The Immortal Hulk (comic book)

Template:Short description Template:Infobox comic book title The Immortal Hulk was an ongoing comic book series written by Al Ewing, pencilled by Joe Bennett, and published by Marvel Comics. The series starred the various dissociative identities, or "alters," of Bruce Banner as they grapple with the discovery that gamma-irradiated beings such as the Hulk are unable to die.

The series began in the aftermath of the "No Surrender" storyline in Avengers, with the Hulk returning from his death at the hands of Hawkeye during the Civil War II crossover event. It quickly garnered critical acclaim, including three Eisner Award nominations for Best Continuing Series. After spawning numerous one-shots by various creative teams and a spinoff miniseries starring Gamma Flight, the series concluded with issue #50 in October 2021.

Summary

The Immortal Hulk begins as a series of single-issue horror stories, many of which cast the Hulk in the role of the monster. However, a larger story soon emerges, involving the Green Door through which gamma creatures must pass on their way back from death. Learning the truth of the Green Door sets the Hulk on a path which leads him to confront his father, the machinations of a secret government organization, the first Marvel Comics character to be called the Hulk, and the driving force behind all evil in the Marvel Universe.

Themes

In its 50-issue span, The Immortal Hulk addresses a wide range of themes. Its opening issues focus on the idea that all people have a monstrous side to their nature. After Hulk travels to Hell, questions of the Problem of Evil and the nature of morality come to the fore. The introduction of Joe Fixit and the Savage Hulk leads to an exploration of Dissociative Identity Disorder and the reconceptualization of the Hulk's psychological makeup as a "system" rather than a Banner-Hulk binary. The Roxxon storyline takes an environmentalist approach, portraying the dangers of capitalism and propagandistic media. Additionally, race, gender identity, and religion (particularly Judaism) are also explored.

Reception

The Immortal Hulk garnered high praise following its debut in 2018. Matt Lune of Multiversity Comics called the first issue "extremely well done," praising the reimagining of the Hulk as "a terrifying figure, with a grim, twisted, toothy smile, piercing stare and distinctly disturbing eloquence." In 2019, 2020, and 2022, the series was nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series. Upon completion of the series, Tony Thornley of Comicon.com called it

Artist controversy

Bennett caused controversy by including what was interpreted as antisemitic imagery in the background of a panel in The Immortal Hulk #43. Though the imagery made it to print in the single issue, it was removed in collected editions. Following this, a 2018 political cartoon resurfaced in which the then-Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was allegorically depicted as an “Independence Dragoon” (a member of a historical Brazilian military unit) fighting political opponents (including former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer) in the shape of monstrous rats. In response to this illustration, Ewing severed ties with Bennett. On 9 September 2021, Marvel announced that he had been removed from his current assignments and was not on any future Marvel projects.

One-shots

In addition to the main fifty-issue run, several Immortal Hulk one-shots were released. Initially created as a way for the series to tie into crossover events without intruding on the main series, these one-shots expanded their focus to allow other creative teams a chance to tell self-contained Immortal Hulk stories.

Title	Writer	Artist	Colorist	Notes	Release date
Immortal Hulk: The Best Defense #1	Al Ewing	Simone Di Meo	Dono Sánchez-Almara	Tie-in to The Best Defense crossover	Template:Dts
Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1		Filipe Andrade	Chris O'Halloran	Tie-in to Absolute Carnage crossover	Template:Dts
Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1	Tom Taylor	Jorge Molina Adriano Di Benedetto Roberto Poggi	David Curiel		Template:Dts
Immortal Hulk #0	Al Ewing	Mattia de Iulis		Original framing story	Template:Dts
	Bill Mantlo	Mike Mignola Gerry Talaoc	Bob Sharen	Reprint of Incredible Hulk #312
	Peter David	Adam Kubert Mark Farmer	Dan Brown	Reprint of Incredible Hulk #-1
Immortal She-Hulk #1	Al Ewing	Jon Davis-Hunt	Marcio Menyz	Tie-in to Empyre crossover	Template:Dts
Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place #1	Jeff Lemire	Mike del Mundo	Mike del Mundo Marco D'Alfonso		Template:Dts
King in Black: Immortal Hulk #1	Al Ewing	Aaron Kuder	Frank Martin Erick Arciniega	Tie-in to King in Black crossover	Template:Dts
Immortal Hulk: Flatline #1	Declan Shalvey				Template:Dts
Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters #1	Alex Paknadel Al Ewing	Juan Ferreyra		Introduces prehistoric "original Hulk"	Template:Dts
	David Vaughan	Kevin Nowlan

Collected editions

The series has been collected into a number of hardcover and trade paperback collections:

Trade paperbacks

Volume	Title	Material collected	Page count	Publication date	ISBN	Additional notes
1	Or Is He Both?	Immortal Hulk #1-5 and material from Avengers #684	136	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
2	The Green Door	Immortal Hulk #6-10	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
3	Hulk in Hell	Immortal Hulk #11-15	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
4	Abomination	Immortal Hulk #16-20	136	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
5	Breaker of Worlds	Immortal Hulk #21-25	136	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
6	We Believe in Bruce Banner	Immortal Hulk #26-30	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
7	Hulk Is Hulk	Immortal Hulk #31-35	136	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
8	The Keeper of the Door	Immortal Hulk #36-40	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
9	The Weakest One There Is	Immortal Hulk #41-45	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
10	Of Hell and of Death	Immortal Hulk #46-50	184	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT
11	Apocrypha	Immortal Hulk: The Best Defense #1, Defenders: The Best Defense #1, Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1, Immortal Hulk #0, Immortal She-Hulk #1, King in Black: Immortal Hulk #1, and material from Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters #1	248	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Anthology collection of the Ewing-written Immortal Hulk one-shots
	Great Power	Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1, Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place #1, Immortal Hulk: Flatline #1, and material from Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters #1	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Anthology collection of the non-Ewing-written Immortal Hulk one-shots
	Gamma Flight	Gamma Flight #1-5	112	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Spinoff miniseries following Gamma Flight after the events of Immortal Hulk #47
	Defenders: There Are No Rules	Defenders #1-5 and material from Marvel Comics #1000-1001	144	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Related miniseries revealing where Harpy went at the end of Immortal Hulk #48

Hardcovers

Volume	Material collected	Page count	Publication date	ISBN	Additional notes
Book 1	Immortal Hulk #1-10 and material from Avengers #684	264	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Compilation of Vol. 1 & 2 trade paperbacks
Book 2	Immortal Hulk #11-20	232	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Compilation of Vol. 3 & 4 trade paperbacks
Book 3	Immortal Hulk #21-30	256	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Compilation of Vol. 5 & 6 trade paperbacks
Book 4	Immortal Hulk #31-40	248	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Compilation of Vol. 7 & 8 trade paperbacks
Book 5	Immortal Hulk #41-50	304	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Compilation of Vol. 9 & 10 trade paperbacks
Omnibus	Immortal Hulk #1-50, Immortal Hulk: The Best Defense #1, Defenders: The Best Defense #1, Absolute Carnage: Immortal Hulk #1, Immortal Hulk #0, Immortal She-Hulk #1, King in Black: Immortal Hulk #1, Gamma Flight #1-5, and material from Avengers #684 and Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters #1	1,616	Template:Dts	Template:ISBNT	Collection of all Ewing-written Immortal Hulk material. Does not include Immortal Hulk: Great Power #1, Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place #1, Immortal Hulk: Flatline #1, the non-Ewing-written material from Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters #1, or the Defenders miniseries