Weeeell... this was a great start for the new series. The story is simple yet brutally effective in driving home what this series will be about. The relationship between Bruce Banner and his other half, the Hulk, in an horror setting. Only the horror, at least in this issue felt very "real world" like and makes one question what any man can do under some not so ideal circumstances.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Issue starts with a gas station being robbed by a guy in a hoodie. He enters, points his gun at the guy behind the counter, asks for money. He's clearly nervous... then a 12 years old girls sees him and, startled, let le bottle she was holding drop and break on the floor. The hooded guy with a gun panicks, shoots and klills her. Another costumer notices what just happened. His eyes start turning green. The robber shoots him as well and puts him down on the floor next to the girl. Now having completely lost it, the man with the gun kills the the counterman, takes the money and runs.
There's a brief interlude with a detective woman informing a reporter about what happened at the gas station, then the scene moves to the local morgue where the body of the people killed during the day starts moving, increases size, and colors green.
The scene changes again. This time it opens on a dilapidated house in the middle of the desert. A biker gang's lair. Here we find the robber, this time without the hoodie. He looks traumatized by the gas station events and tries to relate them to the biker gang's boss guy. The robber can only speak about the triple murder he committed and explain how it was all just a mistake, a freak accident caused by his sudden panick at being discovered. He clearly wants the biker gang leader to agree with him, yet the biker doesn't seem to care at all. He just wants to know how much the robber stole. It was 200 bucks. The biker takes it as partial payment for the amount he lent to the robber. Apparently the guy has a family, can't get a job, can't pay his bills and was forced to ask for money to the biker gang. In order to repay them he robbed the gas station where he panicked and committed a triple homicide. The biker gang leader doesn't care. He even jokes about it and sends the robber turned murderer away to get the rest of his money. The robber moves out of the house, but then something explodes near it. The lights do down. The bikers take out their weapons and go checking. Shoots are fired. Bikers start screaming. Two gigantic green arms break down a wall. The robber guy runs away. Tries to reach a car but his hands shake and he drops his keys on the ground. When he gets them everything around him is silent. He looks around. Behind him a gigantic green monster looms and tells him the name of the 12 years old girl he killed. The green monster is fully articulate. It asks the robber turned murderer how did it feel to have all that stopping power in his hands. If a part of him wasn't wondering about what he could do with it. The man denies it at first. Then he realizes the monster is right. And tries to shoot him. It has no effect. The monster calmly explain how he found the murderer. It did because the murderer was lying to himself and it can smell a liar, it says. The murderer asks forgiveness. He promises to confess. To give himself up to the police. He begs. He's got a family... a little girl! He's not a bad guy... is him? The monster listens, answer the robber's question, lunges forward with its gigantic hands and then the scene shifts again.
It's moring. The police is investigating the biker gang's hideout, now a broken ruin. The murderer is held in an hospital room. He's in a coma. Every bone of his body was shattered and even if he wakes up he will never walk again. In the room with him there are his wife and daughter, crying.
On the outside the detective and reporter we previously met are talking about the situation. The bikers were terrified of what happened and have given testimony about the gas station murders. The assaliant is considered unknown, but the detective makes clear that what happened it the work of a green skinned monster. One that was dead, and it is not anymore. The scene shifts one last time.
In a motel room a man that was shoot in the head the day before is in the bathroom, washing his hands. He asks "I am not a bad person... am I? What do you think?". The green skinned monster reflected in the mirror doesn't answer, just grins.
Very powerful stuff.
5/5 imo.