Wednesday sees the release of The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, which we know is due to feature our very own Walter Langkowski down the line.
Alpha Flight and Hulk have interacted a lot over the years, but they haven't had much contact with Banner lately.
For that reason 'Flight Fans may not be up to date with the character so to help us out we've reached out to Steven Nowak of All Things Hulk to bring us up to speed:
It's only been a few short years since Secret Wars changed the very fabric of the Marvel Universe, but a great deal has happened to the Jade Giant in that time.
Hulk fans rushed to read Totally Awesome Hulk, a new series by Greg Pak and Frank Cho.
In the first issue Amadeus Cho is already BIG, GREEN and GAMMA powered.
Fans learn that an experimental Kiber fusion reactor one mile of the Kenyan coast is about to blow and poison 50 million people. Tony Stark and The T’Challa are frantically trying to stop this catastrophe but unfortunately, time is not on their side.
At this point Hulk arrives and in classic Hulk form he jumps in fists first and attempts to absorb the energy.
All looks well but after a few seconds things take a turn for the worst; the Kiber energy begins to merge with Hulks’s gamma radiation and builds up inside his body. Stark realizes they have little time left before this becomes a massive detonation event.
T’Challa and Tony try to come up with a solution teen when genius Amadeus Cho arrives on the scene.
Cho is a long-time friend of Dr Banner and when he overhears Tony and T’Challa’s plan to send Hulk into the negative zone he comes up with a plan of his own, stealing a dive suit laced it with enhanced Sterntech nanobots to absorb the radiation from the Hulk. Cho heads out to the Hulk’s location where he manages to calm the Hulk and uses his new suit to absorb the merged radiation from his old friend.
The Hulk once again becomes Dr. Bruce Banner.
In a very touching moment Banner begins to tear up. Amadeus tells him not to cry; he should be happy that he is cured.
Banner reply’s “ Ah Kid… I am not crying for ME”.
At this moment Cho transforms before our eyes into the new Totally Awesome Hulk.
Bruce banner is finally free of the Hulk.
Or is he? Banner has been here before and somehow the Hulk always comes back.
Because of this the Doctor decides to test himself, attempting to bring out his inner monster. He tries several extreme activities hoping to get his adrenaline going but still no Hulk.
At the outbreak of what becomes known as Civil War II a precognitive Inhuman has a vision of the Hulk murdering many heroes and when rumors seep out that Banner is doing research on himself and may be trying to bring back the Hulk Captain Marvel and a large group of heroes are sent to confront Banner.
Bruce tries to explain that he was only trying to be sure that he was free of the Hulk forever, but tensions escalate. Words are being exchanged and with no warning an arrow rips through Banners skull.
To the surprise of Hulk fans everywhere we learnt the arrow had come from non-other than Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. Banner is pronounced dead. Clint is taken into custody and is put on trial for murder but is found innocent after a recording reveals Banner had asked Hawkeye to kill him if he thought for one second that he was turning into the Hulk again.
When the corpse of Bruce banner is stolen by an organization known as The Hand, the Avengers Unity Squad head to Japan to retrieve the body and find out what the Hand is up to. They are surprised to learn The Hulk has been brought back to life but in a zombie like state.
The Unity squad battles the zombified beast and Synapse uses her powers to block the signal from Hulk’s brain. This slows the monster down long enough for Doctor Voodoo to use his mystical powers and restore Hulk to his Banner form. Voodoo sacrifices his brother Daniel to return Banner to the unliving, to rest in peace.
It is then decided to bring Bruce’s body to Captain America.
Unbeknownst to the world Captain America is actually a Hydra Agent due to the Cosmic Cube being used to rewrite his past.
Having bided his time Rogers takes over America using the Cube as a weapon and is able to bring Banner back wherein he offers to give Banner the Heroes who had led to his death.
Bruce quickly declines, but Captain America does not give up so easily. He has a heated discussion with Dr Banner knowing full well it would lead to Banner becoming angry and eventually become the Hulk. Once transformed into the Green Goliath Steve Rogers allows the beast to escape in hopes that the Hulk will take out his rage on the Heroes currently attacking the base and as planned the enraged Hulk begins to tear through the heroes.
The battle goes on; Hero vs hero, friend vs friend.
Then at the exact moment that Iron Man and Captain America collide the Hulk smashes the ground with his mighty fists, causing it to collapse.
Right in the thick of it all the Hulk begins to stumble and falls to one knee where exhausted he passes out and falls to the ground. The ground continues to fall all around him until the jade giant can be seen no more and Hulk's body is buried under the rubble.
Later, when The Grandmaster and The Challenger decide to play a game of cosmic chess with Earth as the prize, The Challenger at reveals he has an ace in the hole.
It begins in darkness.
Here we are privy to a conversation from long ago as a voice is referring to the original gamma bomb site, a mention of the protective trench, and the terrifying events that lead to the creation of The Incredible Hulk.
An ominous green door opens and BOOM we are at the site of the gamma explosion.
We are told Bruce Banner was pronounced dead but then somehow he came back to life.
It is said he screamed for hours.
As the narrator walks us through the many times that Banner has died and come back we see the strange green door opening wider and wider.
Then we are pulled from these ghostly memories and find ourselves at a moment in time when Banner gives Hawkeye a special custom-built arrow tip. One that he is sure will kill him.
Bruce then tells Barton that he will have to be sure to hit him directly in the hypothalamus. This will end the Hulk in a way that is impossible to come back from.
Hawkeye promises he will do the dark deed if need be.
Again, we jump forward to moments after the Unity squad had defeated the Zombie-Hulk that The Hand had resurrected.
Doctor Voodoo returns Banner to the light; the "green door".
Another jump and we are in a cold sterile room.
Here we learn of an implant in Bruce's Hyperthalamus that is time delayed.
An implant that the new Supreme Leader of Hydra (Steve Rogers) needn’t know about.
Banner's tortured mind cant understand why people keep bringing him back from the dead.
Why they can't let him rest?
Why can't the Hulk be killed?
Now we are snapped back to the darkness.
Deep beneath the rubble of the mount the monster has come back, because that’s what he does; he always comes back.
Massive green hands pull at the broken structure and supports. Digging his way to the top like some mystical creature from ancient tales long forgotten. Then he stands to his full height, muscles flexing in rage, face almost grotesque from anger.
The Immortal Hulk has risen!
The Challenger has awakened his reserve player.
Hulk is sent to attack the auxiliary Avengers base by The Challenger where some Heroes are regrouping and planning for the next battle against him. The Avengers can’t beat Hulk on their best day, how can a war torn team of tired heroes be expected to stop him?
Wonder Man may be the answer, as he tries to talk to Banner through Hulk.
This is to little avail and he decides the only way to talk to this monster will be with his fists. He engages Hulk toe to toe but finds that this incarnation of Hulk is articulate and strategic. Wonder Man is brutally beaten and the Hulk rages on. Rogue attempts to take on the giant, absorbing his power and forcing the beast to transform back into Bruce Banner, but it is too much for her and once again the Doctor becomes the Hulk.
At this point no one can stop Hulk. He grabs the cosmic object that everyone covets, but to the surprise of The Challenger and the Heroes, Hulk crushes the piece in his mighty hands. The Challenger is enraged but he has learnt a harsh lesson; No one controls the Hulk.
The blast that is released when Hulk destroys the playing piece is so powerful that once again the monster becomes Banner, who joins the Avengers' side.
After a touching talk with Jarvis, Bruce is convinced the weary Avengers need a Hulk to win and helps the Heroes of Earth defeat Grandmaster Prime in an explosive decisive battle, leaving Banner alive and in control.
Banner eventually meets with the man that had recently murdered him, Clint Barton. The mood is tense. The two heroes chat for a bit in a strange conversation that seems to go nowhere. Before Bruce leaves Clint tells his old friend, he is not a bad person, and the conversation is left at that...
WOW! It's been a crazy ride for Hulk fans this past couple of years and for months we have all been chomping at the bit to read the new Hulk series by Al Ewing.
Hold tight my fellow Hulk fans - I have a feeling the Immortal Hulk series is going to be something special. This new series hints at a darker, more horrific Hulk.
Is he a monster or a hero?
This and much more will all be revealed soon in the Immortal Hulk monthly series.
Required Reading:
Totally Awesome Hulk #1-4
Civil War II #2-4
Civil War II: The Fallen
Uncanny Avengers #15-17
Secret Empire #5-6
Avengers #675-690
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