When we last left off, the Hulk was dead. Although he came back briefly as part of a Hydra plot, that resurrection didn’t take and he soon returned to his dirt nap. But the Hulk is a primal force, and death doesn’t tend to last long for such things. In fact, the next story arc would reveal that the Hulk was immortal.

The Immortal Hulk

At this point I have to retire the drinking game, because the character changes so much during the 50 issues of The Immortal Hulk that I can’t even keep track. Somehow, though, it all ties together in a way that makes sense when you read the comic, and the Al Ewing-written run is one of the best in comics history.

The Hulk came back during the storyline “No Surrender,” which happened over in The Avengers. Initially a foe of the Avengers, the Hulk remained mute through his early fights, leading many to believe that he was once again his dumb, mindless self. That turned out to be a ruse, as the Hulk revealed that he had quite a bit of intelligence when he got the Vision to overestimate himself and crippled him.

With the Hulk back, Banner went on the run again. His time dead had altered his intellect, so while he was still a genius he couldn’t create the sort of sci-fi gadgets that he used to. Rather than use the formula of Banner being on the run as an excuse to “reboot” the character without much continuity baggage, Ewing chose to lean into the character’s history to great effect.

The Hulk once again only came out at night. The twist this time was that he couldn’t die–even if Banner got shot in the heart during the day, the Hulk would come out at night fully healed. The Immortal Hulk leaned into the monster movie roots of the character, showing just how scary the Hulk could be if he was truly unstoppable. Even when he got his healing powers disabled and his heart ripped out, he just came back looking for more.

This run incorporated the full array of multiple personalities in Banner, going so far as to describe the scientist as part of a system. The child-like Hulk was in there as was the gray Hulk, although the latter spent most of the story stuck in Banner’s body. And the namesake of the book…the immortal Hulk? He turned out to be the Devil from Paul Jenkins’ run, but with a twist. He wasn’t the embodiment of evil in Banner, but was instead a protective instinct gone mad. He wanted to defend Banner at all cost and hurt the world that had hurt him so much.

The Immortal Hulk delves deep into horror and the afterlife, even tapping into Jewish mythology and mingling it with the character’s long history. I won’t reveal spoilers, but by the end Banner is back, no longer immortal, and has made at least a temporary peace with the Hulks inside him…some of whom may have been destroyed permanently, but the multiple personalities include at least the child-like and gray Hulks (although the gray guy spends some time green this time). The whole story is remarkable and represents a rare feat in modern mainstream comics: 50 issues, all written and drawn by the same creative team, presenting a complete story from beginning to end.

So what happened after a magnum opus run like this? Marvel pretended it didn’t exist, of course.

Smashtronaut

It’s hard to get a follow-up to a critically acclaimed run by The Immortal Hulk, so it’s perhaps wise that the next creative team of Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley didn’t try. Instead, they went in a strange new direction that mingled psychology and sci-fi.

After being controlled and forced to kill innocents, Banner took control of the Hulk by fracturing his personality and turning his mindscape into a Hulk-controlling spaceship.

Does that sound confusing? Well, that’s about the best explanation you’re going to get.

Basically, Banner stopped manifesting in the real world, allowing the Hulk to take control full-time. However, inside the system’s mind, the Hulk is a ship piloted by Banner. This opens the door to space travel, sci-fi thrills, and a lot of crazy action scenes that don’t make much sense when you examine them.

The Cates/Ottley run didn’t last long, and it has been narratively ignored since. But maybe some dumb, confusing action is what was needed after the thought-provoking and horror-filled Immortal Hulk.

The Hulk Today

Finally, we reach the conclusion of the Hulk’s evolution…for now.

The latest relaunch of The Incredible Hulk happened in 2023, with Banner on the run once again and at odds with the Hulk. (It turns out the big guy wasn’t a fan of being mentally split apart and turned into a spaceship.)

This run returns to the character’s roots, with the Hulk hating Banner and the art recalling monster movie transformation scenes. Bits of The Immortal Hulk still linger, such as a taste of body horror when Banner transforms rather graphically into the Hulk, complete with a stretching of skin and popping of limbs. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, the run clearly recalls Al Ewing’s story without quite retracing the same steps.

Where does the Hulk go from here? Well, the character has constantly fluctuated between “fresh starts” and in-depth stories that use the full scale of the character’s traumatic history. There will likely continue to be reboots, re-imaginings, and attempts to bill the newest run as “the most out-of-control Hulk yet!”

The Hulk is a beautiful mess of a character. No matter what happens, he will remain incredible.

_{Images: Marvel Comics}