The Immortal Hulk 6: We Believe in Bruce Banner
Quite a break from The Immortal Hulk: Breaker of Worlds volume. We left off that book with Cosmic Hulk smashing a planet and the sudden appearance of the Leader. There’s nothing like that going on here and the Leader doesn’t show up at all. Instead we have a political Hulk comic, with Bruce Banner (“an angry middle-class white guy talking about revolution”) on a crusade against corporate “crisis” capitalism. This means taking on the Roxxon Corporation and its CEO: a nine-foot-tall man-bull called (fittingly enough) the Minotaur.
Roxxon is the epitome of all kinds of capitalism gone mad, and Dario Agger/Minotaur is a great villain. He likes to drink espresso out of little china cups that he shatters. Because he’s a giant man-bull and they have a thing for breaking china. He also has a habit of crushing the heads of his underlings when they say anything that upsets him.
So when the Hulk destroys a Roxxon server farm, taking signature platforms like YouRoxx, Roxxface, and Yambler offline, the Minotaur decides to fight back by bringing in some recruits from Monster Island to have a showdown with the Hulk in Phoenix. With the level bad guy being Xemnu the Living Titan.
The cover to this collection is actually very misleading, as Xemnu only appears on the final page and we never see the Hulk and Xemnu fighting. I guess that’s coming up next issue. Unless they do another swerve like at the end of Breaker of Worlds and leave us hanging.
Overall I quite liked this volume of the Immortal Hulk saga. It stays in the here and now, without whisking us through the green door or out into deep space and the even deeper future. The main storyline was also pretty interesting, and I like the idea of a progressive Hulk. Though maybe he’s not really progressive since he basically wants to smash the world. The battle in Phoenix was a waste though, and the kaiju that the Hulk fights are a bore. And what struck me is that once again we have the business of characters being eaten. I’m starting to think Al Ewing has a thing for this.
In any event, things are looking good so . . . on we go!
Wouldn’t have expected the Hulk and his pal there to be so girly pink, but nice that they’re embracing their femininity.
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It takes a pair of real men to show that side of themselves.
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Get that boy a bottle of BBQ sauce, stat!
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There’s a whole lot of people getting eaten in this series. They’d go through a lot of BBQ sauce.
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Maybe Tony Stark should expand into the food industry too. Iron Man BBQ Sauce, and some clever byline.
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At least salad dressing.
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I agree. If it worked for Paul Newman, it can work for anybody…
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Just what I was thinking.
Or he could do his own line of energy drinks.
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In today’s market, that’s definitely the way to go. I’m rubbish at naming conventions though, especially this early in the morning…
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Power up with an Iron Can.
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See, at least you can come up with something. I am at zero right now.
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You just need to heat up a tray of lasagna for breakfast and you’ll be good.
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Ughhhhhh. That’s too heavy for breakfast. I’d drive to work and then just sit in the car, unable to go in to the office 😀
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