Immortal Hulk - Team Up's Comic Corner

Immortal Hulk (2018-present)

Welcome back to the comic corner! It’s finally October so that means it’s time to get spooky! I want to start off the month with the title that made me want to do this comic corner in the first place. I have been waiting 10 weeks to be able to talk about this series: The Immortal Hulk!!

Now I am not normally a big Hulk fan but the thing about this series is that it’s not your average Hulk series. This one has more in common with a werewolf movie than it does a classic Hulk story. The premise being that due to all of the death and resurrection that Bruce Banner and the Hulk have gone through, a new personality has emerged inside the psyche of Banner called Devil Hulk. While there is no physical difference between this Hulk and previous versions, mentally this is an entirely new character. This manifestation of Hulk is articulate, smart, cunning, and mercilessly cold when he attacks or is provoked into battle. 

Only emerging at night, this is a take on the character that feels so fresh and new I couldn’t believe it myself until I started reading the series. The creepiest and monster movie-like characteristic of this Hulk & series is the new bit of lore added to the gamma affected characters within the Hulk comics. They are immortal. No matter how dead, dismembered, or obliterated the body of Bruce Banner or other Gamma Mutated characters (Betty Ross, Doc Samson, Rick Jones, etc.), come nightfall they will all resurrect as angrier and stronger than before. 

This comic is truly something to read - the aspects of horror movies is front & center throughout every page and panel in this story. The body horror panels are really what have stuck with me, as they are so incredibly graphic and yet somehow beautiful at the same time. The writer Al Ewing has done some beautiful work and is really pulling from the bowels of old Hulk comic stories for some of the inspiration in this work. The callbacks to older characters and events long forgotten are just perfect. I honestly can’t get enough of this series and love every second of it.

Now this version of the Hulk isn’t only in his own solo book either. You may remember a few weeks ago when we talked about the Fantastic Four #12-#13, that was this version of the Hulk throwing down with Ben Grimm. But the best sighting of this Hulk outside his own book is hands down the ‘Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk’ one-shot tie-in to that large event. I won’t go into detail about that event, but the way the one-shot broke down everything going on in the Immortal Hulk book and the Absolute Carnage event while still framing it perfectly as a glimpse into Bruce Banner’s mind.

If you only ever listen to one of my recommendations, this has to be the one. This is one of my favorite titles in a very long time, and quite possibly my favorite Marvel title of all time. Please go out and check this book out, if not for the Hulk, then definitely for the weird monster movie feel that just oozes off the page. That’s all for today, leave your thoughts in the comments and any other comics that you think deserve the spotlight in the coming weeks! See you next week and don’t be afraid to crease the corners on a good panel!