The Hulk Is More Deadly and Evil Than Ever Before, and It’s All His Own Fault

The Hulk has always ridden the line between hero and monster. In his earliest days, he was the very embodiment of hate and destruction, and every time he was unleashed, he sought to destroy everything around him. Even as he evolved into more of a misguided child throwing a tantrum, the world still hunted him, declaring him a savage beast. At the same time, he’s been an Avenger, a Defender, and saved the world just as often as he’s threatened it. In fact, he’s saved it more. Even at his most destructive, there was always a piece of the Hulk that didn’t want to fight, be it Banner or himself. Now, that’s no longer true.

The final issue of Incredible Hulk (2023) saw Banner and Hulk forcibly separated by the Eldest, who claimed the Hulk’s body as her own. With it, she pried open the seal that locked the Mother of Horrors away. To her despair, she found her mother long since dead, but refused to give up on her dream of an age of monsters. The Eldest consumed the Mother’s flesh and emerged as the Infernal Hulk. The Hulk is fully controlled by a monster hellbent on destroying the world as we know it, and there’s nobody left to stop him. Worse yet, it’s all the Hulk’s fault.

Pushing Everyone Until They Leave

The entirety of Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s run on Incredible Hulk followed the theme of Hulk wanting to be alone. He wanted to finally rid himself of Banner and everyone else, and so even as the Eldest set her sights on the Fractured Son, he refused help from everyone. Every time he transformed, Hulk buried Banner deeper and deeper within their shared mindscape, intent on making him disappear forever. The only companion Hulk let stick around him was Charlie Tidwell, a young girl who was a fan of the Hulk, and who would become a monster herself after wearing Lycanna’s flesh.

Doctor Strange, Doctor Voodoo, and every other friend to the Hulk could have helped the Jade Giant stop the Eldest, but he refused at every turn. Hulk had been jaded by the countless betrayals he lived through, most recently with Banner turning Hulk into a spaceship in the previous volume of Hulk. Even when the only reason the Hulk was saved from the Eldest was a spell placed on Banner by Doctor Voodoo, the Hulk refused to ask for help. That would be his undoing. The Eldest realized all she needed was the Hulk’s flesh, not Banner’s, so she forcibly separated them and took him over, with the Hulk’s final words being that Banner was right.

Infernal Hulk #1 showed the new King of Monsters brutally rip apart an army battalion sent to stop him. He slaughtered everyone, splaying their guts and grey matter on the ground with a sadistic smile on his face, and even converted the fallen soldiers into an army of zombies, headed by another soldier turned monster. When the news reported on the Hulk’s new status quo, a man watching questioned why a monster couldn’t ever be on their side. Bruce Banner watched the report, saw the thing his Hulk had been turned into, and just turned away. Banner was done with the Hulk.

A Monster Who Made His Own Bed

All of the Hulk’s troubles started because he kept pushing people away. He rejected the other heroes’ help at every turn and buried Banner in a torturous hellscape inside their minds, which drove away his only real friend, Charlie. Banner spent the entire run trying to help the Hulk and keep the Eldest away, even rejecting her offer of a new body free of his other self because he knew that he was the only one who could keep the Hulk in check. However, Hulk’s constant hate and pain proved too much for even Banner. Now, he’s easily the best person to get the Infernal Hulk under control, but he refuses to.

Banner cut all ties with the Hulk, and without even his other self left, the Hulk truly has nobody. He’s always said he wanted to be left alone, but in reality, the Hulk hates being on his own. He actually wants friends and a family as much as anybody else, but is convinced that other people will only bring pain. He keeps cutting people off, and now it’s finally worked, and it’s his worst nightmare. The Hulk cast out his humanity and is now nothing but a monster. He had every chance to be something more, but now, that chance might have slipped away forever. 

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