The Immortal Hulk Issue #1

As much as I love the Hulk as a character I never really got into any of his comic books so when I saw that a new series was being released I was a bit skeptical. I wasn’t fond of The Totally Awesome Hulk run at all and found it to be just shallow. It was too lighthearted for me and I felt like it missed the mark for me in regards to what makes a compelling Hulk story. Hulk can have his fun but to me what makes it compelling is the actual horror of becoming an unstoppable force who you have no control over and the total chaos the transformation can cause. I’m only one issue into The Immortal Hulk but I can tell right away that they got it right.

Issue one sets the tone for the book excellently and lets you know right away that this is a much darker world. It felt very similar to a Daredevil comic in the sense that it was all grounded in reality. There was no super alien bent on world domination or a Hulk doppelgänger wanting prove he is the “strongest of them all”, at least not yet. The events that the book decides to start with are very reel and scary and ultimately lead to questions of identity. The theme of identity is common with any Hulk story so that’s no surprise but it just felt fresh here because this time Hulk would ask these questions as well, not just Bruce. Hulk was different in this book, he wasn’t mindless, he was intelligent and he made judgments, and it really defined him in more ways than just a Hulk smash machine.

Even when Hulk did smash it was different, it was much scarier. The artist of the book, Joe Bennet, did an amazing job defining all the character’s facial expressions in a way that made them seem like they have gone mad a little. Especially Hulk, His eyes would bulge open and he would have this terrifying grin on his face almost as if he is happy to hurt those who deserve it and its not anger that drives him.

Issue one of The Immortal Hulk is a must read. Fans of comic books should read it, fans of the characters should read it, and anyone even remotely interested in getting started with comic books should read it. Its an excellent jumping off point and does an excellent job setting up a compelling world for this character to live in. I haven’t read many hulk comics so I cant speak to whether this has been done a million times before but I did read this one and I can say that this was a truly great comic.