Hum's narration through issue 7 of Coda is this whole thing about how people will cling to what's familiar, even when everything else has fallen apart. And how often the things they cling to have no meaning, or don't even really exist, just ideas that can't be realized or goals that can't be achieved. It's something they know, that they recognize, and that's better than dealing with the unknown.
Hum, of course, doesn't see himself that way. He figures he sees that the world is a mess, and the whole cockamamie scheme of his to "fix" Serka is a way to actually help the world. Which means it's worth the risk.
It's self-delusion, obviously. He wants her to not go off into the wilderness when she feels the rage building inside her, because it means she goes away from him. If he was really concerned with saving the world, it seems like he would do more towards that goal when he's at a dead end with his plan.
Beyond that, his idea of "saving" her is one of those goals whose end result he never bothered to consider. I've mentioned it a few times in the reviews of various issues that I figured there were any number of ways it could go if he was able to use the potion on her to remove the curse that sends her raging in the wilderness. Hum figured she'd simply be the person she is whenever she isn't overcome by it. The hero, questing about and saving the innocent and downtrodden, but all the time.
That it might be tied into her feelings about how she and the other Urken were used by the Whitlords to destroy the world, and that drives her desire to help. Or that angrier side is connected to the skills she draws on to fight evil. Or that the curse might be tied into her very existence. Or, of course, that she doesn't consider it a curse at all. Just another part of who she is, albeit a part she generally doesn't want her husband seeing. Considering how he perceives it, she had a point.
It's funny, because the idea the hero will find some magic potion or spell to save their true love from the horrible curse is the sort of fairy tale thing Hum would no doubt insist is a remnant of the Old World that no longer applies. But here he was, expecting things to turn out Happily Ever After.
He said he wouldn't settle, wouldn't pretend everything was fine if there was a chance to make it better. But I don't think he considered how much worse it could get for him. (I'm really curious to see what the fallout from issue 8 does to Serka. How much does it hurt to learn your husband fails that badly to understand you?)
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