Warbound

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caption=The Warbound:Korg rear left, No Name rear right,
Kate middle left,Hiromi middle right,
Elloe Kaifi front center.
Art by Jim Cheung.
team_name=The Warbound
debut=The Incredible Hulk #94
creators=Greg Pak (writer)
Carlo Pagulayan (artist)
base=Sakaar Stoneship
members=Hulk (fighting Red Hulk)
No-Name
Caiera (deceased)
Elloe Kaifi
Hiroim (deceased)
Korg
Kate Waynesboro
Lavin Skee (deceased)
Miek (imprisoned)
Arch-E-5912
Mung (deceased)
subcat=
hero=
villain=
sortkey=Warbound

The Warbound is a group of fictional characters in the Marvel Universe. They first joined forces in "The Incredible Hulk" vol. 3, #94, as a combination of new and existing characters, the former created by Greg Pak and Carlo Pagulayan.

History

Planet Hulk

Arriving on the Planet Sakaar in a weakened state (due to the effects of traversing the 'Great Portal'), Hulk was subsequently implanted with an obedience disk. He was thereafter forced to fight in the Great Arena as a gladiator, where the Red King intervened and scarred the Hulk's face (earning his gladiatorial moniker 'Green Scar') and the Hulk did the same to the monarch, gaining an enemy in the person of the Emperor himself. After the initial events in the Arena, the Hulk was put through the gladiatorial tests of the trainer and himself former gladiator Primus Vand, where he met Korg, Miek, the Unhived, the Brood, Hiroim the Shamed, Elloe Kaifi and her bodyguard Lavin Skee. This ragtag group of outcasts and undesirables became Warbound early on in their time as enslaved entertainment following the death of Lavin Skee, pledging allegiance only to each other, which Miek called 'friends fighting for friends'.

After the Emperor of Sakaar, the Red King, tries to kill them numerous times, the Warbound escaped after the enslaved Silver Surfer was pitted against them in the Great Arena, where the Hulk shattered his one-time ally's obedience disk. Once freed, the Silver Surfer used his returning Power Cosmic to destroy the obedience disks of all present at the arena, allowing the Warbound and many slaves to escape into the Twisted Wood of Sakaar before he himself departed. After a protracted rebellion against the genocidal Red King, the Warbound, the Imperial rebels and the Natives of Sakaar toppled the regime in Crown City with the death of the Red King, placing an initially unwilling Hulk on the throne as the Green King; Korg had concluded that only the Hulk had the strength to hold the many different peoples of the world together.

However, just as everything seems to be going well, the shuttle which originally brought the Hulk to Sakaar malfunctions, causing its warp-core to detonate; the Hulk's wife Caiera, their unborn child, and countless magnitudes of Sakaar's inhabitants died almost immediately. Having pledged to stand and fight side-by-side until the end, the Warbound went with Hulk into the Stoneship (once belonging to the Shadow People), heading straight for Earth to take his revenge on the Illuminati who conspired to blast him into space in the first place, all of which leads to the events of "World War Hulk".

World War Hulk

When Hulk returned to Earth, the Warbound helped to defeat some of the heroes, bringing them to Madison Square Gardens to witness the defeat of the Illuminati. However, when the final battle between the Hulk and the Sentry began to cause serious damage, the Warbound collaborated with the heroes to help the civilians evacuate, the Warbound being unwilling to witness another world die. Miek's treachery of genocidal negligence was then revealed, as he had merely observed and done nothing while loyalist followers of the Red King plant bombs which will trigger the destruction of Sakaar. He had not intervened because he believed that it was necessary to 'remind' the Hulk that he was a killer instead of a peacemaker. The Hulk and No-Name the Brood Queen nearly kill him upon learning of this, and the surviving Warbound subsequently surrender to the government with the Hulk's defeat. They are held in custody by S.H.I.E.L.D but subsequently escaped after Hiroim (with help from Korg and the Thing) prevented Manhattan from breaking in two. ["World War Hulk #5"] ["World War Hulk: Aftersmash"]

Aftersmash: Warbound

The Warbound feature in their own miniseries, entitled "World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound", in which the Warbound evade S.H.I.E.L.D. capture only to be teleported to New Mexico by the Leader, who used Hiroim's tectonic power to activate a Gamma-powered shield, over a large portion of the desert. They are being chased by S.H.I.E.L.D using information given by an incapacitated and incarcerated Miek to Deputy Director Maria Hill. Trapped inside Gammaworld, the Warbound join forces with a local US Army company to save a nearby town from irradiated (and thus huge) insects, and begin to feel the effects of the gamma radiation themselves. Using Hiriom's Oldstrong power, the group manages to dispel some of the radiation, opening a gap in the Gammaworld dome for the civilians to escape through, but are interrupted by the arrival of a huge, gamma-powered gestalt being composed of numerous townsfolk and a dog fused together by the radiation. The creature, known as Horde, attempts to destroy everyone who tries to leave, but is fended off by Kate Waynesboro, and as the Warbound attacks the Leader, Hiroim tells Korg to kill him in order to destroy the dome. Korg shatters Hiroim and the dome dissipates; however Hiroim reforms, as does the dome. The group are then attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D. sentry robots, which have been placed under the Leader's control. In the ensuing battle, Elloe stabs the Leader in the chest. The Leader then absorbs the Dome's power, turning into a gray skinned giant. Hiroim stops him, killing himself in the process. Before dying he passes on his old power to Kate, who protects the remaining people from an attacking monster. The Warbound haven't been seen since this point and there is no publicly revealed plans to keep their story going.

Team Skills

The Warbound are a formidable fighting force, having been forged by the necessity of survival into a coordinated team to fight in gladiator games - albeit a patchwork of mismatched monsters. With the internal guidance of the 'Shadows', Caiera and Hiroim, and the Kronan, Korg, the Warbound vastly improved their strategic and tactical abilities over time to become perhaps the most dangerous group of warriors in the universe. How ever with the death of both shadows and Korg losing his not only Hulk but also Hiroim could dent that element, this might change quickly with Kate on the team being a member of Shield thus having the latest technology on the planet Earth.

References