This is Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War Alpha part 1. I picked up this book because the cover was gripping: Thor and Hulk are locked in an intense battle against each other. I just had to pick this up. Another enticing detail was that it was written by Donny Cates. This is the guy that wrote Absolute Carnage and Crossover, two comics that I thoroughly enjoy (but by far not the only comics he’s written)! The artist for this comic is Martin Coccolo and the colorist is Matt Wilson.

For those uninitiated, Thor and Hulk are both characters in Marvel comics and they share a surprising detail in common. When they were first introduced, they both had an alter ego. Thor was the alter ego of one Donald Blake, a mild-mannered physician, and Hulk was the alter ego of Bruce Banner, a mild-mannered scientist. While over time this dichotomy continued to exist for Hulk, the same cannot be said for Thor. The human identity of Donald Blake was revealed to be a ploy devised by Odin, Thor’s father, to teach him humility.

Thor’s history continues with him becoming one of the founding members of the Avengers after a plot by Loki, which involved fooling the Hulk into causing a train accident. This led Iron-Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Thor to work together to save the day. The Avengers officially became a team after defeating Loki.

Bruce Banner’s history started with his participation in a military project developing a bomb which utilized high doses of Gamma radiation. On the day of testing, an unwitting teenager stumbled into the test field and Bruce rushed over to save his life. This teenager was Rick Jones, who would go on to be a loyal ally to Bruce and the Hulk. A foreign agent then sabotaged the test to ensure the bomb would go off with Bruce and Rick getting caught in the blast. This blast saturated Bruce with Gamma radiation which allowed him to turn into The Hulk whenever he became angry. The Hulk is the souped-up part of Bruce’s psyche that represents the anger and trauma within him. This was the incident that changed his life forever. His life became a non-stop fight to be left alone, to evade capture by General Thaddeaus “Thunderbolt” Ross, and to control his monstrous alter ego.

There is a lot more history with these two characters individually and with each other. They are often at odds with each other, which you probably picked up if you watched the Avengers movies.

This comic hooked me with the cover, but man, did that cover not prepare me for what was awaiting inside. So, without further ado, let’s get into the comic between the worthiest one of all and the strongest one of all.

Cover of Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War Alpha #1

This comic begins with a narrator setting our expectation that this fight is going to be the fight of the ages. He then tells us how we got to this moment. For Thor, he has recently been crowned King of Asgard, and in this short time he’s faced off against many threats. The latest being the possession of Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer) by an entity called the Mangog which ended with Odin sacrificing himself. In the comics Thor and Odin’s relationship is often strained, but even still the death of his father was a tragic thing for Thor to experience. But…Thor didn’t have to say goodbye too long for Odin’s spirit became a part of Mjolnir. If it wasn’t bad enough dealing with his father as a separate person, Thor’s gotta deal with him in his mind. When Thor got word that Hulk had been found in a land far from Earth, Thor relished the opportunity.

But why would that news make Thor want to fight the Hulk? Before we can answer that, we gotta get up to speed on what’s been going on with Hulk. Bruce has somehow split himself and the Hulk into three distinct parts: Bruce, Hulk, and Hulk’s body, which is now being called “Starship Hulk”. Bruce is the captain of this starship, with Hulk’s consciousness being trapped in the “engine room” where he fights “a series of never-ending and always-growing adversaries.” Hulk’s anger is the fuel that Starship Hulk runs on; “The hotter the engine room burns, the stronger Hulk becomes.” It is unclear how Bruce managed to do this but all we know is that he did and there is a high likelihood magic was involved.

It turns out that Bruce is piloting the Starship Hulk away from Earth. Evidently trying to escape Earth after allegedly killing 17 patrons in a bar in El Paso, Texas. The Avengers are looking to bring him to justice, and Thor is determined to be the one to do it. This is why Thor is excited that Hulk is near and that he’ll finally have something to hit. The rest of the comic is this glorious battle of the millenia.

Let me tell you, if you love ridiculousness, you will be over the moon reading this comic. This comic’s premise is so out there that you don’t know what to expect. That’s the fun of it!

Fine, you want some evidence, here it is.

I mean, that is just funny. Having an adorable childlike aesthetic while describing the fact that this world is full of “disease-plagued, war mongering cannibals” made me chuckle.

Or how about this scene where Bruce and Thor are having discussions inside their own heads with their inner personas. (Oh yeah, Bruce has Betty Ross inside his head, don’t ask me why, I don’t know).

I really enjoyed the fight scenes in this comic. Again, these are just powerhouses wailing at each other and Martin Coccolo does an excellent job at showing the sheer force of these guys’ hits.

Various pages from Banner of War Alpha #1

Again, this comic is a lot of fun.

I enjoyed the art in this comic. Specifically, I like the colors. Colorist Matt Wilson really put a lot of vibrant colors in this comic that make it a very aesthetically pleasing comic to read. The oranges, blues, and greens really stand out to me. My favorite part is when Sif uses the rainbow bridge to bring Hulk and Thor out of Sakk-Reen.

The only potential downside of this comic is that it makes a lot of references to events that happened before it, such as Thor #1-24, Hulk#1-6, both by Donny Cates, and War of the Realms. With that said, if you can just accept that “events have happened to get us here,” then you don’t really need to know all those things.

This comic is part of an event called “Hulk vs Thor.” How events work at Marvel is that they’ll have various different comic series dedicate an issue or two to the event. For this event, the other comics that make up this event are Thor (2020) #25, Hulk (2021) #7, Thor #26, and Hulk #8. You can read this whole event now and I have no doubt that it will be a blast.

Enjoy reading and God bless,

Tailon Russell, co-host of The Comic Panel

If you enjoyed this review, you can listen to more of my opinions alongside my three co-hosts on The Comic Panel on Saturdays 1:30-2:30 AKDT in Fairbanks, Alaska on KSUA 91.5 FM or on The Comic Panel Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Hulk vs Thor - The war of the millennia