SKAAR SON OF HULK

WHO KNEW THE HULK HAD A SON? 

Skaar is the progeny of the Hulk and of Caiera the Oldstrong. As seen in the first issue, the blast that killed Caiera turned her into dust in the Hulk's arms. After her death a cocoon containing Skaar fell into the lake of fire. After a period of time, Skaar emerged from the cocoon, appearing to be the age equivalent of a human preteen. A year later and he appears to have grown into a teenager. He quickly grows into what seems to be an adult after he is attacked by the Bone Axeman's Dragon's flame, which at first looks like an example of his old power.^[5] Skaar defeats the Bone Axemen and his dragon with only a sword and his bare hands. Skaar, after having a confrontation with the princess Omaka, is shown to be able to speak intelligent sentences when the group is going to be attacked by Wildebots and the two form an alliance. After sometime, he gains the power of the Oldstrong with the help of his followers. Soon after, he finds himself allied with the Former King, who was saved from death and rebuilt with a majority of cybernetic parts by the Wildebots. After becoming his ally, many people who considered him a savior, including the Omaka, daughter of the Red King (whom he attempted to kill during his reign, along with the rest of her family so there would be no heir) lose faith in him and ally themselves with Axeman Bone.^[6]

With his Old power, he manages to see the acts of death committed by everyone on the planet and intends to kill Axeman and his followers, and almost succeeds, when the Silver Surfer makes a sudden return and manages to take away his Oldstrong power and reveals that Galactus is coming to the planet to consume it. He offers Skaar the chance to use the Oldstrong power to revive the ancient technology of the Shadows to evacuate the planet, becoming a hero of the universe as the planet Sakaar would have enough energy to satiate Galactus' hunger for a hundred thousand years.^[7]

Throughout the series his mother, Caiera, spoke to him asking him to fight for the good of the people of the planet, but he insisted on revenge, consumed with rage over Axeman Bone^[8] Through one final plea of his mother's spirit, she asked him to give up his rage; he instead proceeds into battle, with no regard for the innocent. Caiera, using the little of her strength left as a spirit, used her Oldstrong power to return in a stone form of herself initially, then in the image of his father.^[9] She proceeded to defeat him with ease and asks why he insisted on being a killer instead of attempting to make peace. He then reveals his plan of killing everyone on the planet he deemed evil after glimpsing the destruction so many people made when he briefly wielded the power of Oldstrong.^[10]

His mother, offering him one last chance of redemption, makes Silver Surfer (still being controlled by an obedience disk) bring Galactus, a being who has killed billions in order to truly grasp if he was able to succeed at his plans, showing him with a vision that the consequences of his actions will result in the death of everyone on the planet by the hands of Galactus. The Surfer then sends him back to Sakaar after believing he sees things his way. Caiera then returns to being one with the planet, believing Skaar has taken up the Silver Surfer on his previous offer of evacuating the planet and returns his old power to him to do so. Skaar then unsuspectingly uses his newly returned old power to destroy the ships, dooming everyone on the planet.^[11] He chose that the planet and his mother's soul was more important than its inhabitants and gave the Surfer an ultimatum, spare Sakaar or he will use his old power to increase Galactus' hunger which would cause him to consume every planet the Surfer managed to save. The Surfer decides to leave, informing everyone on the planet of his actions and how they would be subsequently responsible for the deaths of billions. Caiera returns to him once more and denounces him as her son for his decision and exiles him from the planet, saying she can understand the reasons that the people of Earth wanted to get rid of Hulk. She then absorbs the power of Sakaar and awaited for Galactus to consume her.^[12]

[edit]Arrival to Earth

Skaar arrives on Earth having been exiled with the sole desire to kill his father, the Hulk. He then comes into conflict with the Fantastic Four and other Army personnel. Thought dead in a bombing, Skaar shows that he can revert to his human form, appearing as a five year old child with indistinguishable, human skin color. After running into and attacking the Warbound, Skaar and the Hulk finally come face to face, with Skaar asking how he should kill his father. Kate Waynesboro replies, "You don't."^[13] Skaar then attacks the Hulk, who, for most of the fight, was beating Skaar almost effortlessly, although his strength fluctuated during the battle due to Banner repressing the Hulk's "Green Scar" persona. The fight causes the Earth to shake, creating a fissure which heads toward a nuclear power plant. Kate attempts to prevent this from happening but is not able, due to her lack of mastery of the Oldstrong power. Skaar ultimately intervenes, stopping the eruption and ends his fight with his father, claiming that this isn't the Hulk he wanted to fight and declares Earth as his new home.

Skaar later encounters Bruce Banner, who had been robbed of the ability to become the Hulk by the Red Hulk. Skaar then reiterates his desire to kill the Hulk, but not in Banner's form, since they truly are separate personas. Bruce offers to teach Skaar how to kill the Hulk, should he ever return (which is actually a ruse to 1) try and guide this savagely powerful man into being a hero, imparting fatherly wisdom to him in the guise of training and 2) to keep an eye on him), and proceeds to coerce a fight between Skaar and Juggernaut to help Skaar prepare for this confrontation.^[14] Skaar manages to win his first fight by throwing the Juggernaut into open space, proving to his father he has the ability to use cunningly his physical strength.^[15]

As a second lesson, devised to grant the still naive Skaar the ability to discern friend from foe, and confront his legacy as the scion of the Hulk, Banner uses the recently met Wolverine to bring Daken and Skaar together. After a friendly chat, Skaar apparently asks Daken to kill him, forcing Banner and Wolverine to separate the two with an impromptu Fastball Special. The two fathers proceed to separate their offspring, noting to each other how strange their parenting seems.^[16]

Meanwhile, Victoria Hand and Moonstone (still in Avenger's Ms. Marvel garb) lure Banner and Skaar near an installation seemingly meant to siphon away his Oldstrong power. At first taking Victoria as his hostage, he frees the two women, gleefully acknowledging their real plan: rather than stripping him of his heritage, they wanted to recharge Banner's physiology, accelerating the rebirth of the Hulk. Banner freezes Skaar's childlike glee, noting that Skaar will still need training for his revenge.^[17].

Skaar later assists Bruce Banner and A-Bomb into fighting Harpy. It turns out that the Harpy that attacked them isn't Betty Ross like they originally thought, but Marlo Chandler mutated into the Harpy by Leader.^[18]

Skaar and Bruce Banner later fight Tyrannus and the Mole Man when he and his Moloids invade Manhattan.^[19]

[edit]Fall of the Hulks

After defeating the Moloids, Skaar is proclaimed a hero and they hold a parade in his honor. During the parade, not only does Uatu, the Watcher show up, but Banner sees his supposedly deceased wife in the crowd. Convinced his wife has come back, Bruce teleports to speak to his secret partner the Red Hulk warning him that he better not have had anything to do with his wife's return. The Red Hulk then proceeds to insult Banner, in that he hardly considers him a threat, baiting him and making him angry enough to begin his transformation into the Hulk, but Banner teleports away to Latveria, near Doctor Doom's castle, supposedly to transform in private. In the next scene, the Green Hulk, who seems back in action, smashes into Doom's castle and begins battling the Doctor. The two duel for a bit before Doom finally bests the Hulk with magic. Suddenly, Skaar teleports (using Banner's teleporter) onto the scene and takes on Doom, not to save his father, but to make sure HE is the only one that will finally get to kill him. However, Doom quickly overwhelms him with spells and reverts Skaar back to his 5 year old, non-powered form. Doom then explains that the "Hulk" he was fighting was actually a robot powered with cosmic energy (which Doom consumed to help defeat him and bolster his own power) sent by the Leader and taunts him that his "rescue" and approaching death at Doom's hands was all for nothing. Just before he strikes the final blow, Banner teleports in and saves his son. Doom uses this opportunity to try and kill both his now vulnerable foes, but finds Banner's defensive technology too great. Deciding to use his magic instead, of which they had no defense, Doom begins to succumb to a "poison pill" that was laced into the cosmic energy he absorbed from the Hulk robot, causing him to rapidly lose his much vaunted intelligence and therefore, be unable to remember the spells he would need to kill them much less even remember how to use his armor. At that point, the Leader reactivates the Hulk robot, who carries Doom off. Finally getting to meet his son in his mortal form and mind (Skaar's alter-ego is much like the Hulk's in that it is a distinct alternate personality from his powered form) he tries to connect with him, but Skaar spurns his fathers affection, stating that Banner cares for nothing other than to get his wife back no matter the cost and that Banner set up Skaar to find his teleportation tech to follow him to Latveria, regardless of what might happen to him or what danger he might have been in. He then reiterates his desire to someday kill him, that is whenever he finally transforms back into the Hulk.^[20]

They then go to the aid of the Mighty Avengers that were being attacked by Red-She-Hulk. There he engages her in battle, but she manages to escape with Hank Pym.^[21] He then goes with Banner and his version of the Avengers (consisting of A-Bomb, Korg, Namor, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and himself). While the battle happens Banner and Skaar are attacked by Lyra. However much to Skaar's shock Banner is working with Lyra and shoots her 4 levels up. He asks what's going on, to which Banner replies he used them to save the day and his wife and promises he will get what he wants from him when this is over. Skaar responds that he can smell lies, at which Banner replies "I know." They are then attacked by Red-She-Hulk while Banner releases the captured smart heroes. Skaar is wounded by Red She-Hulk but survives and Banner then defeats her. However since Red Hulk had been used as a power source the Intelligencia plan is successful. Transforming several heroes, soldiers and people in Washington into Hulks. Amadeus Cho, who had been trying to get Betty out of a safe where Talbot left her before transforming, was also transformed. An explosion then occurs and Skaar is launched off the Helicarrier and Banner is defeated bu the "Hulkified" heroes and captured by the Intelligencia. He is aggregated to the captured smart heroes while living in a fantasy world.^[22]

[edit]Powers and abilities

Skaar has powers inherited from both his parents. Like the Hulk, his father, he has superhuman endurance, regenerative abilities, and superhuman strength and durability, which, like his father, increases when he is enraged, although he isn't as strong as the Savage Hulk persona. He also can revert to a human form when calm or otherwise incapacitated. However, in his case, his other form is half-human, half-Oldstrong. From his mother, Caiera, he has the powers of an Oldstrong, emerging from his birth cocoon able to walk and talk within moments, and he can draw power from the planet and harden his body. Because he was born in lava, he is now and forever immune to fire, lava and other intense heat sources. It may be because he has high regenerative abilities, though he does not express pain when in lava.