When Al Ewing and Joe Bennett kicked off Immortal Hulk, their title character and his alter ego Bruce Banner were on the road and isolated from the rest of the Marvel Universe. The Hulk's strength and penchant for destruction though means he can only stay hidden for so long. The series' first arc saw both an intrepid reporter and his old college roommate Walter Langkowski (AKA Sasquatch of Alpha Flight) hot on his heels, and in Immortal Hulk #6 Ewing and artist Lee Garbett kicked off a new arc that found the circle of Hulk hunters expanding to include old foes like a shadowy arm of the U.S. Military and the Gamma Powered Goliath's former comrades in the Avengers.

These hunters are standing in the way of Hulk finding answers about the mysterious “Green Door” that causes him to resurrect after Banner dies and lead to a confrontation with the spirit of his psychopathic father. CBR spoke with Ewing about that mystery, the Hulk's coming confrontation with the Avengers, why he's pitting the Jade Juggernaut against a Red Hulk foe, and the role classic Hulk supporting characters like Betty Banner and Doc Samson will play in the series moving forward.

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CBR: Al, when you kicked off Immortal Hulk Banner and the Hulk were isolated and on the move. You slowly started to bring back ties to his old life in the form of people like Brian Banner and Sasquatch, but in issue #6 it feels like Banner's ties to the Marvel Universe came back in a huge way. We got Betty Banner, a mention of Skaar, a glimpse of Doc Samson, General Fortean, and the Avengers. So is this current arc all about expanding the mystery of the “Green Door” and reestablishing the Hulk's presence in the larger Marvel U?

Al Ewing: The idea was always to keep Bruce isolated for the first arc and then to start allowing those connections to the larger world to seep in. The fact is that in a shared universe, you can't really keep one of the major parts of the shared universe totally isolated from the rest of it - we've seen people attempt that with other books, and it never really works - and you definitely can't keep a character isolated from their own past. Betty will always be a major part of Bruce's life, even if she's on the edge of it. So will Rick Jones, even if he's dead. Doc Samson will always feel an obligation towards Bruce. I consider these three to be his main support system, and right now that system is in terrible shape - Bruce is actively pushing the surviving members away. We saw how he treated Jen, for example. So we are re-establishing Bruce in the MU, but at our own pace, and in our own way.

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General Reginald Fortean, the head of the military's secretive Shadow Base is a character created for Jeff Parker's fantastic and underrated Red Hulk run. What made you want to bring Fortean into the book? What do you find most interesting about him?

We knew General Ross was going to be busy elsewhere - probably too busy to feature in our book. We also knew we were going to create a new black-ops "Shadow Base" to hunt the Hulk. That meant we had to "cast" a primary human antagonist to lead it - we were looking at a whole bunch of people, and considering inventing someone out of whole cloth, but I wanted someone with a little history with the Hulk. General Fortean fit the bill perfectly - he's an active leader, willing to do whatever it takes, and where Ross had wavered in his pursuit of the Hulk, even in the early days, Fortean had always struck me as utterly committed to his goals. What's interesting to me is how he might have changed - perhaps hardened - after hearing that Ross and the Red Hulk were one and the same. We get some hints in #6 about how he took that, and what he learned from it, but it also seems to have made him colder, more manipulative, and sent his moral boundaries into flux. It's going to be interesting getting closer to him.

Thanks to Fortean's machinations, the Hulk is now about to face off against the current line up of Avengers, which means you get to return to some characters you wrote for a while like Captain Marvel and Black Panther as well as several iconic Avengers. What's it like bouncing this version of the Hulk off the Avengers? What can you tell us about the tone and scope of the fight?

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It's almost a reward, in some ways. We wanted to do a big fight - really give Joe some meat to get his teeth into. This Hulk is stronger than before, he's more merciless, he's crueler, willing to deal psychological damage - and there are some metaphysical aspects we'll get into as well. Also, we wanted to consider a classic hero fight from a horror perspective - what's horrific about a good old hero brawl? - and I think we found a way to do it that brings out the queasier elements of that, and of the Avengers themselves. These are the Avengers through the lens of Immortal Hulk - hopefully that means they end up a little disturbing.

For me, perhaps the most interesting Avengers in the coming battle are Jennifer Walters and the Ghost Rider, Robbie Reyes, given their ties to gamma radiation and the supernatural, both elements that fit into the book's ongoing mystery. What can you tell us about their role in the conflict next issue? What's it like writing Jen and Robbie?

Not to turn off any Ghost Rider fans who might want to tune in, but Robbie doesn't do so well. Jen has a much meatier role - as we saw last issue, she's got a lot of anger in her at Bruce, and it comes out in her Hulk role. It's been interesting seeing what Jason's [Aaron] been doing with her [in Avengers], and we ended up using a lot of that - her new mode of speaking, her more monstrous form. There's a moment between the two Hulks that I think fans of both will be interested to see.

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Reporter Jackie McGee was in the company of Alpha Flight in issue #6, so you didn't get to follow up on the revelation from issue #5 that she wants to become like the Hulk. How big a role does Jackie play in upcoming issues? And has what she's seen so far turned her away from her goal of becoming like the Hulk? Or made it more irresistible than ever?

It's interesting how nobody's dug into this at all - every website I've seen has taken that question the same way, that Jackie's immediately going to leap into a Gamma Transforming Machine and do a Doc Samson. It's not quite that simple. What I will say is that the events of the past couple of issues haven't put her off finding the Hulk and talking to him - if anything, they might have destroyed her instinctive fear of him. She wants answers, and she's going to get them - in fact, I'm writing that conversation right now.

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In issue #6 we also saw the ramifications of the Hulk's battle with the ghost of Brian Banner, his father, who possessed the form of Sasquatch. It looks like Brian has burrowed into Bruce and the Hulk's subconscious. So he's still very much part of this story, correct?

Brian's a lurking presence - he's been drafted as the face of something larger and more unspeakable that's been mentioned a lot in solicits and once or twice in the text: the One Below All. So he's not a cackling villain, twirling his mustache in Bruce's head - we wanted to go creepier, use his image as a signifier of sorts. Catch glimpses of him here and there, so you're never quite sure how much influence he's exerting on Bruce and the Hulk. But Brian - and the forces behind him - do have a larger plan, and over the next few issues we'll see exactly what it is.

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Let's talk a little more about “The One Below All. “Alpha Flight member, Shaman, mentions the entity by name in issue #6. And To me that felt like a reference and possibly opposite number to the mysterious and all powerful Marvel entity known as "The One Above All." Am I on the right track? And if so, for readers who might not have as big a knowledge of Marvel continuity as you and I, what do you want them to know about the One Above All?

Every light casts a shadow, as Brian said. In every mirror, there is a reflection. I'd say you're definitely on the right track.

The One Above All, for those who don't know, is the closest thing in the MU to capital-G God. It's almost never seen on the page, and barely ever referred to, but whatever it is, it started things in motion. So the idea that such a being could have an opposite number, or a dark side, is hopefully fairly terrifying.

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The One Below All appears to be a central entity in the mystery of the Green Door. Are you in a position to offer up any hints or clues about the nature of the Green Door? It feels like a gateway between the worlds of the living and the dead. But is it more than that?

I don't really want to tie it down just yet - what I will say is that there will come a point where the Green Door is thrown wide open, and we'll get to step through. Or maybe what's through it will come to us.

Finally, let's talk about the art team on this book. The great Lee Garbett did an exceptional job with issue #6. The mood and tone were fantastic. And earlier you mentioned Joe Bennett (who's also fantastic with mood and tone) is returning for the next few issues of Immortal Hulk.

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Lee was amazing on this issue - it was fantastic to be working together again, and we're already looking forward to the next time we get to do that. But Joe Bennett is back in full force for the next few issues - issues #7, #8 and #10 are all him, and on issue #9 he's backed up by the awesome Martin Simmonds, who you can see right now alongside Alex Paknadel in Vault Comics' excellent Friendo, for a story about Carl "Crusher" Creel and Bruce Banner, told from each viewpoint. That'll be a lot of fun.

Here's the fun thing about Joe - every issue, he gets better. Once you see issues #7 and #8, you won't understand how that can be possible, but when you reach issue #10, you'll see how it is. There's some fantastic art coming up on this book.

I'll finish with a "thank you" to everyone who's been picking the book up and spreading the good word on it. We've got some stuff coming up that I think you'll really enjoy.