The Totally Awesome Hulk Vol. 2: Civil War II

by Greg Pak

[Quirky Cat]

I think it’s safe to say that volume two is a fair bit heavier than volume one, but with a title like “Civil War II” that really shouldn’t be too surprising. This volume spends time with both Bruce Banner and Armadeus Cho, alternating between the two perspectives. If you haven’t read the Civil War II plotline, you should probably not read this volume or the review (unless you are ok with spoilers, that is). I read Civil War II before I read Totally Awesome Hulk, and I think it is more impactful in that order, so just be aware of that.



Pretty early in the Totally Awesome Hulk series we were told that Cho cured Banner, while taking the Hulk into himself. This volume explores that a bit more – with Banner testing the accuracy of the belief that he’s free, while simultaneously learning to cope with it. Meanwhile Cho is learning to cope with the Hulk, and getting a glimpse at the burden Banner has carried for so very long.
The revelation that Banner was, by all appearances (and multiple tests), free of the Hulk makes everything that happened in Civil War II that much more heartbreaking. I know it’s still up for debate, whether the Hulk is trying gone or not, but he certainly wasn’t present enough to save Banner (unless something else is going on that I am unaware of), so it just breaks your heart a little bit.
I think more could have been done to show you how upset Cho was – they showed us his anger and shock, but there’s so much more to it than that; though the ending with Cho talking with, and in the end comforting Hawkeye was very moving. It was probably the most gut wrenching part (again, because I read Civil War II first, I knew what was going to happen to Banner), and that added a whole new level to the series. I’ll be curious to see where it goes from here.


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