The World Beneath Worlds In Immortal Hulk #12
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
We are given a short glimpse at Bruce Banner’s childhood and the abuse he suffered under his father. Brian Banner investigated gamma radiation in his own career, and he thought he was on the verge of discovering something significant that scared him away. He believed that young Bruce’s intellect came from that thing. Meanwhile, the Hulk is having difficulty keeping his beastly side under control, and Puck and the Absorbing Man are nearing the summit of this hell.
Immortal Hulk #12 continues the series’ dark descent into the things lie in wait beneath our world and the things that haunt the mind of even the Hulk himself.
This issue gives us some insight from the perspective of Bruce’s father, Brian Banner. We learn some of what fueled his abuse and mania, and he is humanized if only a little.
The story is somehow getting even more eldritch as it goes on, and that’s an interesting change of pace from the previously straight sci-fi Hulk stories of the past.
There is a lot of talk of unspeakable evils, things existing under our perception of reality, and comparisons to religion, mainly Zoroastrianism and Christianity.
We are left to ponder the nature of the “Devil Hulk” personality again, and there may be one or two major reveals left in that regard.
Joe Bennett renders the majority of the comic again, with Eric Nguyen drawing the flashbacks with Brian and Bruce Banner. Bennett is as phenomenal as ever, and Nguyen brings a toned-down yet still ominous aesthetic to the scenes from Bruce’s childhood. Paul Mounts’s color work is fantastic, keeping the atmosphere heavy and disquieting throughout.
Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, and the team roar onward with Immortal Hulk #12. The book still delivers plenty of shocking and thoughtful moments to leave reader unnerved and thinking about the implications of what they just read. It’s a beautifully dark tome, and I highly recommend giving it a read.
Immortal Hulk #12 comes to us from writer Al Ewing, artists Joe Bennett with Ruy Jose and Eric Nguyen, color artist Paul Mounts, letterer VC’s Cory Petit, cover artist Alex Ross, and variant cover artists Geoff Shaw with Jason Keith and Will Sliney with Chris Sotomayor.