The Immortal Hulk #50 - Marvel Comics

IMMORTAL HULK No. 50, December 2021

Boasting a “giant-sized finale” which would supposedly see the titular character have all of his numerous questions fully answered by the One Below All, this whopping eighty-two-page periodical certainly contains plenty of room for Al Ewing to bring “the last issue of The Immortal Hulk” to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. But whilst this weighty tome ends with a successfully liberated Bruce Banner confidently making his way out of the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building, it is arguably not particularly clear just how the Gamma-based boffin’s Joe Fixit persona actually managed to achieve such a euphoric victory over the Leader behind the Green Door.

Indeed, considering that this ongoing series has apparently been heading for a fateful confrontation between the founding Avenger and Samuel Sterns’ monstrously malformed alter-ego for some considerable time, this punishingly long publication seems to be debatably lacking any pulse-pounding pugilism whatsoever; “Smashing ain’t gonna do it. He’s too big. But I figure this cr*p goes right into his giant brain -- and I figure we’re strong enough to pull it inside out.”

Fortunately though, “Of Hell And Of Death” is blessed with a much more enthralling secondary plot set way back in Ohio 1901. This seemingly unlinked tale of treachery and holier than thou murder focuses upon the Reverend Robert Sterns visiting his brother, Samuel, to purportedly witness his scientifically minded sibling’s discovery of Gamma radiation. Steeped in a positively palpable Edwardian era atmosphere, the prolonged flashback sequence is rivetingly penned and takes on an entirely darker tone once the physically intimidating preacher reveals he knows his close relative has been secretly having an affair with his wife, Beatrice [Banner].

In addition, Joe Bennett is on top form when it comes to pencilling this ongoing series’ super-sized culmination. Along with inkers Ruy Jose and Belardino Brabo, as well as colorist Paul Mounts, the Brazilian really manages to project the increasingly hostile presence of Robert Sterns during the aforementioned altercation with his wretched brother. However, it is probably the artist’s ability to sketch some of the stomach-churning atrocities spilling out of the supreme ruler of the Multiverse which will probably ‘haunt’ this comic’s Hulk-heads the longest, especially the likes of an emaciated Leader, whose mortal shell is torn from out of a gross-looking, egg-shaped brain sack.

The regular cover art of "IMMORTAL HULK" #50 by Alex Ross