The Infernal Hulk #1 - Marvel Comics

THE INFERNAL HULK No. 1, January 2026

Proudly publicised by its New York City based publisher in August 2025 as “a brand-new take on Hulk” in which “an ancient horror begins its conquest of the Marvel Universe”, and weighing in as the twenty-sixth best-selling comic book of November, many a bibliophile would probably argue that Issue One of “Infernal Hulk” had an awful lot to live up to. Fortunately, Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s script succeeds in doing just that by quite literally hurling its audience straight into the thick of things as “the vessel of Eldest” descends upon poor hapless Red Creek, Kentucky, and utterly annihilates the armed forces hastily assembled to meet its threat.

Impressively though, this twenty-five page periodical isn’t simply a senseless, seemingly endless display of gratuitous violence and physical dismemberment either, with the American author cleverly weaving some more ‘humane moments’ into his narrative through the experiences of war hero-turned-local builder David Bridger. This resolute and determined soldier comes across as a character the reader can actually believe in, and resultantly makes the man's gruesome fate towards this tome’s end all the more hauntingly impactful.

Likewise, the creation of the Living City of Gologolthia should hook many a Marvelite with both its grotesque grandeur, as well as the future potential in attracting the attention of such notable super-heroes as Captain America, Spider-Man and the Avengers to its monster-infested streets. Indeed, in many ways “Rise” plays out like a major Summer Event rather than just the debut edition of a new ongoing series, and certainly seems to live up to its writer’s promise that “no corner of the Marvel Universe will be left untouched before the end."

Helping add to the sheer carnage on show throughout Johnson’s sensational storyline are the prodigious pencils of Nic Klein and Matthew Wilson’s colours. Together the creative duo really provide a pulse-poundingly strong sequence of interior visuals, with many a piece of brain matter, internal organ and partially-shredded limb being overtly splattered all over the panel whenever the utterly merciless titular character can get his enormous, purple-hued hands wrapped around a soon-to-be-slaughtered individual; “Bridger. Come down. You said you’d look out for us, Bridger. Remember? You promised.”

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Artist: Nic Klein, and Color Artist: Matthew Wilson