The emerald giant embraces pulp terror in "The Immortal Hulk" - The Happy Android

I am not a staunch follower of the Hulk adventures. I have some numbers from Jason Aaron's stage and in his day I pasted a good review on Planet hulk and World war hulk, but I still have to read many of its classic stages, such as that of the great Peter David. By this I mean that I am not the biggest fan of the emerald giant, but boy am I enjoying the twist they have applied to the character in The Immortal Hulk.

The Immortal Hulk o The immortal Hulk, as Panini Comics has translated it here, starts out strong. If you have been a little aware of what has happened in the Marvel universe in recent years, you will know that Bruce Banner was "killed" by Hawkeye during the 2016 comiquero mega event, Civil War II.

Since then, everyone considered the green giant for dead ... until they began to see it in different towns throughout the United States. In the purest style of Bigfoot or any other cryptozoological being.

A horror tale: the monster in the mirror

In this new approach to the character, the authors embrace the essence of the classic horror pulp comics to show us stories with a certain dark and disturbing tone. A great point in its favor is that -at least in the first installments- each issue is self-concluding, telling us a story with a beginning and an end in each staple. Thanks! Surely in the end they end up putting the Avengers in all the sauce, but at least for now, except for small and justified exceptions, it is a comic that can be read independently and is totally alien to the rest of the superhero universe marvelita.

In fact, we could hardly say that we are facing a superhero comic. We could substitute the Hulk for any other monster and it would work just as well. And here, we must praise the ingenuity of both Al Ewing how greatJoe bennet, who have managed to endow the Immortal Hulk with a sinister streak that fits perfectly with the character. We knew that Bruce Banner had died, but what we did not know is that his alter ego Hulk could not die (he has also regained his intelligence and is furious). Thus, when night falls, the emerald giant is resurrected, dispensing justice wherever it sees fit.

Spoiler Warning!

In the first issue, for example, it begins with a guy robbing a gas station, killing a girl, the shop assistant and Bruce Banner himself, who was incognito doing some shopping around there. At night in the morgue, we see Banner's corpse turn green, transforming into the Hulk and coming back to life to visit the thief and scare him to death.

In the next installment, we learn the story of a town in which several mysterious deaths occur. Anyone who goes to visit the grave of a loved one ends up dying. In the end it is discovered that it is a chain of contamination caused by radiation, and started by a scientist who tried to reinforce the health of his son in an unlawful way and ended up killing him. The scientist, secluded in the bush, also took several doses of that radiation, transforming himself into an immortal. The Hulk ends up punishing him, burying him alive under a pile of rocks.

End of spoilers!

Also noteworthy is the drawing by Joe Bennet, an artist I did not know very well, but who I will not lose sight of from now on. Here friend Joe has a pencil that pivots between Bryan hitch and Gary Frank with really expressive finishes in everyday sequences and a representation of the Hulk that impresses like few others. All this enhanced by inking and coloring that add a lot of nuances to the whole.

I am not going to deny that I am somewhat afraid that as the numbers go by they will end up muddying the series, just to link with the event or crossover on duty as these Marvel do when they see that a series does not have enough sales. And it would be a shame, because if they let her go on her own, she has all the ballots to become one of the most memorable stages of the emerald giant. Excellent work by Ewing and Bennet in a highly recommended read.