The Immortal Hulk #29 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 29, March 2020

In answering such questions as to just how active the Devil Hulk can be during the day now the persona seemingly somewhat trusts it host Bruce Banner, Al Ewing’s pacing for much of this twenty-page periodical was probably a bit too sedentary for the majority of this book’s 46,484 readers. Indeed, coupled with a lengthy dialogue-driven sequence involving Jackie McGee and her worried editor Murray at the Arizona Herald, this comic’s entire opening half is arguably something of a sedentary snooze-fest, which slowly plods it way through the notion that the nuclear physicist’s alter-ego is starting to think “about other people and their feelings”, as well as the female reporter’s acceptance that the green Goliath created “the stress [which] probably killed my father.”

Admittedly, the machinations of Roxxon Energy Corp’s mutated CEO could equally be accused of being similarly word-heavy. But unlike the other two aforementioned sub-plots, the scenes involving Dario Agger are absolutely packed full of pulse-pounding menace, as the Minotaur almost literally squeezes the life out of his faithful advisor Randolph, when the man foolishly delays informing his formidably-sized boss that the titular character can now walk the earth whilst it is “still daytime.” As a matter of fact, it is a pity that “Eat Or Be Eaten” doesn’t provide the Greek super-villain even more ‘screen time’ than he gets, as the increasingly insane industrialist plans an attack from the Roxxon Plaza in New York, whilst drinking a glass of wine and mulling on the fact he’s unable to travel with his gargantuan nightmares or “to savour the terror” they will undoubtedly cause amidst the general population.

Luckily though, for those Hulk-Heads willing to ‘stay the course’, Ewing’s penmanship soon picks up speed once the “suitably fearsome” Roxxon Bio-Assets Harryhausen, O'Brien, Lovecraft and Bradbury are translocated to “local landmarks” in Phoenix. Joe Bennett also provides plenty of pulse-pounding pencilling during these later panels, with some truly gobsmackingly good double-splash pages. Whether it be the depiction of monstrosities the size of skyscrapers laying waste to any hapless building within reach of a tentacle, or the Hulk’s misfortune to immediately be swallowed whole by one of the gigantic behemoths before he’s swung a single punch, the Brazilian artist arguably produces some of the finest layouts of his career; “I want to consume his essence. Once we’ve eaten the Hulk… That’s when the real fun begins.”

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" No. 29 by Alex Ross