The Incredible Hulk [2023] #22 - Marvel Comics

THE INCREDIBLE HULK No. 22, April 2025

Heavily focusing upon Charlie Tidwell’s increasing loss of control of “her skinwalker alter-ego Lycana”, Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s storyline for Issue Twenty Two of “Incredible Hulk” probably disappointed a fair few of the comic’s fans, thanks largely to the Eisner-nominated writer penning the orphan as an angry, disagreeable killer rather than the vulnerable, somewhat sympathetic sidekick she has arguably been in the past. Indeed, the fact that the young girl refuses to accept she is responsible for brutally murdering and then scoffing a pair of hapless teenage tearaways is disconcerting at best, and genuinely makes the adolescent’s character extremely unlikeable when she later attempts to take the moral high-road with her giant, green-hued travelling companion; “Okay cool, we’ll just go wherever you want and I can’t say #%$&, huh? Great!”

Similarly as perturbing though is debatably this twenty-page periodical’s surprisingly sedentary pace. Sure, the book opens up fast enough, with the aforementioned doomed adolescents racing along a road at high-speed only to then have a hungry werewolf purposely crash into the side of their car. But once the plot moves on to Charlie waking up from her bloody nocturnal activities, things just seem to plod along with a series of word-heavy, dialogue driven conversational pieces which do little to actually move events that much further forward.

Disappointingly, even the Hulk and Tidwell’s relationship appears to have hit rock bottom, due to the pair clashing over the founding Avenger locking up Bruce Banner’s persona deep inside his brain. Ordinarily the majority of the audience would surely be supportive of the monster’s friend as she rebukes him for treating the scientist in precisely the same manner as the gamma radiologist once handled him. However, many readers will now doubtless find it difficult to take a side in an argument between two highly unpleasant personalities, and simply want them to get on with the current adventure – something which doesn’t really happen for the remainder of the publication.

Regular artist Nic Klein also appears to be somewhat uninspired by the American author’s script, and rather desperate to inject any dynamism he can muster into an almost endless series of panels in which the characters just shout at one another. Luckily, the German illustrator can always be relied upon to pencil some truly disturbing body horror when the opportunity arises. Though the severed head and half-chewed human remains filling up a log cabin’s bathroom might prove a bit much even for a T+ rated comic book.

The regular cover art of "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" #22 by Nic Klein