Incredible Hulk: Engine of Destruction was lucky enough to talk to Hulk scribe Greg Pak on his min-series World War Hulk Aftersmash :Warbound. Take a look and be sure to check out www.pakbuzz.com for the latest info on Greg!!

IH:EOD: Warbound follows the adventures of some of the Hulk’s Warbound (Korg, Hiroim, Elloe, and the Brood) from the Planet Hulk/WWH storyline being on the run from the government. Was this mini-series planned since the beginning or did it just naturally come out of the WWH storyline?

GP: By hook or by crook, I’d always planned to tell more stories with the characters. The fact that they’ve gotten their very own miniseries is due entirely to the success of “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” -- so many thanks to all the readers and reviewers and retailers for their support!

IH:EOD: What is the overall goal of the mini-series?

GP: WARNING -- “WORLD WAR HULK” SPOILERS AHEAD!

At the end of “World War Hulk,” the alien gladiators known as the Warbound learned that their battle against the puny humans had been based on a terrible lie. Now, as the puny humans face new horrors under the deadly dome of Gammaworld, the Warbound have a new chance to prove their true nature -- but as heroes... or monsters?

IH:EOD: Are the personalities of the four Warbound how you imagined them in the beginning of the Planet Hulk storyline or did they evolve as you continued to write the stories?

GP: I had definite ideas for the character arcs of each of the Warbound from the very beginning, and for the most part, they’ve stayed right on track. But I’d say the Brood and the Shadow Priest, Hiroim the Oldstrong, have surprised me the most as the epic progressed. There are some shocking developments for Hiroim in particular in “Warbound” #3 and #4.

IH:EOD: Do you have a favorite?

GP: Right now, as I polish “Warbound” #4, I have to say Korg, the stone man from Krona. Major turning points and revelations are coming in this issue that reveal the true depth of everyone’s favorite alien rock man.

IH:EOD: Why the mini origins as back-up stories?

GP: Sometimes purely logistical problems lead to pretty awesome creative developments. Because editor Mark Paniccia and I loved Leonard Kirk’s pencils and inks on the “What If Planet Hulk” book so much, Mark wanted to let him pencil and ink himself the same way on “Warbound.” But that’s clearly a more time consuming process than dividing those chores would be. So devoting a few pages per issue to a backup story that another art team could draw and ink would help keep the book on schedule. The bonus was that the back up stories gave us a great place to delve into the pasts of our heroes and reveal a bit more about the savage world of Sakaar. And penciller Rafa Sandoval has been doing an incredible job with those stories -- I’m happy to announce that he’ll be taking over pencilling duties on “Incredible Hercules,” the book I’m co-writing with Fred Van Lente, starting with issue #116.

IH:EOD: Without giving anything away, where will the Warbound be at the end of the story?

GP: You ask the impossible, my friend! But here are a few big teasers, revealed here for the very first time:

A hero will fall. A red queen will rise. And the Old Power will choose.

What’s it all mean? Keep on reading, my friends, keep reading!

IH:EOD: What is the advantage of writing relatively new characters in the Marvel universe? What are the disadvantages?

GP: The bonus is that the stakes of the story can go sky high. It’s vanishingly rare for a forty-year old marquee, company-owned character to actually die, for his or her story to come to a real end. But with characters as new as the Warbound, absolutely anything can happen. And it will, dear readers, it will!

The disadvantage is that a decades-old marquee character often comes with a built-in audience that can help sustain a book in the direct market. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to build the Warbound up through the pages of “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” and that readers and retailers have given them enough support to make this miniseries possible.

IH:EOD: Do you hope to write more Warbound stories in the future or have them integrated into the Marvel Universe?

GP: I absolutely hope I’ll be able to keep writing about the Warbound. The conclusion of the miniseries sets up two exciting new directions for future stories. I’ll follow one of those paths in an upcoming series and hope to find a place to pursue the second in the near future.

IH:EOD: The Warbound go up against the Leader, who has been alive and dead too many times to count. What made you bring him back as the nemesis?

GP: In “Incredible Hulk” #110, we revealed that teen genius and number one Hulk fan Amadeus Cho had started working on a place called Gammaworld, which he envisioned as a kind of wildlife sanctuary for the Hulk in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Who else but the Leader would have the brains and devious inspiration to take over Gammaworld and turn it into a deadly frontier where his nefarious plans could reach their fruition?

IH:EOD: Are you going to explain how he came back to life?

GP: He showed up alive and kicking in Dan Slott’s “She-Hulk” a few months back. We’ll hint a bit more about his circumstances as the series progresses.

IH:EOD: What makes the Leader a good Hulk villain?

GP: They’re pretty great thematic foils for each other -- the Hulk’s all brawn while the Leader’s all brains. But what makes it even more interesting is that they were both created by gamma radiation, can find no place among the puny humans of Earth, and potentially share certain interests -- it’s intriguing that in his early appearances, the Leader hoped to rope the Hulk in as an ally in conquering the world.

IH:EOD: Any other Hulk or Marvel villains you considered using instead of the Leader?

GP: I had my eye on the Rhino for a while -- it’s an often-forgotten fact that he’s been gamma-irradiated himself. But he was already spoken for around the time I was outlining the story. Some day...

IH:EOD: How has it been working with Leonard Kirk. He worked on the What-If issue plus a couple fill in issues of the Hulk and then got pulled to do the Warbound mini.

GP: Leonard is fantastic. We’ve worked together often enough now that I can be pretty skimpy regarding page layout descriptions in the script -- I just tell the story and he totally gets the point of every scene and nails it every time. I really enjoy the way he draws the incidental characters as well -- he makes you care about the regular people who have been sucked into this crazy world, which helps make the book’s emotional impact come through.

IH:EOD: Kate Waynesboro. We have not seen her in a long, long time. She was referenced in an earlier comic and now you actually have her in the storyline. What made you bring her back?

GP: For some reason, I always really, really liked Kate Waynesboro. Maybe it’s because I’m such a Bill Mantlo fan, and she played a key role in his “Hulk” run. She’s also a great, morally conflicted character who was originally sent to spy on Bruce Banner, then fell in love with him. She’s the perfect person to toss in with the Warbound, each of whom have their own moral ambiguities and conflicts to deal with.

Incidentally, fans of Bill Mantlo might take an interest in “Mantlo: A Life in Comics,” a great book edited by David Yurkovich and filled with stories and anecdotes from Mantlo’s collaborators. Mantlo suffered head trauma in the early 1990s after being hit by a car -- proceeds from the book’s sale go towards Mantlo’s ongoing care. You can learn more and order the book online here: http://www.sleepinggiantcreations.com/comics-ogns/mantlo/sgc-mantlo-main.html

IH:EOD: Any other classic Hulk characters you would like to bring back?

GP: I’m a sucker for the Defenders -- even beyond the big four. How awesome would a Hulk/Valkyrie team up be? Or a Hulk/Hellcat oneshot?

IH:EOD: What all are you working on right now for comics?

GP: I’m writing “Skaar: Son of Hulk,” which debuts in the spring and which will be AWESOME. Along with the brilliant Fred Van Lente, I’m co-writing “Incredible Hercules,” which has been getting great reviews while exploring themes that Hulk fans in particular might enjoy. Fred and I are also writing a giant Hulk/Hercules one-shot that hits in April -- “Hulk Versus Hercules: When Titans Clash.” It will, indeed, be titantic and clash-o-riffic.

I’m also delving into creator-owned work with a few projects that I should be announcing pretty soon -- the latest news, as always, can be found at www.pakbuzz.com .

IH:EOD: Any non-comic projects are you working on?

GP: Nothing I can announce just yet. Oh, wait, there is the “Pak Talks Comics” column I’m writing for BrokenFrontier.com. Although that’s comics-related, isn’t it? At any rate, the neat twist is that it features Reader Q&A -- so if anyone has a question we haven’t answered today, feel free to use using the handy question submission form at http://www.pakbuzz.com/ptc-submission.shtml and check back at BrokenFrontier.com for answers.