The following contains spoilers for Hulk Annual #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Marvel’s new Incredible Hulk series promises a scarier more gruesome Hulk story in a thriller that turns away from Marvel’s goofier iterations of the character. The return to the classic horror take on the character is largely inspired by Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk, which delves into the horror of living with a fractured psyche. Bruce Banner and Hulk are best portrayed in this way, as creatures of psychological horror rather than mainstream superheroes. In interviews with Phillip Kenedy John and Nic Klein, the new creative team reveals their influences are the same classic stories that inspired Stan Lee's Incredible Hulk, mainly Frankenstein, and Jekyll and Hyde.
The team hopes to portray Hulk as more frightening than ever before, and with a destiny different from usual arcs that have Banner controlling or repressing his alter ego. Johnson’s and Klein’s monstrous Hulk makes the most sense after the events of Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk and Donny Cates’ and Ryan Ottley’s Hulk. Both these series focus on the idea that ‘hurt people, hurt people’ and have Hulk play the part of the Jungian shadow. If the creative team approaches this project as faithful to the preceding chapters in the Hulk’s life, this is a monster who’s been caged and abused, therefore enraged like never before.
Incredible Hulk Takes the Green Goliath in a New Direction
Hulk Annual #1 (by David Pepose, Caio Majado, Edgar Delgado, and VC's Cory Petit) does an outstanding job of setting the stage for a Hulk unlike any other by using a ‘found footage’ approach to the character drama. Watching Hulk from the perspective of ‘puny humans’ doing a Hulk documentary may sound far-fetched, but the method works to create tension usually only seen in the best horror comics. Hulk Annual’s epilogue gives a glimpse of the macabre and atmospheric storytelling to come with a preview of the coming series. The preview reveals Incredible Hulk #1 (by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Nic Klein) will start Hulk’s ‘era of monsters’ with him wanted by a mysterious immortal attendant to the primordial ‘Mother of Horrors’. This is an entirely different sort of enemy for Hulk, who is often wanted by his fellow superheroes for the mayhem he caused.
From just a few pages of preview, it’s apparent that these gods are older and meaner than the likes of Hulk's iconic rival Thor, and into more gruesome exchanges with their foe than any mainstream superhero. Johnson has mentioned in interviews that another strategy for making his Hulk more terrifying and better than ever is to change the way he talks to be more in line with Greg Pak’s style. Hulk will abandon his usual cloddish speech for a terse and more intelligent tone. Fans get a taste of this in the found footage story, and it effectively delivers a new, disturbing image of a traditional character.
Marvel's New Incredible Hulk is a Step in the Right Direction
Mirroring Frankenstein’s Monster in many past series, Hulk often shares the classic monster's childlike interior covered by a ghoulish and hulking frame. But tales where the Hulk remains outwardly a brute, while psychologically a child are less meaningful for fans. Comedic action with a pouting Hulk and a sarcastic Thing, for example, is great one-shot material. However, the closeness Hulk shares with classic horror tales like Jekyll and Hyde makes a better story to follow the most recent Hulk tales and is more appropriate for an epic arc.
Tales about the Hulk are even better when Banner and Hulk find a way to prevail while working together, something that many classic horror pairings failed to accomplish. This series will be even more exciting if the Hulk and Banner get to do some emotional healing while smashing monsters. Only time will tell if Johnson and Klein plan to let Banner and Hulk reconcile in between the tense tone that's been set up.