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Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk #1 & #2
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Scott Reed
Artist(s):Miguel Munera, Terry Pallot and Veronica Gandini
Cover: Alex Garner

In our first ever Touring the Cosmos review, we are going to be looking at the first two issues of Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk. This four-issue limited series is written by Scott Reed, and penciled by Miguel Munera. It stars Hiro Kala, the son of Hulk, and follows his journey into The Fault along with his crew from the planet Sakaar.

**Slight spoilers ahead**

You might be asking yourself, “Self, how in the world does the Son of Hulk get the Realm of Kings banner across its cover?” Well the answer to this involves the whole beauty of what Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have created in the Marvel universe. Abnett and Lanning created The Fault, which is a rip in time and space brought on by the aftermath of the War of Kings. It is a portal that leads to a whole unique universe, dubbed the “cancer-verse.” The special part about this is that it is not exclusive to Abnett and Lanning’s characters, and has drawn in Hiro Kala who wants to explore it further in search of the Old Power.

Hiro Kala is a very interesting character. To discuss him briefly, he is the son of the Hulk and Caiera, and the brother to Skaar. He inherited his father’s rage empowering ability, and his mother’s mastery over the Old Power. The Old Power is hard to describe, but in short you may see it as a sort of twisted Power Cosmic. Hiro Kala wants to consume the Old Power and destroy it. He has learned how to fuse it with the Power Cosmic, and in turn has become extremely powerful. Hiro has also tasked himself with ridding the universe of the Old Power, and this leads us to our story.

Issue one begins with Hiro and his crew exploring the fringes of The Fault. The writer, Scott Reed, is constantly putting us into the mind of Hiro Kala, who has a very unique perspective of the universe. Slowly we are learning about Kala and his crew and what their motives are. Hiro is in search of the Old Power, legends of his father, and the whereabouts of his brother. Suddenly Hiro is transported away into another universe, or to be more precise, the sub-atomic world of K’ai, which was once home to the Incredible Hulk. A spell had brought him here, cast by Jarella’s niece.

Jarella is an ex-wife of Hulk’s, who was killed while saving the life of a child. Jarella’s niece on the world of K’ai was in need of the Hulk’s strength, but got Hiro instead. K’ai was under attack by the psyklop, who reveal that they are there to feed the souls of the residents of K’ai to their dark gods. Hiro engages in battle with the psyklop, and unleashes some of his awesome power. While this is happening, we are also introduced to Arcturus Rann, and his small crew aboard the Endeavor. They are residents of the Microverse where K’ai is located, and their ties to Hiro are yet to be revealed.

Hiro begins to make some personal findings throughout this issue, and ends the story with the proclamation, “I am a new monster for a new age.”

Issue two has Hiro Kala being declared the savior of K’ai. Like his father before him, Hiro has defeated a menace that has plagued K’ai. Hiro, although he believes K’ai was not in his destiny, decides to use the deceased of K’ai as pawns in finding the Old Power as well as learn why he was brought to K’ai against his will.

Soon we jump to Arcturus Rann and his crew, which includes Carl the robot, and Princess Mari of Homeworld. They had landed on K’ai, intending to help against the invading psyklop, but realize they are too late. While Arcturus has a seizure, Mari and Carl are attacked by Axeman Bone.

The issue ends with a few pages of Hiro describing to his love Lihla, that the fate that waits for him is not what he wants. He can see into his own future, and it is a dark one. Lihla tries to convince him that what he sees will not come true, but due to his dark nature and bloodline, he believes he is destined for doom.

Now on to what I thought of the books. First of all, I love the covers. Alex Garner really captures the feel of Hiro on the cover of issue one, and does a great job of showing a lot of character in the faces of who he draws. Take a good look and realize how much detail is in the expressions of the characters on both covers. You get a good sense of what they are thinking, especially with Hiro in issue two.

The interior art is phenomenal. I love the use of colors when traveling through space, and each character is drawn with much detail. Sometimes when artists take on a book with a large cast, some characters get drawn more favorably than others. Munera keeps a good balance throughout the book of showing who’s who, and only do the regular civilians of K’ai get some weak showings. The only complaint I have, is that I would have liked to see a better display of Hiro’s powers, in the sense that it should have a bit more of a cosmic look, rather than just green radiation. I mean his powers are a fusion between the Old Power and Power Cosmic, so its gotta be special, right?

As for the flow of the story, I liked issue one a lot more than issue two. Issue two was one of those seven minute reads, whereas issue one contained a lot more depth. I know that issue two tried to show Hiro’s pain over his future or destiny, but it felt a little too abstract almost to the point where I didn’t care for him. Issue one really drew me in to what Hiro was all about, but issue two kind of pushed me away. I enjoyed Axeman Bone, but would like to see a bit more of him. I’m hoping that there will be more of a point to Arcturus Rann and company, because they were a little uninteresting.

Overall, I enjoyed the read. Although my take on the writing may seem that I didn’t like it, I actually was really captivated by both books as a whole story and will definitely finish the series. The art was just right and it really complimented the tone that Reed was displaying.

I have to admit that I am a new reader to Son of Hulk, and only read it for the Realm of Kings integration. Scott Reed has definitely got a good hold of who Hiro Kala is, and after reading the first two issues, I will definitely be checking out any future stories involving Hiro.

Rating: 3.5/5

Mike Parente
mike@comicattack.net