Bruce Banner Returns!

For those of you who don't know, the Hulk is one of my favorite characters, which is why I chose to write this as my next post. A couple of years ago, when the Captain America: Civil War movie was coming out, Marvel Comics wanted to capitalize on the movie, and launched a comic event called "Civil War II." That event was a bad story line, and I disliked it quite a bit. But the event did have some significant outcomes, but first let's go over what happened in "Civil War II."

It starts with a teenager named Ulysses who has visions of the future. He is approached by the inhumans and is taken to their home, Attilan. So Ulysses tends to see bad things that will happen in the future, and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) finds out about this, and decides that they are going to use his power to stop crimes before they happen. Tony Stark believes that people should not be punished for things they might do or will do because they don't have proof that someone would actually go through with the crime. This leads to a whole issue. Tony kidnaps Ulysses, and Ulysses finds out that Bruce Banner (or rather, the Hulk) is going to destroy everything and everyone, but Bruce hasn't Hulked out in a while. Carol Danvers decides to bring a strike team to Banner, and Stark reaches there at the same time. Danvers tells Bruce that they are taking him in, and Banner gets visibly angry. And that's when, out of nowhere, an arrow (shot by Hawkeye) embeds itself into Banner's head and he dies.

So ever since then, Banner has been "dead." People have resurrected the Hulk back from the dead, but that was for a short amount of time (that was before Secret Empire and after Civil War II). Banner was brought back to life by Captain America during Secret Empire, but died fairly quickly as well. Both of those times where Banner was resurrected were meant to be short-term appearances. The first appearance after Civil War II was basically just a zombie hulk, but that problem was solved quickly. The second appearance was a ploy by Hydra Captain America to destroy all the heroes, and the Hulk was not meant to be around for long.

Here I thought that Bruce Banner's Hulk was completely gone, but he's not. He makes his appearance alive and well in The Immortal Hulk #1. Essentially, Bruce Banner AND the Hulk are both alive, which is great.

PLEASE BEWARE FOR SOME SPOILERS COMING UP IN 3... 2... 1.. ALRIGHT THEN, DON'T GET MAD AT ME WHEN YOU REALIZE THIS IS STORY IS DOPE.

Okay, so the comic starts off at a gas station that a young man robs. He is aimed right at the cashier's head. Clearly he doesn't want to do this but he is doing this because he needs to. He thinks he is the only one in the gas station up until he sees a twelve year old girl, and he kills her. But it turns out there was another civilian in there. He sees that the robber shot the twelve year old girl, and the man begins to put on an angry face, and his eyes turn green. That man is immediately shot in the head and dies. The robber shoots the cashier, grabs the cash then runs past the twelve year old's mother and flees. The cops then come and clean up the place, get rid of the bodies, that whole CSI thing, and the bodies are taken to the morgue.

It turns out that the robber owed a gang leader some money (what gang? it doesn't matter and you'll see why). The setting then switches from the gang headquarters to the morgue, where a hand from under the blanket turns green and grows larger in size. The setting then switches back to the gang hideout, and shows the robber leaving. As he's leaving her hears the gang members fighting something, and runs immediately. The robber tries to get into his car, but drops the keys. And then the Hulk shows himself to the robber! And the robber is practically soiling himself, and begs for his life and says that he has a family. The hulk then asks this man if it felt good to kill that girl, and if he wants to let the power he has (the gun he used to rob the gas station) out. The robber then shoots him and the Hulk puts his hand slowly over the robber's eyes. The story then moves to the hospital where the robber is shown to have a collapsed lung and every bone in his body has been broken. The story ends with Bruce Banner asking a reflection of the Hulk in the mirror if he is a bad person.

Okay so here is the importance of this story. One thing that the comic touches on happens in a conversation between two characters in the issue. Why is Banner alive? Banner was killed yes, but then why is the Hulk allowed to roam? Well what this comic tells us is. It is very possible to kill Banner, but it is not possible to kill the Hulk. Which isn't really a new concept. Banner has tried to commit suicide a bunch of times, but the Hulk always emerges. But I have a feeling that this storyline is going to go into why the Hulk has so much authority over Banner. Why can the Hulk come back to life? And why can he bring Banner back to life as well? So I'm going to monitor this series so we can see what happens with the Hulk and Banner.

It was such a good first issue, and really want to see more Bruce Banner and his Hulk. Again, the Hulk is one of my favorite characters and it feels good to see him written well in a good story. I recommend that you check this issue out. There's only one issue, and an issue is about 20-30 pages in length so it will take you no time to finish.

That concludes this post. I realize I can't keep going in to comics that are already a few years old, and not go over comics that are coming out now. So I'll do both. The next post I do will likely be on the new Justice League comic that came out recently. As always, feel free to check out my other posts, and see you in the next one!