The Immortal Hulk #8 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 8, January 2019

Any Marvelites with a queasy stomach who happened to peruse Al Ewing’s gruesome opening to Issue Eight of “The Immortal Hulk” were probably feeling nauseous within the comic’s first few panels due to its narrative macabrely exploring the dissection of the Green Goliath’s heart straight “through the interventricular septum” with an adamantium scalpel. But for those unsettled "Hulk-Heads" able to stomach such mutilation, the British author’s script actually only gets worse as the criminally-minded Doctor Clive surrounds himself with all manner of the founding Avenger’s body parts, including a miraculously sentient head which soon demonstrates an horrific ability to mobilise its various dismembered limbs into a truly terrifying weapon against his captors.

Indeed, “His Hideous Heart” really does demonstrate to any lifelong fans of Stan Lee’s co-creation just how different a version of Bruce Banner’s alter-ego the “2000 A.D.” writer has created for this “new series”, with the gamma-grown monster’s internal organs beating and breathing as “good as new”, even though they’ve been crudely cut asunder and pickled in giant specimen jars which litter the numerous shelves of Shadow Base’s central laboratory; “I mean, look at you. Trying to talk with no air in your lungs. No lungs.”

Disappointingly however, arguably far less successfully penned by the “Squaxx Dek Thargo” are his fleeting visits to Alpha Flight Space Station, and the readers’ subsequent opportunity to eavesdrop upon Carol Danvers as the champion of the Kree voices her concerns regarding the United States Government supposedly losing the Hulk amidst “a sea of deliberate obfuscation.” True, these scenes do herald the creation of Walter Langkowski’s new task force, Gamma Flight, but it’s debatably difficult to so quickly accept the non-powered Jacqueline McGee as part of this team, even if the secretly obsessed Arizona Herald journalist’s presence on the roster is explained away as simply being just “an embedded reporter.” 

Fortunately, Joe Bennett’s pencilling for this twenty-page periodical is predominantly up to his usual high standard, with only the artist’s line work seemingly suffering when used to depict the aforementioned dialogue-heavy conversational pieces concerning Captain Marvel, Sasquatch and Jackie. In fact, the Brazilian’s spine-chilling splash pages featuring the Hulk reassembling himself whilst simultaneously absorbing the panic-stricken Clive alive are a remarkable sight to behold and almost worth this “Rated T+” publication’s cover price alone…

First published on the "Dawn of Comics" website.'

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" No. 8 by Alex Ross