The Incredible Hulk [2023] #6 - Marvel Comics

THE INCREDIBLE HULK No. 6, January 2024

There’s a lot of relatively straightforward storytelling to be found in Issue Six of “Incredible Hulk” which arguably harks back to the simpler days of comic books when the author would set the scene with a murderous assault upon some helpless innocents and then pen the titular character inadvertently appearing on the horizon to save the day. However, despite Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s script for “Spirits Of Vengeance” following much of this tried and tested formula, its twenty-page plot also introduces the intriguing presence of “a one-hundred-year-old Ghost Rider” who appears determined “to ride down the Hulk!”

This fiery zombie mercilessly wielding a submachine-gun is easily the star of the show, appearing as a combination between Johnny Blaze’s skull-faced alter-ego and Captain America’s early days fighting Nazi Germany during World War Two. Furthermore, despite the heroic nature of the flame-covered cadaver, this publication’s author quite cleverly sets the motorcyclist up against the Jade Giant, rather than the savage monstrosity who has already slaughtered one of the settlement’s inhabitants; “He’s coming. Sal only comes when something bad is close… When the monsters are close.”

Similarly as well-penned is the believable build-up behind the Spanish-speaking settlers seeking work in Texas. True, the residents aren’t given too much ‘screen time’ before their number is brutally thinned by a blood-curdling killer. But in the time they’re given the poor labourers arguably quickly win over the audience with their love for one another, generosity towards similarly luckless strangers, and determination to ‘eke out a living’ in spite of the grotesque death fate appears to have in store for them.

Adding plenty of empathy to these penniless people’s plight is Nic Klein, whose pencilling imbues the likes of family man Jaime and young Leo, with plenty of genuinely likeable personality. Furthermore, the German illustrator does a first-rate job in sketching Bruce Banner’s painfully prolonged transformation into the Hulk. This double-splash skin-shedding is as gruesome-looking as the furious flesh-ripping is disconcerting, and alongside the excellent drawings of the “undead Spirit of Vengeance” fruitlessly attempting to gun down the founding Avenger, is well worth the cover price of this comic.

The regular cover art of "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" #6 by Nic Klein