The Infernal Hulk #1
Matt Meyer
Recap
For eons untold, the Mother of Horrors was imprisoned in a pocket dimension, locked behind a gate none but The One Below All could open. Using Hulk as their vessel, the being known as Eldest finally opened her mother's prison... but found her withered, mindless, and broken. Eldest consumed their mother's flesh, imbuing Hulk's body with the primordial seed of corruption that once created the great Old Ones. As this infernal Hulk rises, a new age of Earth begins: the Age of Monsters!
Review
Infernal Hulk #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Matthew Wilson, and Cory Petit is a beast of a book. Everything that Johnson was building toward in his prior Incredible Hulk run is unleashed, and boy, it doesn’t hold back. This new evil iteration of the Hulk – his body co-opted by the Eldest – wastes no time showing the military how powerful he is in the gnarliest, bloodiest ways possible.
The action, though, is best demonstrated via the mood. There’s a sense of foreboding right from page one, and as soon as the infernal Hulk lets loose, any and all bets are off. Readers can sense the soldiers going up against the creature are doomed from the start, but the sheer stark brutality of their dispatch at Hulk’s hands isn’t for the squeamish. There’s an ugly brutality here – this Hulk is pure evil; there’s no Bruce Banner in the back of his head whispering rationality to calm down. Nic Klein’s art, which has undergone a metamorphosis toward the grotesque throughout the previous Incredible Hulk run, is a master class in savage detail here. No stone (or body) is left unbroken.
Our POV character, a local man named Bridger, straddles the gap between the the soldier’s outlook and that of an ordinary civilian to witness the horror at hand. His words of wisdom to a younger Armyman cut to the truth of combat of any sort: “Nobody in combat’s a hero. Everyone’s just trying not to get killed. The good ones help their buddies not get killed.”
You can probably guess what happens next, driving home Bridger’s point in spades in horrifying ways.
As a first issue, Infernal Hulk is lean and mean (emphasis on the mean), but perhaps not the best jumping-on point, as the only point of reference for what lead to this issue’s events is on the recap page. That said, looking at it on its own merits, it’s a brutal comic that sets the stage for what’s next in the life of the Incredible Infernal Hulk, and it looks to be a doozy. While there mysteriously wasn’t a ton of hype for Johnson’s previous run on Hulk, Infernal is one helluva comic that puts readers squarely in the middle of a new conflict that will define the Hulk for the next decade-plus. Stand back, or get squashed.
Final Thoughts
Infernal Hulk isn't necessarily the most new-reader friendly first issue to hit the stands lately, but that doesn't stop it from being a thrill-a-minute joyride of pure evil unleashed, hitting like a satanic Mack truck. Not for the weak of stomach, but definitely for anyone looking for something new and brilliantly unhinged.
The Infernal Hulk #1: IT’S ALIVE!
- Writing - 9.5/109.5/10
- Storyline - 9/109/10
- Art - 10/1010/10
- Color - 10/1010/10
- Cover Art - 9.5/109.5/10
