Death in superhero comics practically never ends a character’s story. At best, it can be treated as a temporary break, which alludes to the popular ploy that the afterlife in Marvel and DC have revolving doors. From the plot point of view, the death of the hero is to be an element that increases the drama of the story. However, in a situation where a given character dies repeatedly, this effect becomes more and more difficult to obtain. This Captain America lost his life twelve times! So what is the difference between his death number ten and death number eleven? And how would another expulsion move the reader? Screenwriter Al Ewing successfully chose this absurd loop, because his Immortal Hulk was based on a constant rising from the dead.
Gamma male
Like John Connor in Terminator 3 , Bruce Banner leads a nomadic life at the beginning of Immortal Hulk . She wandered from town to town, nowhere to stay warm for longer. He remains hidden, he does not reveal his identity to anyone or the fact that he has returned to the world of the living. However, while Dr. Banner can stay hidden during the day, the Hulk takes control at night. And since the green monster has always brought trouble with it, the monster is being captured by a government organization that wants to use gamma rays for its own purposes.
The green door
From time to time, Marvel refreshes the genesis of its characters, weaving into them some new element complicating the basic concept. We should mention here Iron Man, who turns out to be the adopted son of the Stark state, or Spider-Man’s animal “totemicity”, introduced with the arrival of Ezekiel and Morlun. In Immortal Hulk , a green door appears, which was allegedly seen by Banner during the ill-fated explosion of gamma rays. This motif in the first volume has only been outlined, but I suspect it will play an even greater role.
However, this is not the biggest change, but the title immortality. Ewing partially rewrites the character’s history so far to show that all of Hulk’s previous “deaths” have always led to the same thing – rebirth. Not only is the green creature incredibly strong, but you can’t really kill it. Even complete dismemberment cannot hurt him any more. And if Banner dies, the Hulk will take over after dark anyway and revive the doctor. In this way, the writer makes the story of the Marvel character even more similar to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is quite an obvious, but very effective plot procedure. Especially that the green giant is not a brutal half-head here (“Hulk Smash”), but an intelligent, furious and cruel character, closer to Joe Fixit.
Hand, leg, brain in a jar
Joe Bennett is mainly responsible for the graphics in the first volume. This artist, even if he does not stand above average most of the time, can shine in horror scenes. Not that the Immortal Hulk can scare the reader in any particular way, but he certainly does well to his disgust. Body horror fits perfectly with the character of the green creature, who is ultimately a victim of radiation himself. Hence, on the pages you can find a lot of macabre pictures, and one of the deaths of a third person (of which no trace remains) can be remembered for a long time. In one of the notebooks, an interesting patent was also used, in which different characters tell their own version of certain events, and each of these stories was drawn in a different style. A simple procedure, and a very pleasant reception.
Hulk Smash hit
The first episode of Immortal Hulk is an excellent read. It is not (yet?) Some new quality in superhero comics, because there are many standard clues here. A dirty government agency is… very dirty. There is also a standard skirmish between Hulk and the team of heroes led by Captain Marvel. Therefore, if someone is allergic to typical knitwear, Ewing’s comic (I will repeat with hope: yet?) Will not change that. Nevertheless, it’s a good comic book.
