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The complete story is told in seven parts:
PLOT SUMMARIES ''The New Avengers: Illuminati'' The first seeds of the PLANET HULK storyline are planted in ''The New Avengers: Illuminati'' one-shot (Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Dave Stewart, May, 2006), which details Iron Man 's attempts to form a coalition of heroes to deal with the gravest threats to Earth and it's populace. It is told in three parts, and the second is relavent to Planet Hulk. This act opens with an enraged Hulk battling the Thing in the ruins of Las Vegas. The story cuts to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier where Iron Man is confronted with the casualties of Hulk's latest rampage (26 adults, 2 kids, and a dog) by S.H.I.E.L.D. Commander Hill, who intones that Iron Man himself is at fault for the deaths caused by Hulk because he should have neutralized him, but to this point, has not. Haunted by this insight, Iron Man gathers the remaining Illuminati , and details his plan to have Hulk shot into space to destroy a malfunctioning weapons satellite, and then rocketing him to an uninhabited planet, there to live out his remaining days. Namor objects strongly to this plan, leading to a brawl with Iron Man that Namor is winning when broken up by Dr. Strange . He leaves with the prophetic statement, "Banner will come back from whence you send him and he will kill you all! And he'll be right!" Planet Hulk Prelude: Peace in our Time ''Incredible Hulk'' #88 The next step is in ''Incredible Hulk'' #88 (Daniel Way, Keu Cha, Jason Keith, Jan. 2006). After the events of ''House of M'', Banner makes his way to northern Alaska , hoping to live the solitary life of a fisherman. His only visitor is a man named Mark, who delivers his monthly supplies. On one visit, Mark invites Banner to a bar to see a band in a nearby town, which Banner promptly refuses. After a discussion on solitary life and remembering his humanity, Mark convinces Banner to go. Once there, Banner has a short run in with some bouncers, but soon finds Mark and a female friend inside. She asks Banner to escort her to the ladies room. While waiting, Banner witnesses another woman being attacked by the bouncers. Banner turns into Hulk, and sneaks up on the attackers, throwing one into the side of a truck and picking the other one up by his head. The first bouncer reappears with a shotgun and fires at Hulk, but does more damage to the bouncer Hulk was holding. (It is not implicitly stated, but can be inferred by the bouncer's limp posture that he was killed by the blast.) This engrages The Hulk, who turns over the truck that the bouncer was trying to escape in. With the woman safe and another truck arriving, Hulk leaps away. The next scene is back at Banner's cabin, with him loading all his possessions into an ATV, when Mark arrives. He pulls out a holographic projector which displays an image of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury saying, "We need to talk." ''Incredible Hulk'' #89 ''Incredible Hulk'' #89 (Daniel Way, Keu Cha, William Murai, Jan. 2006) opens with Hulk being slung into space in a small pod. The narrative, mostly in flashback, begins with Banner and Mark disembarking on an oil rig in the Bering Strait , where they encounter Nick Fury. Fury goes on to tell Banner about a HYDRA satellite, launched in the sixties, that would target and detonate a nuclear weapon anywhere in the world. To power itself, the satellite takes in solar radiation, then compresses and stores it at a subatomic level. Also, if it were attacked, it would unleash a preemptive strike. Fury claims than an attack on the satellite in the 80's was the real cause of the Chernobyl incident. Fury's plan is to have Hulk shot into space and wait there until he is found by the satellite. Since he is organic, he will not be considered a threat. At that point, Hulk is to smash the satellite, and he will be sent a shuttle to bring him back. After some initial resistance, Banner agrees. Once shot into space, his pod comes into contact with the satellite, which starts to rip the craft apart. Hulk, emerging from the pod, spots the satellite, and more importantly, the S.H.I.E.L.D. logos painted on it's hull. Hulk realizes that he was lied to. ''Incredible Hulk'' #90 ''Incredible Hulk'' #90 (Daniel Way, Juan Santacruz, William Murai, Feb. 2006) is short and to the point. Hulk goes on a major freak-out when he realized the Fury lied to him, and it was a S.H.I.E.L.D. weapon he is fighting. Hulk battles the weapon, but it eventually overwhelms him with hundreds of metal tentacles and he dissapears. The weapon (now revealed to be code-named "Godseye") realized that it has been attacked, and begins a charge towards firing it's weapons. At this point, Fury activates a team of attack shuttles to engage the Godseye. The weapon begins to behave strangely, and Fury realizes something is amiss. He tries to have the shuttle teams stand down, but it is too late as the Godseye wipes out the ships. This is not something the weapon was programmed for. In the meantime, Banner wakes up on board the Godseye, surrounded by corpses. The S.H.I.E.L.D. techs monitoring the Godseye notice that the weapon has foregone it's subatomic energy source for Gamma Radiation , and Banner encounters a humanoid Robot . ''Incredible Hulk'' #91 ''Incredible Hulk'' #91 (Daniel Way, Juan Santacruz, William Murai, Mar. 2006) is the wrap-up of "Peace In Our Time" and the official kick-off of PLANET HULK. It opens with a fairly convoluted conversation between Fury and the Joint Chiefs Of Staff discussing the Godseye situation. They determine that the Godseye recognized the awesome power of the Gamma Radiation the Hulk carries, and his ability to multiply his power, and tried to take it for it's own. However, the weapon does not possess the "Banner" part of the equasion, which allows Hulk to control his power. So, when pushed hard enough, the Godseye should explode due to uncontrollable overload. On board the satellite, Banner evidentially comes to the same realization while dealing with the Godseye robot. He returns to Hulk form and battles the robot. The robot grows larger as it attempts to replicate Hulk's mutation. The battle carries to the moon where both the robot and the Godseye weapon itself eventually overloads and explodes. A one-man S.H.I.E.L.D. shuttle arrives at the scene to pick up Hulk. Once he is safely aboard, the shuttle leaps into Hyperspace , taking the Hulk by suprise. Planet Hulk Part One: Exile ''Incredible Hulk'' #92 ''Incredible Hulk'' #92 (Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan, Jeffrey Huet, Apr, 2006) is the first chapter of "Planet Hulk". The Hulk is on board a shuttle, listening to a recording made by Reed Richards and the other Illuminati explaining why they tricked him, and why they are sending him away. He tries to escape the shuttle by ripping through it's side, causing the ship to spiral out of control. The ship plummets through a type of wormhole, and it crashes on a planet, later revealed to be the planet Sakaar. Hulk is immediately set upon by it's inhabitants, a humanoid-insect race. Hulk begins to smash like he always does, when he gets shot in the hand, making him realize that he's not as invulnerable as he normally is. He then, of course, completely freaks out. Some red skinned beings, the Sakaarians, show up, and shoot "talkbots" into Hulk's body, allowing him to understand their language. They state that they are representatives of the Emperor, and they claim the ship as salvage. Additionally, they command Hulk to kneel, which he of course ignores, gets shot, and loses consciousness. Hulk awakes, chained to a dias in a marketplace, the property of a slave trader. He attempts to break his chains, but is unable to. A fellow slave, a dark insectoid named Miek, tells Hulk that he is weak because of his trip through "The Great Portal". Hulk and all his fellow slaves are bought by the coordinator of entertainment at the Imperial Arena. Following the Emperor's orders to provide something different, Hulk and the slaves are pitted against a burrowing, multi-tentacled creature called a Devil Corker. After the creature kills many of the slaves, the Corker wraps the Hulk with it's tounge and appears to eat him. Moments later, the Hulk rips his way through the Corker's head, killing the creature. He grabs an axe and dispatches all of the other corkers, saving the slaves. Miek tells Hulk since they survived, the Emperor will pardon them. Hulk then attempts to attack the Emperor, but is blasted out of the air in mid-leap by the Emperor's Lieutenant. Rather than let her continue the fight with Hulk, the Emperor dons his armor and decides to fight Hulk himself. He tosses Hulk a sword, and makes a show of easily dodging and parring each of Hulk's attacks, eventually leaping over Hulk's shoulders and delivering a backhanded slash to Hulk's cheek. The Emperor wipes out two other slaves before Hulk goads him into an attack, which Hulk dodges and imitates the Emperor's earlier attack, slashing his cheek and catching him totally by suprise. Hulk moves in for the kill when he is stopped by the Lieutenant. The Hulk, talking smack, indicates he may just take over this world, to which the Lieutenant responds with a smirk and a "Hmp". Just as they begin to battle Hulk is blasted from behind by a Death's Head guard and is knocked out. The Emperor then commands that the Hulk is to be sent to The Maw. Hulk awakes, locked in a container with Miek and three insectoids as they travel to the Maw, a huge lava creature. With a wicked grin, Hulk says "What are you crying about? This is gonna be fun." ''Incredible Hulk'' #93 ''Incredible Hulk'' #93 (Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan, Jeffrey Huet, May, 2006) opens with a group of rebel Sakaarians discussing how to overthrow the Red King, when one of them tells the group of how Hulk slashed the King at the arena. They resolve to find him. Back at the Maw, the creature is wiping out a regiment of robotic guards, when Hulk busts out of his container. He picks up a large rock and hits the Maw creature right in the face with it. He kills the creature, but lava splashes back on to Hulk's head, searing his hair and burning the left side of his head. (The fact that it does not heal immediately, as seen at other points in the series, is likely due to him being depowered by the Great Portal.) We discover that Hulk is implanted with an "obedience slug", a dark disk implanted on his right pec. It provides a shock when you disobey, and prolonged fighting of the shock will drive you insane. The Hulk and his group of insectoids are told they are at the Emperor's elite gladiator school, and they are about to be put to the test. They are faced with a group of Sakaarians, a shadow, and a rock-man. They are told to fight. When one of the Sakarrians, an elected official, demands to know why he was sent here, he is killed by the trainer, and the rest are told, "Fight or die". Hulk and the Rock-man square off while the others fight. In the middle of this, a swarm of Brood arrive and start killing the combatants as well. All parties start killing whoever they can get their hands on, until the trainer signals an end to the test. Out of the twenty-two combatants that started the test, only seven remain. The trainer declared them a team and sent them to the barracks. The team consists of: Hulk; the insectoid Miek; one Brood sister; Elloe, the daughter of the official and her bodyguard Skee Lavin; an Unbound Shadow Warrior; and the rock-man Korg. The next morning, the team is returned to the Lava pit. Korg and Hulk decide on a strategy when Korg's brother, Margus, climbs from the pit, driven insane by his slug. He is followed by several members of the same race. The team's weapons are useless against the rock creatures, and Korg is so emotionally distraught that he is unable to act. Taking the initiative, Hulk grabs Korg by the arm and smashes him into Margus, shattering him into pebbles. This brings Korg to his senses, then they battle until all the rock-men are destroyed. There are no casualties on the Hulk's team. Later, they are given armor and are declared Gladiators. The group is dispatched before a large audience onboard a pleasure cruiser to battle a group of Wildebots, which are large robots that crush insectoid eggs and destroy farmers crops. As the Wildebots appear, Korg grabs Hulk by the neck and throws him at the pack leader, a bot called "Eggbreaker". Hulk knocks it's head off with a single blow. The rest of the bots fall quickly as well. In the background, the Sakaarian rebels lurk. After the battle, Hulk and his Gladiators are treated to a feast onboard the pleasure cruiser. During the feast, Skee is chosen to "entertain" a group of ladies, much to Elloe's chagrin. As he passes through the door, Hulk catches a glimpse of the Red King's Lieutenant skulking in the shadows. Their eyes meet for just a second. We look in on the Red King and one of his advisors while they attempt to discuss policy. He is contacted by the Lieutenant who tries to tell him that the people are starting to consider the Hulk a hero. The King was declaring his indifference when the pleasure cruiser is attacked by the Sakaar Democratic Insurgency, who attempt to recruit Hulk. TRIVIA
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