The Immortal Hulk #15 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 15, May 2019

Printed at a time when the publication had just been nominated for an Eisner award as Best Continuing Series, and featuring the welcome return of Leonard Samson to the Green Goliath’s supporting cast, it isn’t hard to see just why writer Al Ewing was so enthusiastic about his penmanship for Issue Fifteen of “Immortal Hulk” when he was later interviewed about the comic’s contents by the “Syfy” website in July 2019. Indeed, not only does this twenty-page periodical contain a fascinating flashback sequence focusing upon both Skivorski Junior’s heroic death and subsequent surprising resurrection, but it also includes a pulse-pounding bout of unrestrained pugilism between the jade-haired psychiatrist and a badly brain-damaged titular character; “All right, Bruce… Let’s reason this out, shall we?”

However, for those amongst its 53,120 readers who were hoping that the presence of Doc Samson might help progress the long-running book’s arguably pedestrian plot by a few steps, the British author’s narrative for “The Holy Or The Broken” was probably something of a disappointment considering it never properly even resolves the fate of Betty Ross at the hands of “the plastic man”. Instead, it rather disconcertingly simply depicts an incredibly talkative Hulk waxing lyrical alongside the former Northwestern University teacher, about being a pseudo-surrogate father to his puny alter-ego, and wanting to end the world so that some of the Humans currently destroying the planet might actually then live…

This somewhat word-heavy, one-sided conversation disappointingly occupies a significant portion of the comic, yet fortunately doesn’t entirely manage to overshadow the marvellously melodramatic bout of fisticuffs which precedes it. In fact, many within this book’s substantially increasing audience would probably argue that the titanic tussle between a facially-disfigured Hulk and pony-tailed challenger was worth the cost of this $3.99 magazine alone, especially as it momentarily appears that Leonard’s foolhardy reasoning with the utterly insane monster might actually succeed where a bullet through the skull has previously failed.

Regardless, Joe Bennett’s dynamic interior artwork certainly must have hooked any perusing bibliophile with his incredible renditions of the two incredibly well-muscled combatants attempting to batter one another into next week. The Brazilian’s ability to imbue each and every punch with a tooth-cracking resounding thud is particularly impressive, as is the penciller’s marvellous attention to detail as he slowly depicts the Hulk’s substantial head injury slowly closing up as the fight evolves.

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

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" No. 15 by Alex Ross