that takes after Banner (a tiny kid that can Hulk out), and the other who takes more after Hulk's wife (I forget her name - she has weird powers that are connected to the Planet of Sakaar). There are two concurrent storylines going on in this book: Skaar's own "origin" story and the "Dark Son"'s own story.
The Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk showed us a world very different from our own, with assorted creatures and alien races living on it. The stories in this book happen on the same world, but I found I'd lost patience with it. I just couldn't get myself to care about the characters, the conflicts, etc. Also, I found that Hulk having a son was okay (the Queen was indeed pregnant when she died), but having TWO sons was pushing it. It's as if Greg Pak wnats to milk that alien world for all its worth. The themes explored in "Planet Hulk" - heck, even some of the exact same plot devices - were recycled for this book. And this trend continues in Hulk: Planet Skaar.
December 22, 2013
The art is beautiful and this is one few positives. The story line was confusing because of all the flash backs. it kept me engaged because I was waiting for it to start to make sense.
December 13, 2025
Greg Pak returns to Planet Sakaar to reveal the trials and tribulations of Hulk's unknown son, Skar. Conan in form and function, Skar's story is entertaining, sad, but also too straightfoward. So little is shown of who Skar actually is as a person that he becomes hard to identify with or root for. Also to its detriment, Pak's medieval voice for the Sakaarians and their constant appeals to prophecy feels old and repetative after Planet Hulk. Was Hulk the Sakaarson or Silver Surfer? Now it's Skar? Or is it little mysterious slave boy Hiro-Kala? what was once effective tonally in Planet Hulk now feels worn out, overdone, and boring.
June 23, 2024
Huh. I don't remember much and I just read it. Whether Skaar is munching on stuff or stabbing and killing, a group of warriors and slaves follow him, thinking he will be their savior. This is really something you would have to be in the mood for.
July 28, 2023
Disappointed
July 23, 2018
This book attempts to really build upon the mythology started in Planet Hulk, and to expand and further explore that world. But it really is just a wreck.
Now there are some cool ideas in here, but the book itself has serious problems. First, the writing style of now - flashback - now - flashback, while an interesting storytelling device, just ends up confusing everything. It's just too unclear and makes me have to read too carefully, so that I keep being taken out of the story to try and remember where everyone is and fill in the context. This is further exacerbated by the second problem: the art.
It is important, in this book, that we can tell who these characters are. There are a bunch of muscle-y red guys, some normal-sized red guys, and some grey guys. But the various people of each type all look the same. (There's even an ancient, wrinkled old grey guy and a young pre-teen grey guy, but I can't even tell them apart! In fact, ALL of the grey guys look exactly alike.) The only characters I never misidentified were Skaar (he's the green one) and the princess (the one with robotic arms.) In complete honesty, I think the artist is terrible: everything looks like he just sketched it and then stopped, so there's all these extraneous lines and fuzziness everywhere. But THIS book is a particularly bad choice for this style, because we need the little details to be able to tell which character is which, and this artist is completely incapable of that level of detail. To further drive this point home, halfway through we get an interlude with other artists and things suddenly become much clearer for one chapter, since I can actually tell who's who.
The third problem is that the pacing is very stilted. The first half of this book is pretty much nothing but fighting. It makes it a little hard to really care about what's going on. Then the second half has a bunch of stuff happen really fast, and lots of interesting details were given, and then a "to be continued..." But it was really too little, too late, because I had already sort of given up by that point. I finished the book, but the first half had already sort of ruined it.
I loved Planet Hulk, and I've been wanting to follow up the storyline. I avoided World War Hulk because Romita's art drives me crazy, but it has to be better than this, so I think I'll turn my attention back to Earth.
Now there are some cool ideas in here, but the book itself has serious problems. First, the writing style of now - flashback - now - flashback, while an interesting storytelling device, just ends up confusing everything. It's just too unclear and makes me have to read too carefully, so that I keep being taken out of the story to try and remember where everyone is and fill in the context. This is further exacerbated by the second problem: the art.
It is important, in this book, that we can tell who these characters are. There are a bunch of muscle-y red guys, some normal-sized red guys, and some grey guys. But the various people of each type all look the same. (There's even an ancient, wrinkled old grey guy and a young pre-teen grey guy, but I can't even tell them apart! In fact, ALL of the grey guys look exactly alike.) The only characters I never misidentified were Skaar (he's the green one) and the princess (the one with robotic arms.) In complete honesty, I think the artist is terrible: everything looks like he just sketched it and then stopped, so there's all these extraneous lines and fuzziness everywhere. But THIS book is a particularly bad choice for this style, because we need the little details to be able to tell which character is which, and this artist is completely incapable of that level of detail. To further drive this point home, halfway through we get an interlude with other artists and things suddenly become much clearer for one chapter, since I can actually tell who's who.
The third problem is that the pacing is very stilted. The first half of this book is pretty much nothing but fighting. It makes it a little hard to really care about what's going on. Then the second half has a bunch of stuff happen really fast, and lots of interesting details were given, and then a "to be continued..." But it was really too little, too late, because I had already sort of given up by that point. I finished the book, but the first half had already sort of ruined it.
I loved Planet Hulk, and I've been wanting to follow up the storyline. I avoided World War Hulk because Romita's art drives me crazy, but it has to be better than this, so I think I'll turn my attention back to Earth.
June 21, 2009
How disappointing, especially considering this is the same writer who handled so well the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk books. The entire story basically feels like a retread of the first half of Planet Hulk, with Skaar traveling across the planet with a small caravan of hangers on. Trouble here is, none of his entourage have nearly as much personality as Hulk's group did. The muddled art doesn't help either when you're trying to differentiate between vaguely similar characters. It's also rare that a trade suffers from the woes of decompressed storytelling, but it happens here. After the first issues ends, I actually flipped back to ensure I just read 22 pages. Barely anything happened at all in the first issue! If I had been buying it monthly, I would have stopped then and there. Even as a whole, the entire book doesn't really feel like it had a lot happening. Skaar the character doesn't seem to have much, if any, of a personality, unlike his father at this point. The most interesting thing came on the final page, and even then, it's reaching back to Planet Hulk for influence, and is still not enough to make me want to continue.
If anyone other than Greg Pak had been doing this series, it'd be easy to write off and assume the author was just trying to mimic the success of Planet Hulk. In this case, though, it feels like the success of the entire arc caught him off guard and, asked to continue it in a fashion, didn't know where to go.
If anyone other than Greg Pak had been doing this series, it'd be easy to write off and assume the author was just trying to mimic the success of Planet Hulk. In this case, though, it feels like the success of the entire arc caught him off guard and, asked to continue it in a fashion, didn't know where to go.
April 21, 2010
Reprints Skaar: Son of Hulk #1-6; Skaar: Son of Hulk Presents--The Savage World of Sakaar, and Hulk Family #1. Skaar fights to survive on Sakaar and battles Axeman Bone while determining if he is the savior the people have been waiting for. Skaar is like a combination of Conan the Barbarian and Hulk and branches directly off of the Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk storyline. The story should be simple, but is made overly complex and the format of the story sometimes hinders the story (the back-up stories often tell things that you need to know for the main story to make sense). Skaar doesn't have much personality and the supporting cast looks so much alike that it sometimes is difficult to follow.
September 21, 2012
Grrr...me, son of Hulk. Grrr...me smash. Grrr...me run around half-naked. Grrrr...me smash. Grrr...me smash again.
You get the drift. This pretty much sums up this graphic novel. Yes, there are some other characters but quite frankly, they were unremarkable. A lot of violence, smashing, followed by some memories/dialogue to set up the next set of action sequences that involves yet more smashing. So disappointed.
You get the drift. This pretty much sums up this graphic novel. Yes, there are some other characters but quite frankly, they were unremarkable. A lot of violence, smashing, followed by some memories/dialogue to set up the next set of action sequences that involves yet more smashing. So disappointed.
September 22, 2013
So the Hulk and Conan go together and had a boy?
No really, that`s pretty much the impression I got from reading this.
Skaar lives on a barbaric world, uses a sword, or axe, goes around smashing things, and has a mix of the Hulk/Conan persona.
Thing is, growing up, Hulk and Conan were both pretty much my favorite comis, so I actually ended up liking this and the sequel Planet Skaar.
And so, I was entertained.
This was another Goodreads Reader Giveaway from Martin - Thanks Martin.
No really, that`s pretty much the impression I got from reading this.
Skaar lives on a barbaric world, uses a sword, or axe, goes around smashing things, and has a mix of the Hulk/Conan persona.
Thing is, growing up, Hulk and Conan were both pretty much my favorite comis, so I actually ended up liking this and the sequel Planet Skaar.
And so, I was entertained.
This was another Goodreads Reader Giveaway from Martin - Thanks Martin.
April 1, 2011
Total kaka. Made no sense. Really bad writing, total gibberish. Avoid.
October 13, 2011
I think this is one very good book it tells the story of skaar son of hulk.One of my favorite parts is when how he was born.I'm thinking of reading part two of this book.
February 14, 2016
Very disappointing. Very hard to follow the flow of the story and art from panel to panel.
August 4, 2016
This is all around just an okay story. The art is okay, the story is not terrible however a little confusing because of the pacing.
June 27, 2015
Quite a nice comic book from Pak. I will read the next one.
June 15, 2015
It was disappointing how little they fleshed out the titular character. By the time I put the book down I really didn't feel I had a sense of who Skaar was and what drove him.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews