The Immortal Hulk #49 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 49, October 2021

Consisting of nothing more than a carousel of splash pages each accompanied by a few paragraphs of text, Al Ewing’s decision to turn Issue Forty Nine of “Immortal Hulk” into more of a children’s reading book than an actual comic doubtless perturbed a fair few of this ongoing series’ followers. Indeed, coupled with the lack-lustre storyline of the titular character simply being invited to walk through the Forever Gate by Benjamin Grimm, many readers were probably of the opinion that this penultimate instalment to the British author’s overall narrative was nothing more than a ‘filler’ edition prior to its “giant-sized” finale.

Admittedly, that isn’t to say that this publication doesn’t generate a modicum of interest with its word-heavy transcript approach, as Joe Fixit’s alter-ego encounters the increasingly dislikeable Avengers and, owing to a non-disclosed communication error, ends up once again fighting the entire roster of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But it’s arguably difficult to get particularly excited by a single picture of the “Green Goliath” battering upon Captain America’s infamously tough shield, even when the artist is Joe Bennett; “I didn’t see who threw the first punch. Someone must have.”

In addition, whilst Ewing’s short tale does somewhat make sense as far as the Hulk seeking out the help of Reed Richards to finally confront the Leader in “the city of suffering”, just how this option becomes a possibility is never properly explained. Instead, Jackie McGee and Jen Walters simply escort the nonchalant behemoth through the night-time streets of New York City to a presumably pre-arranged rendezvous at the Baxter Building, where he encounters the likes of an extremely hostile Captain Marvel, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther and Nova.

Likewise, the Avengers’ presence is never rationalised, and simply seems to have been unceremoniously crowbarred into the comic so as to give the writer an opportunity to include at least one pulse-pounding punch-up amidst all his prose. In fact, the Thunder God and his team-mates are quite clearly depicted as the ‘villains of the piece’ for this book, with Invisible Woman’s scathing look of absolute disgust at them when she is forced to separate the fighting forces speaking a thousand words.

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" #49 by Alex Ross