Even though Al Ewing and Joe Bennett's Immortal Hulk is about the exploits of a founding Avenger, it is a far cry from your ordinary superhero comic book. Since his resurrection in Avengers: No Surrender, the “Devil Hulk” has taken charge, and in doing so turned the Immortal Hulk into one of the best horror comic books on the market today.
The Savage Hulk’s mission was to live in peace. For the Gray Hulk, it was to create as much havoc for Banner as humanly possible. The Devil Hulk has another plan and has either done or encountered some horrific things to achieve it. Here are ten occurrences over the last year and a half that have us scared to open the next issue of The Immortal Hulk.
10 Hulk Buries a Man Alive as Punishment for Killing his Son (Immortal Hulk #2)
When his wife died, Dr. Frye became afraid of death. So scared that he experimented with gamma radiation (known to work SO well) to prolong it. At first, it was a success. He injected himself with a serum that made him look and feel ten years younger. He decided to give the serum to his son Del, who was on his way to a career in pro football. Unfortunately, the serum had the opposite effect on Del, and he died almost instantly. Del’s body was consumed with gamma radiation, and anyone who went to his grave would contract radiation sickness.
Dr. Frye began to change as well, turning into a gamma-powered creature that killed any human that came in contact with him, like Bruce Banner. After becoming the Hulk and realizing Dr. Frye’s missteps, the Hulk gave him a fate worse than death, ripping off his limbs and burying him far underground with nothing but darkness, to help him think about what he’s done.
9 Sasquatch is Possessed by the Spirit of Bruce Banner's Dead Father (Immortal Hulk #5)
Dr. Walter Langkowski was Bruce Banner’s friend and college room-mate. He was also the world’s leading expert in gamma radiation, after Bruce. When witnessing the Hulk for the first time, Walter tried to recreate the conditions of Bruce’s accident in a controlled environment. The result was Sasquatch. While not as strong as the Hulk, Sasquatch still maintained Langkowski’s intelligence, earning him a place on Alpha Flight.
At one point, Sasquatch became possessed by a demon from the “green door,” a dimension full of monsters. This possessed creature starts killing people at a nearby hospital and the Hulk intervenes, only to learn that the “demon” is Bruce’s cruel father, long thought dead. Whether or not there is any validity to the demon’s identity has yet to be revealed, but to see the Hulk afraid of something is as disturbing as it gets.
8 Bushwacker Shoots Betty Ross in the Head (Immortal Hulk #14)
Following his “excursion to Hell,” Bruce Banner finally reveals to his wife, Betty Ross, that he is alive. Despite everything, Betty still loves Bruce more than anything in the world. Sometimes, love isn’t enough when it comes to survival, as the government sends the assassin Bushwacker to take out Banner once and for all.
Readers expected the same thing as before, assuming Banner would be shot and then resurrect once night falls. However, Bushwacker makes a mistake and shoots Betty by accident. Not only has he taken out the wrong target, but he just made an enemy of the most dangerous being on the planet.
7 Devil Hulk Reveals His Purpose to Doc Samson (Immortal Hulk #15)
Doctor Leonard Samson has spent almost his entire career trying to cure the Hulk of his rage. Regardless of the personality Banner or the Hulk brought to the surface, Samson tried to help him (them?) make peace with the situation. Devil-Hulk is a different story. He was always the one trapped inside of Bruce’s mind, being kept at bay by all the other Hulks.
The one thing they all agreed on was that they could not unleash Devil-Hulk on the world. He’s here now, and he has revealed his goal: Hulk doesn’t see Banner or any of the other Hulks as the problem. It’s humanity that is the issue. He tells Samson that humans are killing this world faster than any Hulk could, so his goal is to wipe them all out so the planet can start fresh. It makes it hard to root for your main character when his goal is to end you.
6 The Abomination Returns (Immortal Hulk #17)
Many unfortunate souls have taken on the role of the antithesis to the Hulk, the Abomination. From Emil Blonsky to Rick Jones, there has always been the scaly pointy-eared creature to try and put an end to the Hulk.
Shadow Base understood this and have created their version of the Abomination from remnants of the other two. Taking gamma-irradiated tissue from Blonsky and splicing it with the exhumed corpse of Jones, this new Abomination finally looks the part. No longer is he merely a humanoid looking monster. He is something new and so frightening that even Devil-Hulk should be wary of its presence.
5 A 12-Year-Old Kid in Shot and Killed Eight Pages into the Book (Immortal Hulk #1)
If you wanted to get the tone of your book explained to the reader right away, killing a child is certainly one way to go about it. Within the first pages of the book, a young thief attempts to rob a gas station, and accidentally shoots and kills a 12-year-old girl.
Realizing he’s already gone too far, the thief kills the gas station attendant and an unidentified man, later revealed to be Bruce Banner. Word of advice: if you are going to commit murder for the first time, don’t let your first victim be someone that comes back to life at night as the worst thing imaginable.
4 The Hulk Rips Out the Absorbing Man's Spine and Hits Him with it (Immortal Hulk #10)
Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, should be one of the top tier Marvel Villains. With the ability to absorb anything he touches, he could be unstoppable if he used his powers right. Sadly for him, his brain didn’t match his power, and he is always defeated. When Shadow Base injects him with a serum that matches the energy absorption powers of the Red Hulk, the interaction with his abilities makes him the perfect candidate to suck the gamma right out of the Hulk.
In the ensuing battle, Absorbing Man almost gets the upper hand, until he absorbs too much of the Hulk, and somehow transports through the Green Door into what resembles a hell-like dimension. The strain is too much for Creel’s body, and he splits in two, exposing his skull and spine. Not one to let things go to waste, Hulk rips Creel’s spine out of his body, beating him with it. This one was a one-two punch. It’s both shocking AND gross.
3 The Hulk Forces the Avengers to Wipe Out an Entire Town (Immortal Hulk #7)
You’d think that the term “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” would mean that regardless of the challenge, the Avengers would always end up on the winning side. No one warned them about the Immortal Hulk. The current roster of Avengers consists of the Marvel Universe’s heaviest hitters. Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, She-Hulk, and Ghost Rider should be undefeatable.
The Hulk took them out with ease. So much so that Iron Man had no choice but to unleash the Helios Laser on the Hulk. It’s a beam of pure UV energy, or “a beam of hard sunlight.” The beam caused the Hulk to revert to Banner, killing him in the process. It was only a matter of time before the Hulk resurrected again, so the Avengers had to take drastic measures, as readers will soon see.
2 The Hulk is Chopped into Pieces and Separated into Jars (Immortal Hulk #7)
If a writer came up with one crazy thing to happen within an issue of a comic book, that would be enough. Well, Al Ewing likes to go that extra mile. Following his defeat at the hands of the Avengers (it should have an asterisk since they had to harness the power of the sun to beat him), the body of Bruce Banner is cut into several pieces and placed in individual jars.
What makes this scene so downright disturbing is when the body parts transform into the Hulk, the last view is of the Hulk’s face as he realizes what’s happened. It makes readers wonder who to be afraid for – the Hulk having this done to him, or the government agents who will feel the brunt of his rage when he restores himself.
1 The Hulk Reforms Around Dr. Clive, Essentially Eating Him (Immortal Hulk #8)
Dr. Clive is a scientist at Shadow Base, the government facility tasked with the responsibility of researching the Hulk’s dissected body. Unfortunately for Dr. Clive, he had a little too much fun at his job. Always taunting the Hulk with the torturous things that he was going to experience, Clive was a little more than shocked when the Hulk was able to escape from his glass prison and begin to reform.
Clive attempted to escape, but the Hulk’s body formed around him, absorbing him into the Green Goliath’s system. Even as Clive pleaded for his life, the Hulk never forgets, and his body absorbs the rest of Clive, killing him in one of the most painful ways imaginable.