Holy crap after a whole year of build ups, extremely tense conclusions, and fantastic covers only now did Immortal Hulk have an “ok” issue. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all, It was still a pretty good issue with great art by Joe Bennet, what I mean is more that things are slowing down a bit in an arc where Hulk becomes an activists and it’s just still so interesting.
In this weeks issue Bruce goes on a rampage to Roxxon an infamous Marvel corporation known for their suspicious and sinister activities and are lead by their CEO the villain Minotaur. This was foreshadowed in last months issue when Hulk declared he would perform rampages in order to send a message. This of course happened after his battle with General Fortean a U.S General with General Ross like aspirations whom had fused with the corpse of the villain Abomination. That all happened only after he had gone to hell and faces off with the devil himself!
That’s just face value, there’s way more going on when you read context and such. And when you’re a long time marvel fan who knows a lot about the inner workings and how their universe rolls you can see what Ewing’s trying to do. It started off as a horror comic like take on the monster hero and turned into something else entirely.
You ever look back at a new hot shot writers history, It’s very interesting how much growth you can see from a comic artist or writers work(this goes for all artist and writers really). Dave Sim of Cerberus the Ardvark being the best example, but Ewing is another good one. Ewing wrote things like Contest of Champions and U.S.Avengers which screamed fun moments and great characters, Immortal Hulk has these with added suspense and horror, even branching into cosmic horrors. I have high hopes for future titles that Ewing has planned and I’m very interested in what could be what I think is a future marvel event story involving it’s creation and eventual fate.
Hulk was always one of Marvel’s most interesting characters, and if you ask me a great example of what made Stan Lee‘s writing so new. Over time the character would go through many interesting changes, Stan Lee wanted to change his skin to green so it was made to be an alternate personality both of whom fought for control in Banner’s mind. The Grey hulk would often times take helm and become “Joe Fix-It” a mobster muscle man who partook in the many sins of man for Mobs in Las Vegas and even absorbed their personality.
Other Hulk incarnations took form, Doc Green, Kluh, Savage, with the most interesting being Devil hulk some super embodiment of his dark side who as I know so far has never really been unleashed to the world, just in Bruce’s mental episodes.
Hulk’s villains are some of my favorites, gamma mutated monsters just as strong as hulk if not stronger both mentally and physically. Abomination was always my favorite Marvel villain and he was brought back in a very interesting way by Ewing by having him as this grotesque fusion of Blonsky and Rick Jones. Other villains appear in interesting ways, Leader appeared too but we don’t know much yet.
Honestly everything I’ve talked about so far is pretty basic compared to the bigger pictures. This wasn’t just an exploration of Hulk’s mythos but a darker look into the Marvel universe. If there’s one thing I love about DC and Marvel’s world it’s their exploration into cosmic and lovecraftian themes on how their universes works ranging from basic space exploration, to a meta look at our world and one of those that i’m a fan of is the grand creator of them all, Marvel’s being The-One-Above-All or as i like to call him TOAA(tow-ah).
Creator and Destroyer is never really explored in Marvel and it’s hard to tell if something like Satan in a Ghost Rider book is THE Satan(They even made a joke about how all of the satanic deities debate on who can hold the title) but I think Ewing answered that by introducing The-One-Below-All. He didn’t just introduce him he made Gamma Radiation a major part of Hell’s inner working with the lowest level being a Gamma Wasteland, Green and Red is littered in the color pallet and The Green Door is revealed to be some entrance to an(the?) Afterlife.
That’s right Hulk and the other cast of characters take on Hell and the Devil himself, the ultimate Marvel villain. It doesn’t even start there it’s revealed later he’ll destroy the entire universe I wont say how, I think it’s revealing too much even for a spoiler heavy blog post. But damn, it was really unexpected the kind you want in your stories.
Books like Vision or Mister Miracle that are more of an exploration into deep themes feel- held back by trying to have it be part of the main world continuity (to me at least). A lot of the trauma and disasters that Vision had to deal with feel artificial when he and his surviving child still out doing basic super-heroing in other books. Immortal Hulk has this going on too, and it does bother me because it takes me out of it all. I would honestly prefer that if Hulk was going to fight The Thing in Fantastic 4 that it not be brought up in Immortal unless it serviced the story, all books should do this to be honest. Though I’m glad he at least appeared in Dan Slott‘s Fantastic 4 revival when they summoned all past F4 members and close friends to help fight some alien bitch, I probably would’ve been annoyed if he didn’t because I’m an idiot fanboy.
Immortal Hulk’s intriguing themes and fantastic art really makes it stand out, we only get so few comics like it every few years and I try to be sure not to fall behind on them. Ewing has a great range when it comes to his writing, he understands Marvel well and I’m glad he has the chance to explore these themes, hope to see more great things by him. Marvel is really killing it lately I remember like 2 years ago they had nothing I cared about and what I did really enjoy got cancelled within 5 issues (RIP Howling Commandos and GLA). Remember to support good writers friends have a fine day!
Cartoonist's Man-Cave 