The Immortal Hulk is smashing his way through a tribe, attempting to get his revenge. However, this is not Bruce Banner.
It is Jordan 9,500 BCE, Tammuz, and his uncle, Adad encounter something strange. The pair find a glowing green meteorite. As they gaze upon it, they talk about their people struggling. Adad adds that they will soon rise, but with a sacrifice. The elder kicks his nephew towards the meteor. Tammuz decomposes as his uncle vows to tell his cousin that he wasn’t afraid. Adad walks off and sees his son, Shalim looking at a skull. The young man suspects that something is wrong. He then charges his father and is struck down. Adad is then called by his people as they are now hunting a green beast.
The Immortal Hulk of BC is looking to attack Adad. Yet, he is draped with a net, stabbed with spears, and shot with arrows. The Hulk continues fighting back but eventually falls. Shalim then recognizes the true identity of the beast, as it was his cousin. In the afterlife, Tammuz is introduced to a green mist. This monster is the One Below All, one of the two most powerful beings in the Marvel universe. He tells the monster that his people betrayed him. Additionally, saying that he would have done anything for them. Now powered by his hate, Tammuz vows vengeance against his tribe. He is aided by the mist.
Adad and his people feast on Tammuz’s green corpse. He also gives a speech about the nephew he got killed. Saying that Tammuz wouldn’t want to be mourned by his people. After his fake speech, Adad offers his son some of the remains. Shalim declines, then sees that Hulk is moving. Suddenly, everyone that ate him is having the literal life sucked away from them. The beast continues rebuilding his body. Shalim continues to look on in horror. Not only are his people and father dead, but the beast is going after him next. Shalim tries telling him that he did not about what happened to him. Safe to assume, Tammuz did not believe him.
We also have a mini-story featuring the real Hulk. Bruce goes to the theater and buys a ticket from Marvel’s Scarecrow. I wish I made that up. Anyways, Banner and many other people are watching a movie about fears. Many people are screaming and begging for the movie to stop. Banner even falls over having a heart attack.
However, our hero wakes up as the Hulk and tells people to evacuate the theater. Bruce beats up the Scarecrow down and makes him scared. Hulk does this by showing the villain himself being tormented by the town folk. He runs out to the projector and is set on fire when it’s damaged. Alex Paknadel and Al Ewing did a nice job with writing the first story. I thought this would be some boring tell. Yet, my opinion quickly changed. I liked how Adad thought what he was doing was right, but only got his people killed. Even the death of Shalim was sad because he actually loved his cousin.
Tammuz was blind by his new power and took it out on the one person that loved him. David Vaughan’s work on the second story was solid. It was a fun little tale about fear fueling the Hulk. However, I don’t think this story should’ve been included. Sure, Bruce is the Hulk, but it focusing on Tammuz’s Hulk was interesting. I feel like the mini-story took the spotlight off of the character.
As for art, Juan Ferreyra nail it in the first half! Visuals from Tammuz’s first outing as the Hulk to Hulk reform were beautiful to witness! The message that the main character built himself up after being torn down is awesome! We see this metaphorically and physically. As for Kevin Nowlan, he did not shy away from showing off either.
The Hulk fight the Scarecrow looked really good. Every illustration look really good, especially the final page. Hulk looking upon the burnt villain that he just defeated. I feel like we have another meaning behind this image too. Hulk used his enemy’s weapon against him. Using fire to beat him with fire!
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