The Immortal Hulk #38 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 38, December 2020

Fans of this ongoing series were probably delighted with Al Ewing’s depiction of the Leader throughout this twenty-page periodical, for whilst Samuel Sterns’ liquefaction of Shadow Base Site G’s hapless staff is truly a horrendous thing to behold, the overall “evil invasive entity” storyline undeniably lives up to the British writer’s promise of making the major villain’s involvement “fit the horror tone of the book.” Indeed, considering that Stan Lee’s co-creation has simultaneous mental control over three different characters within this tome, and clearly isn’t afraid to manipulate the likes of Rick Jones’ heavily mutated body in order to conduct an act of almost unspeakable gratuitous violence towards another, it is hard to imagine this comic’s Hulk-heads encountering a more dread-filled book on their local spinner rack.

To begin with, the former “Judge Dredd” writer does a first-rate job of penning the highly radioactive body of Delbert Frye disconcertingly stalking the dark corridors of General Reginald Fortean’s old headquarters, waiting to sizzle any scientist he might come across into a repugnant puddle of melted flesh and charred bones. Doctor McGowan’s sheer terror at the sight of the fluorescent green monstrosity is truly palpable, and doubtless many readers genuinely felt her sense of pure panic as the “genius-level genetic engineer” eerily approached her with his malformed hands outstretched towards her.

Similarly as gruesome is Jones’ fate, once an emaciated Doctor Samson has literally brained the Leader with a large piece of concrete in the Below-Place, and given Charlene an opportunity to activate the top secret military facility’s teleporter with an all-encompassing "six-foot radius.". His body’s partial translocation into two ghastly pieces of still writhing flesh is shockingly unpleasant to witness and looks like something taken straight out of a John Carpenter film from the early Eighties.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of this publication’s sense-shattering scares are also down to the excellent layouts of Joe Bennett, who seems to be able to pencil unnatural human anatomy with alarming aplomb. The Brazilian artist’s designs for Rick, Frye and Sterns are marvellously rendered throughout the comic, and only eclipsed by the sheer scaly nightmare which is the lizard-like Devil Hulk; “Hey, Big Guy. I hear you, kid. I love you. I’ll always be here for you. He’s not your Dad. Not a good Dad. A Dad can’t hurt you and be a good Dad. Just let me out, okay? Let me out and I’ll kill him.”

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" No. 38 by Alex Ross