Hulk is a series by Marvel Comics launched in 2021. It is written by Donny Cates with artwork by Ryan Ottley.
Following the events of Immortal Hulk, it seemed that Bruce Banner and the Hulk had developed a peace of mind with their condition and lives. However, something terrible has happened that has shattered the two badly, thus Banner is doing something he hasn't tried before: turning the Hulk into a "Smashtronaut". What has happened to the two to push Banner into doing such a thing?
On November 19th, 2022, it was announced that Donny Cates had left the series, with Ryan Ottley taking over writing duties. It was subsequently announced that the series would end with issue #14 (April 2023), when Ottley also leaves the title. The series was succeeded by a new run in June 2023, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson.
Storylines and events that are part of this run
In addition to the usual Hulk tropes, this work includes examples of:
- An Arm and a Leg: When Tony traps Hulk's arm in a cage of adamantium, Hulk easily rips his arm off from the elbow.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Bruce Banner has built a "Mind Palace" inside the Hulk which splits into 3 distinct parts: 1) The Hulk's body has been turned into a starship. 2) Banner's psyche pilots it from within the Hulk's mind from the "Command Deck". 3) The Hulk's psyche fuels the starship with his anger from the "Engine Room".
- A mysterious entity, taking the form of Betty's psyche, hijacks the Command Deck from Bruce's psyche until he was able regain control.
- Odin's spirit and Bruce's psyche engage in this inside Starship Hulk's command deck.
- Beyond the Impossible:
- Tony Stark returns for a rematch on the Black Hand of God (a planet made from a Celestial hand) against Hulk in his new Celestial-powered Hulkbuster armor he built for the next Knull-level threat. As their battle escalates so does Hulk's rage and gamma emissions. Eventually Hulk goes critical and explodes, destroying the new Iron Man suit (as well as most of the planet they were on). The force of said explosion? Approximately 3000 GAMMA BOMBS!! Oh, and as a side-effect Thor is turned into a Hulk.
- Lampshaded two-fold by Sif. Not only Hulked-out Thor is able to resist the pull of the Bifrost, he also manages to shatter the whole dang bridge.
- Brain with a Manual Control: That consists of entire "Command Deck" with all sorts of special functions Bruce can activate on a whim.
- Cold-Blooded Torture:
- It is brought up more than once that forcing the Hulk to endure endless battle in the Engine Room is practically torture on its own.
- Earth-112 Bruce Banner gets subjected to this personally by President Ross, in futile attempt to get info on Starship Hulk.
- Crossover: 2022's Banner of War serves as one between Hulk and Cates' concurrent run on Thor (2020).
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Both the FCBD issue and the first issue has Hulk tearing through A.I.M., M.O.D.O.K., and four Hulkbusters with ease.
- Death Faked for You: Thor tells Tony that the Hulk was destroyed in the explosion that returned him to normal. When Sif questions Thor if it's wise to cover for Hulk, Thor replies that Bruce doesn't deserve to hunted for a crime he wasn't resposible for and should have the chance to find healing.
- Death of Personality: Banner fears this. He realizes that while the Incredible Hulk is indeed immortal, Dr. Bruce Banner is not, and every time he dies a bit more of him slips away. This obviously wasn't a serious problem until he started abusing Hulk's immortality in the previous run, killing himself over and over again, and now he doesn't know how much time he has left until the Hulk takes over for good.
- Demonic Possession: In the final issue, Titan is revealed to be a piece of the One Below All's essence implanted into Bruce Banner's mind by D'Spayre. While Doctor Strange mentions that Titan is a permanent part of Bruce's psyche, his core is shown being reclaimed by the One Below All-possessed Leader.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom:
- The result of a collision between Mjolnir-welding Hulk and Hulked-out Thor.
- As Bruce feared, it happens to "Hulk Planet" when Titan is unleashed.
- Energy Absorption: Titan can suck any gamma creature dry.
- Titan later gets a taste of his own medicine from Monolith.
- Expy: Banner encounters an alternate version of himself on a parallel Earth, where the Gamma Bomb was successfully tested. In this capacity, Bruce is effectively Robert Oppenheimer.
- Flying Brick: Well, the Hulk's body has been reformatted as a Starship. Soooo...yeah.
- Godzilla Threshold: Banner's putting this on himself. Realizing how dangerous he is now, he's opted to exile himself, turning the Hulk into a "starship" of sorts and bailing from the Earth.
- Grand Theft Me:
- A very strange version of this. Banner is realizing one day the Hulk's subconscious is going to be so strong that, when he breaks out again, he will take over completely and Banner will never wake up again. So, he's shoved the Hulk in an "engine room" and is controlling his body via his psyche as a sort of "Starship Hulk".
- A far more straightforward example takes place at the end of the first arc, when an unidentified entity hijacks Hulk and triggers the emergence of Titan.
- Comes to a full circle in the final issue, where Bruce and Hulk become one again and retake their body from Titan.
- Happy Ending Override: Immortal Hulk ended with a semblance of peace amongst Banner and the Hulks. Come this series, he is rather hostile toward any of them, and the story mostly disregards the strides made toward peace (barring some minor rewrites to account for it).
- Hulking Out: What happens when Hulk Hulks-out? You get a Titan!
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Titan dishes these out like candy with claws sharp enough to pierce Abomination.
- Like a Son to Me: Earth-112 Bruce says this word-for-word about Earth-112 Peter Parker, his star pupil. Who of course was also bitten by a gamma-irradiated spider.
- Limit Break: When Bruce and Hulk refuse to fight in issue 12, Titan goes "screw it" and snaps the Engine Room lever past its limit.
- The Men First: While taking her through a warp portal, Monolith insists that Dr. Strange save her people first from Titan.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Earth-112 Bruce also says this word-for-word when he witnesses the power the Hulk possesses.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Hulk's rage is being more pent up than usual; trapped in the Engine Room. When it gets channeled, it can be release in new different ways, such as optic vision or explosions.
- One-Winged Angel: When Titan seizes control of the Hulk's body, it causes him to mutate into a colossal monster with claws, fangs, glowing red eyes capable of shooting energy beams, jet black skin, and spikes.
- Pinned to the Wall: Thor places Mjölnir on the back of an unworthy Hulk to pin him to the ground. Hulk being the Hulk, however, is able push his body right through the hammer, freeing himself with the only loss being a chuck of his lower body that he quickly regenerates.
- Power Levels: Of a sort. The "Engine Room", where the Hulk psyche is trapped, has up to 10 different levels of forced simulated battles designed to increase Hulk's rage. Ergo, grant more power to the Starship as a whole. (Ex. Stage 1: Infinite Armies, Stage 2: Monsters, etc). As Donny Cates answered in a tweet, it's not really about "powerscaling"; just what would push Hulk's rage as far as it can go.
- Powers as Programs: When the Hulk unleashes a blast equivalent to 3000 Gamma Bombs, Thor is caught in the epicentre and turned into a Gamma Mutate similar to the Hulk. The Hulk then takes up Mjolnir, giving him Thor's powers and cladding him in Asgardian armor.
- Self-Imposed Exile: After El Paso is leveled by Titan and Banner realizes that only the Hulk is truly immortal, Banner chooses to throw himself into interdimensional space, hoping to protect everyone he knows from the worst yet to come.
- Sequel Hook: The final issue ends with Doc Sasquatch warning Bruce that — according to Doctor Strange — Titan is a permanent part of his psyche, only for the Leader — still fused to the One Below All — to open a Green Door and reclaim the shard of his essence making up Titan's core.
- Shattered World: Bruce warns Monolith that this is what will happen to her planet if his Titan side comes out.She REALLY should have listened.
- Status Quo Is God:
- The (umpteenth) detente Banner had achieved with his alter ego's personality by the end of Immortal Hulk has been destroyed by an unknown force manipulating them. It's worth noting that Hulk is actually still willing to make amends. Banner is the one unwilling to make peace, afraid of his own destructive potential.
- Bruce is back to being a super-genius again; actually built a functional starship out of the Hulk.
- Superpowered Evil Side: In Issue #3, Bruce has a nightmare of the El Paso Incident where the Hulk makes him watch while he destroys the city and kills everyone. After returning to human form, Bruce demands an explanation from the Hulk, saying he thought they were a team, and a Red and Black and Evil All Over version of the Hulk appears and sneers that he did it because Bruce is weak before crushing Bruce's head like a grape. This incident was what prompted Bruce to imprison the Hulk in his mindscape and leave Earth. It's later subverted in that the evil side in question, Titan, turns out to not be part of Bruce, but a demon in league with D'Spayre.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Titan takes elements of both Knull (his appearance and open, direct hostility) and the One Below All (a force trying to commandeer the Hulk).
- The Reveal:
- Not in this book, but over in Thor, it's revealed that the El Paso Incident is Banner somehow accidentally infecting the patrons of a bar with his anger and transformations while something evil infected him and murdered the patrons and destroyed the bar.
- D'spayre (disguised as Dr.Strange) was the one helped Bruce create his Mind Palace.
- Titan isn't actually one of Bruce's Hulk personalities, but a demon seeking to take over his body and claim it and its power for himself, and D'spayre was working for him.
- Talking to Themself: Both Hulk and Thor possess a voice in their heads that only they can hear ("Betty" for Hulk and Odin for Thor) which leads into hilariously awkward interaction between the two when they both get fed up.Hulk: [to "Betty"] Leave me alone!!!
Thor: [[to Odin] That is final!
Hulk/Thor: Who are you talking to?
Hulk: [proceeds to smash] AGHHH!!!
Thor: Aye! That's more like it! - Tomato in the Mirror: Ultimately this is Titan's real nature; Bruce thought it was a more destructive "natural" Hulk personality, but in reality it was created through the manipulations of the demon D'Spayre.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Turns out Tony has a mysterious project going on called "Project A.R.K.", which uses Celestial energies as a gateway to evacuate the Earth in case of another Knull-level incident. Banner uses it to leave the Earth, but Tony warns him that they haven't tested it at all and he could end up anywhere. Banner's cool with it.
- Viral Transformation: In El Paso, Titan infected 27 bar patrons with gamma, turning them into mini-hulks. He then slaughters the lot of them while possessing Banner's body.
- Willfully Weak: As pointed out by Odin and Beta Ray Bill, Thor often holds back even when fighting the Hulk. Now that he is "Hulked-Out", Thor is able to release years of pent up frustration in full.
