In this issue, “This is Me” by Keala Settle takes on new meaning.
Written by Al Ewing
Penciled by Joe Bennett
Inked by Ruy Jose & Belardino Brabo
Colored by Paum Mounts & Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettered by Cory Petit
Something is coming for Bruce Banner. Something that can smell him wherever he hides. Something that will never stop hunting. It wears the face of a friend — but all it feels is hate and hunger, burning in the core of every cell. Ask yourself…what’s more terrifying than the IMMORTAL HULK?
“Immortal Hulk” under the pen of Al Ewing and frequent penciler Joe Bennett has a well earned reputation as a series that fuses together philosophy, psychoanalysis – Carl Jung in particular – and horror. That fusion continues around the edges of issues #19, but at the core of the issue is horror, body horror specifically, as the series continues as concepts of the Self continue to be explored with some, perhaps, freighting conclusions.
The funny thing about horror films is if you plug your ears they stop being scary, and the outsized images of terror can look a little funny even. This won’t help you for a film like Hereditary, but it help explains the imagery and how it works in “Immortal Hulk” #19. The body horror is front and center early on as the Hulk battles this Abomination or Rick Jones. As we see the Hulk’s hand melt away, or “devitalize Hulk tissue” in the words of General Fortean. The panel itself of him gripping his melting green stump isn’t all that horrifying. Gross? Most definitely with the acidic spittle dripping from the dueling mouths of the Abomination. What is horrifying is the shocked, pained, and most importantly, SCARED, look on the Hulk’s face created by the art team. A fair amount of the horror in this series is derived from the mutability of the body, Hulk’s immortal but not indestructible body. Horror in this instance is created by the context and sequencing of art in the comic. How it is presented matters just as much if not more to the content when it comes to the creation of horror within the reader. The creative team seem to be aware of this as Bennett’s page design create a structure that shows an awareness to how content is presented and the issue itself features various types of looking as our trio of monstrous creatures have at it.
The formal element Bennett uses to highlight moments of action and violence is simple. Panels featuring violent action are kept within a canted panel, they do not sit flush with the bottom of the page. It’s a setup I first started noticed him using in “Immortal Hulk” #7, but it takes on greater meaning and prevalence in this issue. Violent action is a disruption so the canted paneling destabilizes the page by breaking the normally solid and strict grid like layout. As Harpy Betty tears apart Shadow Base mercenaries, Bennett takes what would be an effective 3×2 grid of panels and just tilts it all left of center. This canted angle adds a sense of tension and energy within the content of the panels and makes for a nice contrast with the flat, secure, panel at the top of the page and General Fortean looks on safe and secure.
The use of canted paneling breaks up the potential for a strict grid styled layout. Often these panels are layered over the top of one another and with white borders begin to resemble a Polaroid photograph. In the vein of a photograph it makes sense we only see a snapshot of the events in motion, Bennett focuses on showing the shocked/pained expression on the victims face. That sense of shock comes through quiet well when the mercenaries murder an innocent civilian trying to get out area, everything including the moment the head Merc draws his gun fits in a grid. It’s the panel where we see the bullet hole in her forehead that tilts the left with this women’s shocked expression plastered over it. This presentation is reinforced by the consistent cutting away to Shadow Base and their surveillance of the situation, as the issue tries to make the viewer away of how something is presented and the act of looking. The creative team do manage to create a bit of humor among the viscera by playing off the Abominations face hands and the classic reaction we have when seeing something gruesome and horrifying as Betty Kali Ma’s the Hulk.
Continued belowIn an issue filled with monsters, the kind that look human and the kind we think look like monsters, Bennett has created a visual design that highlights what monstrous action is. Monstrous action is violence and destruction. At the same time Bennett has created a counterweight to that design one that highlights and shows the opposite of all that, what compassion looks like. Pages after that tilted 3×2 grid Ewing and Bennett come to another sequence set in a 3×2 grid. The presentation and perspective makes everything tense, the scared civilian whispering a prayer for salvation. It’s that moment in a monster move removed from the normal perspective of the scared individual. This presentation plays on our understanding of the scenario and art setup in this issue and rewards the reader for that understanding, when things play out and literally do not go sideways.
The visual design Bennett creates in his layouts highlight the nature of monstrous action. What this issue is interested in is the nature of the Self. What is the nature of these creatures. The question of nature and its immutability is first brought up when Ewing and the art team work through a Frog and Scorpion scenario. Later it is echoed in the aftermath of Betty’s massacre as Jackie McGee can’t stop wondering why she didn’t just take their guns away. Instead Betty rended their person limb by limb. All Betty can muster is “this is me.” That action is just who she is right now. Just like why Hulk smashes. They aren’t monsters, they’re being true to form. The most monstrous thing in this issue is the positively aroused expression on Fortean’s face as he voyeuristically takes it all in.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – “Immortal Hulk” barrels towards a conclusion with a deft exploration of what it is that makes these creatures “monsters” in our eyes and why that may not be the case.
