Bruce Banner is dead! How’s his family going to go forward? His friends?
Creative Staff:
Writer: Greg Pak
Art: Mark Bagley, Scott Hanna, Marc Deering, Ian Herring, and Rob Schwager
Letters: VC’s Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
Bruce Banner, A.K.A. The Incredible Hulk, is dead. Clint Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye, the man who killed him, has been acquitted. Now the Hulk’s friends and family grapple with their grief…and their anger.
Content: (Please be aware the content sections may contain spoilers.)
Oh boy am I not happy to be having to talk about this one. The Hulk is dead. We start at his funeral in Cleveland, Ohio. A group of protesters is outside the gates of the funeral, holding signs with such phrases as “Hell for Hulk” and “Good Riddance”. Ironically, this brought out the emotion of anger in me, since the Hulk is one of my favorite heroes. The first person to speak about Banner of the gathered people is Tony Stark. Stark talks about how creatively smart Banner was, and how he could always find another way to do things. Dr. Strange mentions how gracefully Banner bore the curse of the Hulk. The Thing is also here, as is Hercules, and each has their share, laughing over the battles The Thing had with Hulk. The laughing seems to push this crowd of protesters out of their minds. They start surging forward, chanting “Burn in Hell”.Betty Ross, Banner’s now ex-wife, forgoes saying anything in the wake of this, but Rick Jones, Banner’s oldest friend, decides he needs to say something. He thanks the gathered for attending the funeral and then remarks on how many heroes didn’t bother showing up. Then Rick says exactly what i’m feeling now and comments on the protesters. “Look at those idiots,” he says, “They’re calling him a monster, like everyone always did. But they forget that he saved this stupid world time and time again. He saved thousands, maybe millions of lives, when no one else could.”
As Rick lambasts the protesters, we see them pushing against the police holding them back. These protesters are determined, it seems, to demonize the Hulk at all costs. This, while realistic, is as sad a thing as Marvel could do here. Is it realistic to acknowledge all the damage the Hulk has done? Certainly, but to try and make this into how bad the Hulk was is not warranted or necessary here. The Silver Surfer somehow manages to use the power Cosmic to wash a wave of calm over the protesters, leading to them departing without further incident. As the gathered heroes begin departing as well, Korg of the Warbound gets down to what they need to do now. There are still four more Hulks- Skaar (Hulk’s son), Former Red Hulk Thaddeus Ross, She-Hulk, and Amadeus Cho (the Totally Awesome Hulk). Betty agrees to talk to her father and be there to tell She-Hulk when she wakes up. The Warbound (Korg, Elloe, and No-Name) will seek out Skaar. Rick Jones agrees to try and contact Amadeus Cho. Betty’s attempt to speak with Ross goes about as well as anyone reading could expect. He’s glad the Hulk is dead, though he commends Banner for how long he carried the “curse” of the Hulk. We cut then to Skaar, going under the name Santos. He gets the bad news via a television, and the Warbound find him in the woods in his “Stone Form”. Mourning with Skaar, the Warbound recount how the Hulk freed the people of Sakaar. They then pledge themselves again, becoming Skaar’s Warbound, as he is heir to the Hulk.
With Rick unable to make contact with Amadeus, Our scene soon shifts to Ohio, where Matt Murdock, Bruce’s lawyer, is dictating his will to his friends and family. Matt plays a recording of Banner meant for if his life was cut short. He presents gifts to most of the assembled. We then see all these people in different places. Betty sits by She-Hulk’s bedside, and e can visibly see Sh-Hulk cry as Betty says good bye to Bruce again. There’s a montage of the Hulk family using the timer’s he gave them to use before doing anything rash. Amadeus Cho has one as well, but the end of the books shows him going into hulk form, only giving us a, “Sorry, Banner,” before leaping of into the distance, setting up the events in Totally Awesome Hulk #9.
In Summary:
This was a very sad, but decent issue. We really get a sense of how the Hulk’s death makes the assembled heroes feel, along with the sense that the protesters aren’t looking to drop the damage he caused so easily. Each person has lost someone in a different way. Betty Ross has lost her husband, The Warbound have lost their leader, Rick Jones has lost his oldest friend, and the others have lost a friend and fellow hero. The Hulk’s death may be something that factors into the fighting when the war starts. The art is decent, like all the other books in this event, but it still gets sloppy at times, such as people having tears flow from what looked to me like the wrong side of their eyes. This was a book that hit close to me, but may not for others (The Hulk is my favorite hero). It’s deservedly a sad issue as the whole prospect is that it deals with his death and the immediate fallout of the event. Cho will be the interesting wild card. Opting not to use the timer and Hulking Out will be interesting when it comes to that story.
It’s well written all around as well. The emotion really manages to come out with this one, especially in the dialogue of Rick and Betty. It does as well as it can given the muck of a story that surrounds it, so it still manages to feel important given the big things going on around it. Both Carol Danvers and Tony Stark seemed to be at the event, which suggests that their opposing ideals at least didn’t gt in the way of Banner’s funeral. Skaar and Cho will be interesting to observe as the event goes forward, since neither will be too happy about this turn of events. I wouldn’t say it’s a great story and everyone should read it, but it’s definitely a powerful story and is more deserving of a look than some of the more recent books in the event. The emotion, the characters, and the premise all lend to that.
Grade: A
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 17th, 2016
MSRP: $4.99
