The Fallen #1

Aug 2016
Greg Pak, Mark Bagley

The Fallen #1 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

The Fallen #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
2 months ago it's Bruce Banner's funeral. As angry protesters wish him in hell, his friends gather round the grave. Tony Stark, Dr Strange, Thing and Hercules all reminisce. Ex-wife (and ex-Red She-Hulk) Betty Ross declines to speak, but Rick Jones comments on how many heroes aren't there. And he counters the demonstrators by reminding them of how many times Hulk/Banner was a hero who saved the world. In reply he gets a bottle thrown at his head.

The crowd rush the police cordon, until Silver Surfer uses the Power Cosmic to share his empathy and calm them down. Then he and Dawn Greenwood fly off on his board. Everyone else leaves too except Betty, Rick and the Warbound (Elloe of Sakaar, Korg the Kronan and No-Name of the Brood, Hulk's allies from Planet Hulk and World War Hulk).

Korg says they must seek out the other 4 Hulks. The Warbound will find Hulk's son Skaar. Betty will talk to She-Hulk when she wakes from her coma (from Civil War II #1), and to her father Gen'l Ross/Red Hulk in prison. Rick Jones will find Amadeus Cho/Hulk who reacted badly to Bruce's death and is on the run from SHIELD.

Skip forward to after Hawkeye is acquitted at his trial for Bruce's murder.

Betty Ross visits her jailed father, whose main concern is verifying that Banner really is dead. He's sorry for Bruce and Betty, but he's glad the menace Hulk is gone. And he suspects that Betty has something planned, which she denies.

Skaar is living in the Pyrenees as a trapper named Santos. He returns from the wild to sell some pelts and learns about his father's death and the result of Hawkeye's trial. He goes back to the woods and turns to stone. Which is where the Warbound find him.

They speak to his inert form about Hulk's deeds on Sakaar, and how his unborn son was lost on the destroyed planet but was later reunited with his father on Earth. They finally get through to him and he de-stonifies himself.

Rick Jones is in 1 of Hulk's old bases in the Mojave desert. he's still not found Cho. Betty turns up and discovers him holding a big gun - and correctly deduces he wants to go kill Clint Barton. But she talks him down.

Then Betty, Rick, Skaar and the Warbound are called by Matt Murdock to the reading of Bruce's will. Stephen Strange and Tony Stark are there too. And Murdock has been able to get hold of Amadeus. (Jennifer Walters is still in her coma.)

It's a video will, and after a general farewell telling them not to feel guilty about feeling relief that Hulk is gone Bruce comes to his bequests.

He leaves Tony the solution to a scientific problem that had been nagging him for some time.

Bruce didn't believe in ghosts, but Hulk could see them and talk to them - or things that said they were ghosts. He gives Dr Strange his notes on the subject.

But his main bequest is to Amadeus, Betty, Jen, Rick, Skaar and the Warbound. As well as an equal share in his fairly small estate he gives them all an equal share in the corporation which looks after his patents. Most of the money from that company goes to recompensing victims of Hulk's rampages. But there's still enough on top for a generous regular dividend for each of them.

Amadeus and Jen will manage the company. But he also has some more gifts for the others individually.

For the Warbound he has drawn up plans to recreate their Sakaarian stone starship which the corporation will build if they ever want to leave Earth. Betty gets the documents for a new identity if she needs to escape her wrecked past. And Rick gets Jimi Hendrix' guitar.

Plus each of them gets a kitchen timer. He advises them to use his old method for controlling anger - wait 3 minutes.

Betty takes her timer to sit with She-Hulk and say goodbye to Bruce. Tears run down from Jennifer Walters' eyes too.

The Warbound go with Skaar back to the Pyrenees. The Warbound are content, but Skaar maybe not so much.

Rick Jones plays the guitar.

But Amadeus Cho can't contain his anger and bounds off as Hulk.


 

Review / Commentaries


The Fallen #1 Review by (September 3, 2016)
Also at the funeral are Captain America (Steve Rogers), Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Dr Voodoo, Human Torch, Matt Murdock, Quicksilver, Synapse and Wasp. Noticably Cap has brought most of his Unity Squad with him, although Synapse for instance has never met Banner/Hulk.
There's also a female who is only seen in panels that also include Stark, but it's not Mary Jane Watson (or even Pepper Potts). It's unlikely to be his current womanfriend Amara Perera, especially after Iron Man #12. If it weren't for the fact that she conspicuously stands apart from them I'd think it was Kate Waynesboro, the add-on Earthly member of the Warbound. So I'll bet on Maria Hill, head of SHIELD.

Dawn Greenwood was Silver Surfer's companion in his 2014 series and thereby was 1 of the few people to directly survive the death of the multiverse that led to Secret Wars. She continues to accompany him in his post-SW series.

This is the Warbound's 1st app in the post-SW Marvel Universe. After World War Hulk and their own WWH:Aftersmash mini-series they hung around on Earth, mainly of course in Hulk issues. Korg made more apps than the others as part of the Incredible Hulks team.
Their last group app, including Kate Waynesboro, was Incredible Hulks #623-625 where they joined other Hulks including Skaar to defend the Savage Land from a bug invasion led by their disgraced ex-team-mate Miek. they decided to stay there with Skaar.
No-Name later showed up in Fearless Defenders #8 to help stop villains who were artificially creating Brood aliens.

Skaar then had his own mini-series (not his 1st) as Skaar King of the Savage Land. He then got dragged into the Avengers saga as part of the Dark Avengers, and then became part of the super-teen-group Thin Spandex Line organised by the Young Avengers in their 2012 series.
But it all ended when the Doc Green version of Hulk took his Hulkishness away in Hulk (2014) #7. But obviously his Sakaarian Oldstrong power remains which enables him for instance to turn to stone here.

Doc Green also took away Gen'l Ross' Red Hulk power in Hulk #15, and then he was arrested by the military which is why he's now in prison.
What does Ross suspect Betty of planning? Resurrecting Bruce?

The fact that in the funeral part of this issue Amadeus Cho is stated to be on the run from SHIELD after reacting badly to Banner's death makes it sound like it's after Totally Awesome Hulk #9. But TAH#9 follows the Hawkeye verdict and the blurb at the end of this issue says that issue follows this 1. And even in TAH#9 Amadeus controls his anger so Captain Marvel doesn't need to keep looking for him.


> The Fallen comic book info and issue index

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Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Daredevil
Daredevil

(Matt Murdock)
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clinton Barton)
Hercules
Hercules

(Heracles)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
She-Hulk
She-Hulk

(Jennifer Walters)
Silver Surfer
Silver Surfer

(Norrin Radd)
Thing
Thing

(Ben Grimm)
Plus: Warbound.

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