The Immortal Hulk #3 - "Point of View"

[laughing_tree]

All these changes are in service of one thing -- making this Hulk frightening. This is not a loud rage-bomb to drop on people, or the return of the cool character you wanted. This is the monkey's paw wish. -- Al Ewing

Comments

[scorntx]

Foolish Ewing! Your monkey paw backfired! I am actually interested in where this is going, and am not upset at all!
Bwa-ha-ha!

... why does Langowski have a green furry thing in his apartment?

[long_silence]

It could be another gamma creature that Walter wants Banner to look at

Or an alien souvenir he got from his time with Carol's Alpha Flight

[silicondream]

Looks like a green Tsathoggua to me. For what that's worth.

[scelestus]

Same here. And if that's what Walter has in his apartment, Walter's in big trouble.

[trooper924]

I think that's supposed to be Walter's Sasquatch form reflected in the window. It's normally orange instead of green, but I suspect that's a deliberate change that's probably connected to the "Green Door" stuff.

[arilou_skiff]

Still looks pretty orange to me.

[lizard_of_aus]

He's actually talking about that lump of modern art we see in the establishing shot of the apartment.

[thehood]

That's his Sasquatch form.

[bruinsfan]

Hmm, I'd forgotten that Langkowski's transformation was due to a gamma ray experiment meant to emulate Banner's. Tanaraq actually fits the hints we've been seeing about some nebulous evil connected to gamma ray exposure pretty well.

[captainbellman]

I think I know who the big bad is...

[dr_archeville]

I was thinking something very different when I heard "green door"...

[remial]

oh thank god, I thought I was the only one.
although Marilyn Chambers might be able to calm the Hulk down, like a LOT!

[silicondream]

I've gotta say, this Hulk is interesting, but frightening he is not. I find classic Hulk scary because he's irrational and out of control; he may have a good heart, but it doesn't matter if he gets that little bit too angry and decides to thunderclap a city to death on the spur of the moment. This Hulk is more sadistic, but his judginess is all too human, and he's so restrained--from what I've seen of the scans so far, he always finds some sort of excuse not to kill anybody. I know, I know, he hands out "fates worse than death" instead, but still...he feels safe. Like Batman does. Is that was the author was going for?

[wizardru]

It's not particularly clear if this Hulk is actually judging people. It's clear he and Banner have a detente...barely. This issue has Banner intentionally triggering the Hulk to deal with Hotshot, who goes to deal with the problem. But it's not clear that this Hulk cares about collateral damage and it is apparent that he is casually cruel. The whole scene with the murderer in issue number one WAS scary to me, in part because the Hulk is so capable of doing harm and it's no longer clear that he can or will constrain himself. He didn't kill the victim in the first issue, but it seems like that might have just been due his having a child...and even then his punishment was pretty extreme.

More importantly, from a narrative standpoint, you can't have the Hulk kill indiscriminately or really at all, unless you've made him a full-out villain. Even characters like the Punisher, Deadpool and others have a minor degree of plausable deniability by killing only people 'in the life', such as mobsters, mercs, ninjas and so forth. The Hulk killing a perpetrator of a robbery gone wrong can only lead to having the hlaf the Marvel universe hunt him down. Again.

[thehood]

This is the classic Hulk, this Hulk from his first appearance which was just as smart as this.

[captainbellman]

...I'm going to float a possibility, guys: it may be Ewing is bringing back the Devil Hulk.

[thehood]

It would fit with all this.