Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

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michaelyuri
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Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Post by michaelyuri »

Hulk: Raging Thunder #1
Title: Unbeatable
Writing: Jeff Parker
Drawing: Mitch Breitweiser


Characters Appearing:
Hulk, Thundra
Unnamed daughter of Hulk & Thundra [EDIT: Savage She-Hulk/Lyra]


Synopsis:
1-7: Scenes of the Hulk battling the US military in the Utah desert are intercut with scenes of Thundra's Sisterhood battling an army of men. The military retreats from the Hulk. Thundra defeats the men.

8-9: Thundra announces to a cheering crowd that she will leap through time to challenge the Hulk to battle. She leaps through the chronogate.

10-17: Thundra appears out of nowhere and attacks the Hulk. They battle until the Hulk is temporarily buried under a mountain of rock.

18-19: Thundra tells the Hulk that she has come in search of a man worthy of her. She kisses him and then disappears. Back in her time, it is revealed that the purpose of her visit was to obtain tissue cells from the Hulk with which to impregnate Thundra.

20-22: Thundra's green-skinned daughter battles against the armies of men.


Continuity notes:
Although the events are divided between two different centuries, the first 19 pages occur in a relatively short linear timespan (a few hours). During the initial battle, Thundra is told "Our window for timeline crossover is in three hours"

The story is narrated by Thundra's daughter. Her name is not revealed in the story.

Hulk placement: The Hulk is in the desert canyons of Southern Utah. The first panel of the story bears the caption "Two Centuries Ago," and later the narration refers to "how much had changed in two hundred years," but I think we'll have to read this pretty loosely. A missile fired at the Hulk from a plane is referred to as a "Hulkbuster Cruise Missile." The Hulk appears to be in his classic mode: "Army sent you. Army thinks Hulk will not hit a woman."

Thundra placement: Thundra is referred to alternately as "Matriarch" and Governess." There are a few references to past events. Someone in the crowd asks if Thundra is going to fight "another like the man Ben Grimm." The narration says: "It had been years since Thundra faced the mighty Ben Grimm in battle. . . . Grimm became an ally, and his team came to our time to help us fight one of the male warlords. . . . Deceptions convinced the Fantastic Four that our warring factions were brought together, so they could return home."

Thundra's daughter: The narration of Thundra's encounter with the Hulk concludes by saying "That was twenty years ago." On the bottom of page 19, there is a map of the earth. With the exception of part of the middle East, the entire world is colored red and labeled with the female (Venus) symbol. The Arabian penninsula is colored blue and labeled with the male (Mars) symbol. This is presumably supposed to be the state of the world in the daughter's time because the narration indicates that she has been expanding the borders and recapturing land, although it's placement is a little ambiguous and I suppose the map could be interpreted as on the other side of the twenty year gap.


Other notes:
Only one of Thundra's people, Avela, is referred to by name. I assume she's some sort of scientist, since she's overseeing both the chronogate and the fertilization process.

The second story in this issue is a reprint of FF 133.

Isn't it a little strange that on the same day that Marvel published Skaar: Son of Hulk they also revealed that the Hulk has a second adult child on a distant world that he doesn't know about?
-Mike
Paul Bourcier
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Re: Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Post by Paul Bourcier »

Thanks, Mike.
"It had been years since Thundra faced the mighty Ben Grimm in battle. . . . Grimm became an ally, and his team came to our time to help us fight one of the male warlords. . . . Deceptions convinced the Fantastic Four that our warring factions were brought together, so they could return home."
So this story occurs "years" after FF 133, but what issue involves the warlord, deceptions, and return home? I checked on a couple of possibilities that didn't pan out.
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Re: Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Post by Somebody »

Wait - doesn't Thundra eventually marry Arkon and move to his world? (last shown in JLA/Av #1, IIRC.) How does that fit with this?
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Re: Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Post by michaelyuri »

Paul Bourcier wrote:So this story occurs "years" after FF 133, but what issue involves the warlord, deceptions, and return home? I checked on a couple of possibilities that didn't pan out.
I don't think the deception part was in the original story -- I took it to be retconning away a previous end to the battle of the sexes. Based on the descriptions here: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/femt.htm I thought it might refer either to FF 151-153 or AWC 75, but I don't have either of these.
Somebody wrote:Wait - doesn't Thundra eventually marry Arkon and move to his world? (last shown in JLA/Av #1, IIRC.) How does that fit with this?
If the deception reference is to FF 151-153, maybe this story fits somewhere in the middle of Thundra's chronology, before she marries Arkon and leaves. (And before her death in JLA/Avengers?)

Even if it does fit earlier, this doesn't completely solve the problem since the 20 years later narration by Thundra's daughter suggests that Thundra is still alive and active: "Thundra does not command the sheer raw force she once did, but it is enough to protect the Western Territories."
-Mike
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Re: Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Post by SeanCurtin »

michaelyuri wrote:
Somebody wrote:Wait - doesn't Thundra eventually marry Arkon and move to his world? (last shown in JLA/Av #1, IIRC.) How does that fit with this?
If the deception reference is to FF 151-153, maybe this story fits somewhere in the middle of Thundra's chronology, before she marries Arkon and leaves. (And before her death in JLA/Avengers?)
IIRC, the deaths in JLA/Avengers were undone at the end of the story. Polemachus and Qward were both destroyed in the same sequence of events, and we've seen Qward since then, so it stands to reason that Polemachus was restored as well. That said, it does look like the story ought to take place before her relationship with Arkon.
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Re: Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Post by Col_Fury »

Paul Bourcier wrote:So this story occurs "years" after FF 133
From Thundra's perspective, yes. I just thought I'd throw that out there.
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