The first thing I noticed about World War Hulk #5 was how terrible the artwork was.  This is perhaps the worst Romita art I've ever seen.  It was sloppy and inexorably sketchy.  Not only was the artwork irritating, but the storyline was abominable too.  The issue opens up with Mr. Fantastic on his way to killing Iron Man (Tony Stark) thanks to the Hulk's obedience disk, and then seemingly without cause, the Hulk deciding to spare them, with Mr. Fantastic's mace hitting the ground beside Tony's head.  So he decides not to kill the Illuminati after all, which was okay, but then why the hell did he give a thumbs down at the end of issue #4? Did he get confused about the signal? Was he planning on laughing at the expressions on their faces?  In any event, when Rick Jones takes this as a sign that he was right and the Hulk wasn't a killer, the Hulk responds by saying that although no one on Earth died at the hands of Warbound or himself, he plans on destroying New York City and leaving the Illuminati to their shame.  Remind me how were the Illuminati wrong again to send the Hulk into space?

And then suddenly, the moment we’ve all been waiting for since issue #1: The Sentry arrives and attacks the Hulk, destroying Madison Square Garden in the process (hey, at least we don't have to see the Knicks play for at least a year).  During the fight, the Earth heroes and the Warbound, who do not want to see anyone else die, try to evacuate the civilians. The Sentry unleashes his full power and the ensuing battle causes both characters to revert back to their human forms. Bruce Banner then defeats Robert Reynolds in combat.  This was infuriating.  For the power of a “million exploding suns” out of control I was expecting something more out of the Sentry.  Back when the Sentry was fighting Genis they were worried that they would destroy the planet, but when he fights the Hulk, and unleashes his full powers they don’t even destroy Manhattan? What’s wrong with this picture?  The Sentry never even used his super speed or half of his other powers during the fight.  I sometimes wonder why superheroes even have super speed at all.  They never seem to use it anyway.

This issue highlights one of the problems I've had with this whole series.  The prologue to World War Hulk had said how dangerous the Illuminati were and that it would take strategy to fight them. What strategy?  This was a smash fest from issue #1 to issue #5.  Granted, that’s that the Hulk is all about, but still.  The Hulk only displayed a little strategy against Strange. Against the rest of the Illuminati he just charged in like he always does. Issue #4 topped it all off with the Strange vs. Hulk fight. The Hulk simply heals and a few punches later, for whatever reason, he wins. Even the Sentry fight followed this vein. The Sentry hit the Hulk hard, but didn’t really cause him any injury or any that lasted anyway.  Now I know this Hulk is much more powerful than the baseline Hulk, but come on.  After issue #2 the fights were so one-sided that it almost became dull. In any piece of fiction a person knows nine out of ten times the protagonist is going to win, but there’s always the suspension of disbelief that he's in danger. There was none of that in this series.  You thought that at least against the Sentry the Hulk would have to use a little strategy.  But the Hulk needed no strategy to defeat a foe who supposedly was so powerful that he could destroy the entire planet.  He just took everything the Sentry could dish out and then hit him back. 

Anyway, after Rob Reynolds collapses, a now calm Banner becomes enraged again when Warbound member Miek, in an attempt to make Banner turn back into the Hulk, lunges at him, but instead impales Rick Jones, who had jumped in the way. Miek reveals he intentionally allowed the mass deaths on Sakaar, which were actually caused by the Red King, and not the Illuminati. Before his demise, the Red King had planted a failsafe within the Hulk's ship, which would cause it to explode if the Hulk ever defeated him. Miek was aware of this, but choose not to tell the Hulk because he wanted to remind the Hulk that he is a warrior, not a peacemaker.

The Hulk and the Brood No-Name then kill Miek in retaliation.  So, let me get this straight,  the Hulk wasn’t willing to kill the people he believed sent him away and blew up Sakaar, because he wasn't a killer, even at his most angry, and then like five minutes later smashes Miek for helping blow up Sakaar?  That doesn’t make much sense.  Anyway, the Hulk is still enraged at the Illuminati, because without them, none of this would ever have happened, and asks them to stop him before he smashes the planet. He starts stomping on the ground, shaking the entire eastern seaboard (wasn’t he just weakened so much by his fight with Sentry that he turned back into Banner?)  Iron Man and the other heroes then use a satellite device that nullifies Gamma Radiation (can someone tell me why we never even heard of this device until now?), which the Hulk has been radiating in large quantities. The device works, and as the Hulk passes out he has a vision of Caeira saying that she'll always be with him. The story ends with the Hulk in jail, having been played like a fool and tricked into attacking the Earth. 

The ending makes me think that the Illuminati were right to send the Hulk away, and totally eliminates any moral justification the Hulk might have had for being upset with them.  Basically, the Hulk launched an attack against people who he thinks destroyed his planet, with really no solid evidence, tortured people who he thought did it even though it would go against their long-held beliefs and patterns of behavior to do such a thing, left who knows how many people homeless, and in the end had no justification for any of it. Oh yeah, he almost destroyed the planet due to his rage afterwards.

In the Epilogue, it is shown that S.H.IE.L.D. has Banner imprisoned in a facility three miles below the earth, with the other Warbound members having been taken into custody. Meanwhile, on Sakaar, a long-haired figure rises out of the Water. It is revealed that the figure is Skaar, the son of the Hulk, who will have his own comic series in 2008.

This issue is the definitive blueprint of how to ruin a perfectly good set up and storyline.  This was by far the worst ending possible to one of the best comic book series I’ve ever read.  And maybe the worst ending to a good comic book series EVER.  Having been hyped and built up for four issues, the Sentry proved to be utterly useless. The story could actually have come to a resolution without him.  Granted, he destroyed the Hulk’s ship, but that could have been achieved by almost anyone else, and without the destruction of most of Manhattan for that matter. 

Although the idea of Sentry destroying Hulk with the power of a million suns would have made more sense than pulling a gamma soaker from literally out of nowhere, if they were going to use the gamma soaker, they should have at least told us about it in the beginning of the series.  If they had it, and it was blocked by the Hulk’s ship, why didn't all the heroes attack the ship in previous issues instead of attacking the Hulk directly?  They could have done a much better job of setting this plot point up and making that into a much better story.