The Immortal Hulk vol. 6: We Believe in Bruce Banner

…which is a good thing because after the events of the previous volume Dr. Banner and his friends/comrades/willing accomplices have found themselves in command of Shadow Base and all its resources.  Resources which will now be turned to furthering his and the Hulk’s ultimate goal: The destruction of the human world. Now, they’re not looking to blow the planet up.  They just think that the current way that society is being run on this planet is completely wrong. What with governments and societies being stuck in a loop of “Disaster Capitalism” where crises are being manufactured for profit and power.  Someone who knows exactly what that means is Roxxon CEO Dario Agger, a.k.a. The Minotaur, who now feels no need to hide his namesake form from the world. That’s because after Roxxon’s actions in the “War of the Realms” didn’t put the company out of business or get Agger charged with treason, he sees no need to hide who he really is.  So if the Hulk wants to fight him for the fate of this world, he’s prepared to meet that charge head-on.

I’m fully onboard with writer Al Ewing’s feelings about the state of the world as they’re being expressed in this volume.  The problem is that I feel this is all being framed as the start of a tragedy, since it’s impossible to effect the kind of change that Banner and the Hulk are aiming for here in a corporate-owned comic book that’s part of a shared universe.  Still, even if this volume takes a closer look at the “world outside your window” that the Marvel Universe claims to represent, the writer does a good job of making these issues relatable and even entertaining to read about. Okay, that’s also because it gives main artist Joe Bennett the chance to draw some pretty impressive fights between the Hulk and Roxxon’s enhanced goons, and to show us what “Hulk vs. Pacific Rim” would look like as the volume’s supercharged climax dumps four giant monsters into Phoenix, Arizona, for Hulk and his friends to take out.  Banner knows that this is a trap, though, and that sense of self-awareness and the genuine feeling of struggle between both sides is enough to keep me interested here. Even if I feel that I can see how this storyline is going to turn out in the end.