The Immortal Hulk #34 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 34, June 2020

Described by “Marvel Worldwide” as a journey through the life of Samuel Sterns “from his rebirth to his final experiment”, Al Ewing’s narrative for Issue Thirty Four of “Immortal Hulk” certainly must have given those within its audience unfamiliar with the convoluted history of The Leader something of a better understanding as to the would-be world conqueror’s background. But such a detailed exposition as to the character’s origin story and subsequent multiple defeats at the hands of Bruce Banner’s alter-ego arguably isn’t enough narrative to completely fill a twenty-page periodical, especially when the majority of the megalomaniac’s historical interactions could simply have been condensed within the confines of a double-splash page illustration.

Indeed, huge swathes of this comic’s numerous journal entries debatably provide little more detail than that which used to be found inside one of Stan Lee’s famous editorial text boxes from the Late Sixties, and resultantly just smack of the British writer desperately scrambling around for something to pen about the former janitor so as to pad out this book’s incredibly limited plot. Admittedly, the initial depiction of Sterns haplessly going about his daily routine “at the plant” hauling garbage “down to the incinerator” imbues the high-school drop-out with some quite considerable sympathy when the man is accidentally exposed to gamma isotopes and irretrievably loses the relationship he so valued with his beloved super-smart brother.

However, this appreciation as to The Leader’s intriguing sense of pain and utter loneliness ends just as soon as Ewing has the villain focus his research upon the Hulk and disappointingly turns this publication into little more than a plotted history of Steve Ditko’s co-creation, with a few extra elements from Al’s own run on this current title, most notably the Green Door, being thrown into the mix for good measure; “I was taking notes. Doctor Banner -- May I call you Brian? I’m a huge fan. Apologies for not stepping in -- But I needed the data. And you were very close. I think all you need for the next attempt is proper leadership. Take my hand.”

Competently providing “The Apotheosis Of Samuel Sterns” with enough pictures to complete the comic is “guest penciller” Butch Guice. The Chattanooga-born artist’s style is a little rough-looking in some sequences, most notably towards the book’s end, where perhaps it could be uncharitably criticised as being rather rushed. Yet some of the splash pages, presumably designed to help this comic’s writer create just enough publishable material for an ongoing monthly, is excellent, most notably poor Sterns “million-to-one freak accident.”

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" No. 34 by Alex Ross