There’s A New Hulkbuster In The Marvel Universe

There hasn’t been much talk about the Hulkbuster armor since it made its big screen debut last year in Avengers: Age of Ultron. This week changed that, as the old model found a new enemy, and a new model – with an unexpected pilot – made its debut.

Over in Uncanny Avengers, Hank Pym has returned to Earth, but he’s a little different than his old friends remember. If you read the Avengers: Rage of Ultron graphic novel, you’ll know that Hank Pym has been stranded in space, along with his villainous creation Ultron. Now, Pym has somehow merged with Ultron and returned to Earth. Pym tried to tell the Avengers that he was now in control of Ultron’s body and planned to use it for good, but Hank’s ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne (a.k.a. the Wasp), revealed the truth – Ultron is still lurking underneath.

Further investigation revealed that Hank may still be at least partly conscious in this Ultron persona, but if so, he’s awfully bitter at the Avengers for not coming out to space to find him. A pitched battle between the Avengers and Ultron emsued, but just as Ultron was rallying, the Avengers called in Project Icarus.

What is Project Icarus, you ask? Well…

The issue ends there, setting up a fight between Ultron and the Hulkbuster which, frankly, we’re not really sure why we didn’t see in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

While old school Hulkbuster is taking on Ultron, the events of Civil War II have created a tension between Captain Marvel and the Totally Awesome Hulk, Amadeus Cho, which led to the introduction of a new Hulkbuster. Cho became the Hulk during the eight-month interim between Secret Wars and All-New Marvel by siphoning the radiation from Bruce Banner. The result left Banner cured of “the other guy” and the happiest he’d been in years.

But Ulysses, the Inhuman with the ability to predict the future, saw something different. He saw Banner Hulking out again and killing a lot of people. In Civil War II #3, Tony Stark and Carol Danvers went to confront Banner about the issue, taking pretty much every other major Marvel universe hero with them to Banner’s doorstep. While they were conversing, Hawkeye shot Banner with an arrow, killing him. Hawkeye was given the arrow by Banner himself in order to stop him if he should ever turn into the Hulk again. Still, Hawkeye was put on trial for Banner’s murder and, as revealed in this week’s Civil War II #4, acquitted.

Carol was a little worried that Cho wouldn’t take the news so well, so in Totally Awesome Hulk #9, she brings an S.H.I.E.L.D. squad to Amadeus’s doorstep. Cho assures Carol that he’s cool and shows no signs of Hulking out, so Carol’s team backs off. Cho is still a little annoyed by Carol’s attitude, though, so he later transforms into the Hulk and trolls Captain Marvel by feigning a rampage through Appalachia. Eventually, Amadeus shows that he’s totally in control, and left Carol a message…

Carol was taking the threat seriously, though. Just off panel throughout most of the issue, someone was encouraging Carol to pull the trigger on a certain deterrent. That deterrent is a brand new Hulkbuster armor of Wakandan design, and the pilot is none other than the Wakandan king, the Black Panther.

Carol may have avoided an all-out Hulk vs. Hulkbuster brawl in this issue, but Chekov’s gun says you don’t hang a Hulkbuster armor on the wall unless you plan to fight a Hulk with it. That brawl is definitely coming, as can be seen in the cover and solicitation for Totally Awesome Hulk #12.

So how does the new Hulkbuster armor stack up to the old one? Seems like we’ll find out a few issues down the line.