Bruce Banner: The Hulk Appreciation 2019

[FrazettaHulk]

Sounds like after issue 23, the Immortal Hulk’s schedule is going to be delayed. BleedingCool reporting 24 will Oct 2nd instead of September 18th. Issue 25 was originally Oct 2nd. Then moved to Oct 16th. And is now moved from that too! Can probably assume all previously solicitated dates are incorrect now.

[Ptrvc]

Sounds like after issue 23, the Immortal Hulk’s schedule is going to be delayed. BleedingCool reporting 24 will Oct 2nd instead of September 18th. Issue 25 was originally Oct 2nd. Then moved to Oct 16th. And is now moved from that too! Can probably assume all previously solicitated dates are incorrect now.

Take anything BC says with salt. Plenty of salt.

[FrazettaHulk]

Take anything BC says with salt. Plenty of salt.

Al Ewing from Twitter-I'm not sure what the latest schedule reads, but from what I understand it's looking like a more normal (for other comics) frequency for a couple of issues?

[PlatinumThorns]

sound like it's single-issue monthly, instead of double shipping

[Gamma Irradiated Being]

And here it goes!

Immortal Hulk #23 preview

https://www.cbr.com/immortal-hulk-ja...-origin-story/

Eagerly awaiting the issue with a few concerns about the art. I'm not feeling Samson's 1970's classic outfit or the previous issues Gamma Flight green shirts with khaki slacks look. Also, now that we can gage a time frame of the destruction of Jackie's home, it had to happen before TIH #278. The problem I have is shouldn't the Hulk have been drawn looking like his Savage-Childlike self?

[Subzero89]

Of course they delay 2 of the arguably most important issues of the series... Sigh... We wait this long i guess we will wait a bit longer, it's gotta come out eventually.

[Vordan]

Honestly it’s been a pleasant surprise that Bennett has managed to keep up with the schedule with the occasional break for this long. That’s really rare nowadays, only other artists who have been that consistent recently that I know of are Reis on Superman and Sharpe on TGL, and Reis is taking a break and Sharpe is as well. Frankly I say let Bennett take the time he needs, I’ll take a delayed issue over sloppy art any day.

[Ptrvc]

Honestly it’s been a pleasant surprise that Bennett has managed to keep up with the schedule with the occasional break for this long. That’s really rare nowadays, only other artists who have been that consistent recently that I know of are Reis on Superman and Sharpe on TGL, and Reis is taking a break and Sharpe is as well. Frankly I say let Bennett take the time he needs, I’ll take a delayed issue over sloppy art any day.

Same. I
Hoping for issues that resonate for decades. I can wait a few weeks.

A few.

[PlatinumThorns]

https://www.cbr.com/interview-al-ewi...olute-carnage/

New Ewing interview for #23-#25 and the Absolute Carnage tie-in! There's some really some interesting stuff this time, nothing really spoiler-y besides the new art, but I'll post some of quotes:

In October's issue #25, the action jumps into the far future and the heat death of the Universe. Now, the solicits mention the “Ninth Cosmos," and the idea of numbered iterations of cosmos was a significant element in your Ultimates run. Are you bringing in some of those ideas to Immortal Hulk?

We established in Ultimates that the current, post-Secret Wars iteration of the Marvel Multiverse is the Eighth Cosmos. Pre-Secret Wars, it was the Seventh - there's some debate about whether that's a true restart, since everybody survived it, but the big cosmic aspects seem to be counting it. Galan of Taa, who became Galactus, was born in the Sixth, and before that there was the Fifth, where the ghost wizard Moridun is from. And so on back to the First Firmament. It's all in Ultimates and Ultimates2 if you want to read it. Anyway, once everything ends - and begins again - it will be the Ninth. And the Ninth Cosmos is where #25 is set. So we're billions of years in the future, in a completely different space and time. This is why we called it "groundbreaking" in solicits - because we're exploring this new territory, this place and time where, to the best of my knowledge, Marvel Comics hasn't yet been.

The solicit text for #25 says Hulk is finally dead, but the Ninth Cosmos cowers before “The Breaker of Worlds.” That suggests the Jade Giant's legacy lives on, or he has somehow ascended. What can you tell us about this particular chapter? How does it compare so some of the previous stories you've told in this book?

Well, not quite nothing - I will say a little about how it came to be. I've been planning for this story since June 15, 2018. That's when I sent the email saying "let's do this." So probably around the time all the Hell stuff was really locking into place. Originally, it was going to be the length of a trade - as in, we were going to spend five issues in the Ninth Cosmos - but we ended up paring it down, and now it's a relatively tight forty pages, which I think is about right. How it compares to previous stories... it doesn't. This is going to be completely different to anything readers have seen up until this point. Hopefully it'll still be horrific on various levels, though. Horrific and filled with a kind of ethereal alien sadness.

October also sees the release of the Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk special by you and artist Filipe Andrade. How did an Absolute Carnage story with the Immortal Hulk come together, and what's it like pitting your monster against Carnage and his followers?

Anyway, you have Thunderbolt Ross - he wore a symbiote at one point, so his corpse is kind of dragged into the story. Thunderbolt Ross being stolen from his grave was already in the Absolute Carnage story, and I thought that would definitely have an effect on Banner - the corpse of an old acquaintance and ex-gamma mutate going missing? That's going to sound familiar. Then you have the whole concept of Knull - a cosmic, demonic figure from before the universe began? Again, sounds familiar. So Bruce Banner hears about this stuff - from the on-the-run motel-dwelling lifestyle he's stuck in between #20 and #22 - and immediately decides that all of this is clearly all about him. We have a little fun with that - the guest star assuming he's the protagonist of the crossover - but it's also a chance to get a close look at the current state of the four personas taking turns in Banner's body, and how that relates to Eddie Brock's simpler relationship with Venom.

There a whole lot more discussion in the article so I suggest you read it yourself.

[Ptrvc]

Bummed we won't be seeing Skaar. More bummed that we will be seeing Cho.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Bummed we won't be seeing Skaar. More bummed that we will be seeing Cho.

For the best, IMO. This series has taken a horror bent, and horror tends to maul those caught up in it.

[Ptrvc]

For the best, IMO. This series has taken a horror bent, and horror tends to maul those caught up in it.

Now your just getting my hopes up.

[ChrisIII]

Looks like Red Harpy 'kills' Bruce (or Joe?) there in the art preview. I don't think we've seen the Bruce dying part of the book in a while (could be wrong though-although the Hulk certainly came close recently). It was also mentioned in Fantastic Four recently, that the Hulk basically had to swim (or walk?) from the Thing's Honeymoon island to the Raft, and during that time Banner drowned several times.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #268
Cover Date: February 1982
Sale Date: November 10th, 1981
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Letterer: Shelly Leferman
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Al Milgrom

“And They Call the Wind Pariah!”

Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Betty Ross, Rick Jones
Villain: Pariah
Synopsis: 1871. The mining town of Whispering Wells. A gunfighter who could pass as Clint Eastwood arrives and wonders what could kill an entire town. He wanders into the saloon, takes what appears to be a golden rock – only to discover that it’s not gold, but a gem that transforms him into an undead spirit called Pariah. Fast-forward 110 years, where we see the Hulk being subjected to another round of gamma radiation, forcing the change back into Bruce Banner. A discussion about the treatments turns into sympathy from Rick about how unfair it is to the Hulk. Rick offers a suggestion about having Banner’s mind in control of the Hulk’s body, but Bruce and Betty reject the notion, even explaining that it’s happened before but never last. A frustrated Rick jumps in the car and takes off. We then get a flashback on Rick’s days in an orphanage as he wanders into a ghost town…and Pariah. Back at the cave, Bruce and Betty get into a discussion about their future when the cave receiver picks up Rick’s cries of pain. Banner transforms and leaps into the sky. He arrives at Whispering Wells and finds Rick aged to the point of death. Pariah turns his attention to the Hulk and begins draining his life energies, but the brute’s rage gives him renewed strength and he crushes the stone to powder. This restores Rick and Hulk’s life forces and the town is whisked into the sky as if it had never existed.




Commentary: Sal did some interesting rendering on the flashback sequences that really make his art pop. It’s gritty and sandy, making it look and feel like it took place in a 19th century ghost town. Even though I felt like Sal was in a neutral rut in this time, he could still crank out great stuff. Only gets better from here…

[GreenScar1990]

The Green Scar

By: Joe Bennett