WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s Immortal Hulk #5, on sale now. Additionally, this article contains depictions and descriptions of spousal and child abuse integral to the backstory of Bruce Banner, the Immortal Hulk.


Some people spend their entire lives trying to be better than their parents. For Bruce Banner, that quest is little-known but all-consuming. You don’t have to be particularly observant to note that Bruce has something of a temper -- one that’s made all the more dangerous by his penchant for hulking out and turning into one of the most powerful superheroes in the Avengers’ arsenal. Bruce has spent the better part of his life trying to master his anger and, as a result, the beast within, not just because he’s a docile scientist at heart and there’s an inherent danger to unleashing the Hulk, but because he was taught the impact of violence firsthand. Immortal Hulk #5 reintroduces Bruce’s teacher and his very first villain -- his father.

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After a brief interlude explaining how Alpha Flight member Walter Langkowski has been losing control of his other, beastly half, Sasquatch, Immortal Hulk #5 picks up right where the previous issue left off. Walter was killed in a bar squabble and died on the operating table. Reporter Jackie McGee was able to finally track down Bruce Banner, only for a resurrected Sasquatch and Hulk to tear the hospital down around her. The fight isn’t all show, though. There is some narrative substance to the brawl that stretches all the way back to the earliest days of Bruce Banner, when he was being raised by a monster who referred to his own son as such.

The fight starts off with Bruce Banner trying to negotiate with the hero he still believes to be Sasquatch. Unfortunately, Sasquatch isn’t here Mrs. Torrance. The Alpha Flight member swiftly cuts Bruce’s throat, leaving him to die. This triggers the Immortal Hulk to emerge, who begins smashing and questioning in equal measure. This leads the thing inside Sasquatch to explain that it burrowed inside the hero through the Green Door. When Hulk demands to know who is behind the Green Door, who has possessed Sasquatch, the creature reveals itself to be none other than Brian Banner, Bruce’s abusive father. This revelation leaves Hulk reeling, but he recovers long enough to drain Sasquatch of his gamma energy, effectively depowering the hero in the process.

So, who could possibly be terrifying enough to frighten the Immortal Hulk? Buckle in.

To put it simply and succinctly, Brian Banner sucks. He’s a simpering, alcoholic man-child who hated the fact that he even had a kid and constantly berated his wife for getting pregnant. He also employed an evil nurse to care for his lonely son and, oh yeah, he’s terribly abusive to both Bruce and his wife, Rebecca. While the character was first introduced in Incredible Hulk #267, it wasn’t until Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola’s Incredible Hulk #312 that readers got a good, long look at who Brian Banner really was.

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Incredible Hulk #312 recounts Bruce’s birth and several key moments from his upbringing, including one fateful night when he opens a Christmas present without asking. The present is an erector set, which Bruce constructs with ease. This is enough evidence to confirm his father’s belief that Bruce is unnatural, a mutant monster.

When Bruce’s mother tries to defend her son, Brian Banner slaps her. When a young Bruce tries to come to his mother’s aid, he, too, gets slapped. Brian Banner yells a bunch of drunken nonsense about Bruce being a monster and then storms off, leaving the nurse to clean up his mess. Yeah, Brian Banner sucks.

The character would go on to become a specter that haunted Bruce for years, as seen in Incredible Hulk #377. The issue sees Bruce Banner being treated for what we would today call dissociative identity disorder. Bruce confronts the memories of his father’s brutality with the help of a reformed Ringmaster. While under hypnosis, Ringmaster guides Bruce back to a memory of when he and his mother tried to escape from Brian. The two didn’t even get to the family car before a monster -- a visual coping mechanism Bruce uses to avoid actually facing his father -- is upon them.

Bruce’s monster-father tells the duo that it is impossible to escape, then he slams Rebecca to the ground, killing her. A bewildered, older Bruce watches as his younger self simply sits by his mother, refusing to cry. In that moment, the older Bruce realizes that his father not only took away his mother, the light of his life, but that he also robbed the young boy of the freedom to be angry, for fear of what terror might come after.

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Ideally, Immortal Hulk #5 would end on a high note, with Bruce Banner draining the gamma radiation from Walter and walking into the sunset, triumphant once again. It’s not that simple this time around, though. Bruce was able to drain Walter of his gamma affliction, making him stronger in the process, but something else also came along with Walter’s power. The last panel of the issue reveals a perversion of a visual motif that has been ever-present in Ewing and Bennett’s series -- Hulk gazes into a mirror, but it’s not his double, Banner, who he sees. Instead, the Immortal Hulk catches a glimpse of Brian Banner this time around. It would appear as though Bruce and Hulk have a hitchhiker.

One thing that’s important to note about the reveal is that this might not be Brian Banner at all. An exchange in Immortal Hulk #5 sees the possessed Sasquatch reveal that the situation is much more complex, that the thing that lives behind the Green Door has the power to emulate the dead in order to torment its victims. “It… it needs a host personality… to work in this world, to function… it burrows in… wears our souls… like masks on a stage… help me,” says Sasquatch at one point during the fight. Being saddled with his father likely would have been Bruce Banner’s worst nightmare, but now that we know whatever is inside Sasquatch isn’t what it claims to be… well, that’s a whole other kind of nightmare.