An accident waiting to happen. Is there a better explanation for the unsettling, anticipatory emanation that the arrival of Bruce Banner creates in an environment. However there are worse things that can happen, dangers that you can’t anticipate. Entities that await the perfect opportunity to strike. Call it mayhem or the Mother of Monsters. The Incredible Hulk #2 continues a new chapter in the characters mythos. Will this be the opportunity for Bruce to get his life out of shambles? Or continue proving he is nothing but a worthless carcass?
The Incredible Hulk #2
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Nic Klein
Color Artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC;s Cory Petit
Issue #2 of The Incredible Hulk begins with an image of an old back country church. A bit of forshadowing takes place as a murder of crows can be seen flying towards the chapel steeple. Side by side transitioning panels, from color artist Matthew Wilson, show an ashen, smoky handprint slowly appearing on the grave as this same hazy smoke is seen billowing out from a coal mine deep below. The melodic opening narrative and the grave marker’s words suggest to the reader that whoever Sister Sadie is, she is coming home.
Homecoming may be the best description for this newest launch of The Incredible Hulk from Marvel Comics. There is a real sense of nostalgia in this comic’s artistic aesthetic and the storyline. It feels like a callback to the earliest days, the time when Bruce was first coming to grips with his new personality. Just like then this new series sees a Banner whose reputation, his personal life and career, is in ruins thus leaving him with only one option – runaway. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson uses this as a framework to revisit an aspect of the Banner/Hulk dynamic often misunderstood – vulnerability. Servitude and submission aren’t terms usually associated with the Banner/Hulk situation however, it seems to be exactly where this series is heading.
If you look at the last 4-5 year period for Banner/Hulk closely you can almost see a pyramid emerging. In 2019’s Immortal Hulk, readers saw a struggle for possession of the body of the strongest there is. Next 2022’s Hulk was about Banner attempting to cage and control the Jade Giant. Johnson’s The Incredible Hulk seems set to deal with the final aspect we associate with the individual. People may refer to this as someone’s nature, their core, their soul however, for both Banner and Hulk the name Fractured Son fits perfectly. This name embodies the idea that both Banner and Hulk have a history of horrific actions and now so desperately simply just want to feel whole. But do they need each other to do this?
One person who does feel she needs at least one of them is Charlie. Apparently Hulk has a new fan since he showed up to help Charlie whose foster father was threatening the young woman for fleeing after being tormented and abused at home. Not that this is the first time Hulk has had a “sidekick” but there is a distinct difference between Charlie and Rick Jones. Maybe it has something to do with a comment Banner makes to Charlie as they discuss a weird elderly man who they cross paths with as they travel the back country road. According to Bruce, monsters have a way of finding each other.
That certainly seems to be the case as later a mass consisting of individuals with the same corpse-ish look of the man who passed Bruce and Charlie arrive at the church from the issue’s opening. Under the thrall of Sister Sadie’s song they have all come to submit in an effort to free Brother Deep. This gives a sense that the series is about to introduce readers to a powerful new pantheon of dark forces. All who have a common enemy that has once again emerged from the Green Door. A door Banner is struggling to desperately keep shut.
We witness this played out in a dream sequence illustrated and colored by artist Nic Klein. The surreal scenario that unfolds beautifully conveys the struggle as Banner slumbers. Finding himself falling into a lake, Hulk’s booming voice is ever present to torment Banner. Catching his breath as he reaches the surface, suddenly he is face to face with a larger than life Hulk. A very giant Hulk erupts from the water with one warning for Bruce – I’ll be all that’s left of you.
From The Incredible Hulk #2 you begin to recognize this series is about dealing with your own demons and someone else’s as well. Sometimes the route to fixing the mess you’ve made of your life takes a detour. It becomes less about what you do directly for yourself and more about what you do in service of others. That is the case with Sister Sadie and the yet unseen Brother Deep. Both are apparently in service of The Eldest, herself in servitude to the Mother of Horrors. These entities and more are all traveling a highway heading towards a crash collision with the Fractured Son. When it is Bruce they encounter instead will the one they are searching for show up to help? As Banner pleads that they will kill Charlie too, a play on Hulk’s heroic side, Hulk reminds Bruce that he will die first.
Since his – see Hawkeye’s – selfless act in Civil War II to prevent Icarus premonition, Banner has been on a solitary path. In the past this may have proven the best course of action for dealing with the Hulk persona. But recently it has come to include his attitude towards friends, even family like Betty. This, in turn, has led to him becoming the type of individual who feels they must walk the road alone. Given that no man, mutant or monster is an island unto himself this situation isn’t ideal. Especially when you are in possession of one of, if not the most powerful engine in the entire Marvel Universe. Who has the attention of some dangerously deadly new entities and a potential partner in peril.
Always searching for redemption, The Incredible Hulk #2 is a setup for Banner (and Hulk) to go from Fractured to Prodigal Son. As two conjoined entities, who for years wrestled for a sense of self, at the expense of the other, will they finally find a way to coexist? Or will the Mother of Horrors leave them both a shell of their former selves.
May be time for a policy change.
Score: 9.1