MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Al Ewing
PENCILS: Joe Bennett
INKS: Ruy José
COLORS: Paul Mounts
LETTERS: VC's Cory Petit
EDITOR: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Alex Ross
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Akira Yoshida
VARIANT COVERS: Clayton Crain; Kaare Andrews; Sal Buscema; Alfredo Alcala with Eber Evangelista; Dale Keown with Jason Keith
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (August 2018)
Rated T+
Hulk created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
“Or is He Both”
The Hulk is a Marvel Comics superhero and monster character. Created by artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, the Hulk first debuted in The Incredible Hulk #1 (cover dated: May 1962). Hulk comic books have mostly covered two characters. The first is Dr. Robert Bruce Banner (mostly referred to as “Bruce Banner”), a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved, but brilliant physicist, who is exposed to gamma rays via the explosion of an experimental bomb. This gamma ray exposure physically transforms Banner into the Hulk, a green-skinned (originally grey-skinned), hulking and muscular humanoid that possesses incredible super-strength.
Marvel Comics recently relaunched (again) its Hulk comic book franchise, and the result is the new series, Immortal Hulk. It is written by Al Ewing; drawn by Joe Bennett (pencils) and Ruy José (inks); colored by Paul Mounts; and lettered by Cory Petit.
Immortal Hulk #1 (“Or is He Both”) opens somewhere in rural America (the desert southwest?). Bruce Banner is caught up in a convenience story shooting and ends up dead along with two other people. The man is dead, but is the monster? Thomas Edward Hill is about to find out!
I had the pleasure of reading some early Hulk comics via a reprint collection. I was struck by how much those first four years of Hulk comic books and appearances blended elements of science fiction, sci-fi B-movies, horror fiction, and monster stories.
Writer Al Ewing and artist Joe Bennett have come together to revive the darker elements of the Hulk IP and of the world of The Incredible Hulk. Immortal Hulk #1 is a fantastic first issue, and it reminds me more of a horror comic book from an independent publisher (say Zenescope Entertainment) than it does a Marvel Comics title. Bennett's compositions blend with Ruy Jose's intricate and bejeweled inking and Paul Mounts perfectly-tuned colors to create a moody, brooding horror comic book that seethes and rages to release the power of the monster contained within its covers.
And when the story explodes, the pages can barely contain its star, the Hulk, even the double-page spreads. I hope Al Ewing has not merely teased us with a debut issue that will ultimately not reflect the overall tone of Immortal Hulk. I don't mind the Avengers appearing in this series, but I hope it stays dark fantasy/horror, the way Alan Moore's Swamp Thing did even when the Justice League of America appeared in The Saga of the Swamp Thing #24 (cover dated: May 1984).
8.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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