The Road to Infernal Hulk

Phillip Kennedy Johnson, along with artists Nic Klein and Adam Gorham, inker Cam Smith, colorist Matt Wilson, artist penciller Kev Walker, and letterer Cory Petit, have been delivering unto us an epic saga in the first 30 issue arc of PKJ’s Incredible Hulk.

The issues have been haunting, horrific, and hellaciously hideous.  This is a horror book, not a hero book.  This story is about monsters, old and new, big and small, human and supernatural.  It is a series about vengeance and hatred.  There is a bit of hope thrown in, after all, one needs a mirror to truly understand how terrible things can be.  It is an ingenious story that, at its heart, is filled with crushing despair.

A bit of a summary of the series leading up to issue #30:

This Hulk is at war with Banner.  He is also at war with monsters.  It cannot be stressed enough however, that Hulk himself is a monster.  This is something that PKJ emphasizes throughout the series.  His transformations are monstrous, each getting increasingly grotesque as we follow along.

The world Hulk exists in is currently full of monsters, summoned by Eldest, the firstborn of the Mother of Horrors, to capture Hulk, the Fractured Son.  At the end of most issues, Johnson tells us the stories of each monster we encounter as well as some extra history told to us by Eldest.  We learn how The One Above All created life, and Vinruviel (the Mother of Horrors) corrupted it.  So powerful was she that, when he came back to destroy her, she was able to corrupt him as well, through rage and fear, turning him into The One Below All and releasing the green fire of Gamma into the world.  The green door has been closed, the monsters are hunting Hulk, and Banner?  Banner is simply along for the ride.

Early in the series, Hulk is joined by Charlie, a teenager running away from her personal monster, her abusive father.  Charlie wants to be a hero, she looks up to Captain America and hopes to make herself a Bucky of sorts with Hulk in the role of Cap.  She believes that he, regardless of what he tells her, is a hero, and she won’t leave him alone as she tries to prove it to him.  Hulk begrudgingly begins to take care of her and care for her, which eventually leads to her becoming something of a monster herself, though she fights against believing that they could possibly be bad guys no matter what she sees.

When she eventually is drawn into the Hulkscape and sees Banner and how Hulk is tormenting him, she can no longer deny what has always been in front of her.  Hulk is a monster, and she has become one.  At this point, she abandons him out of despair, leaving Hulk completely alone.  He is hunted, haunted, and slightly horrified of himself. 

Hulk attempts to help Brother Voodoo, whom he had encountered before with Charlie, possibly to prove that he could still be a hero should he choose to be.  It is a trap however, and Hulk is cast from this plain of existence onto the Requiem Plain by Eldest, desperate to use the Fractured Son to open the door to the Mother of Horrors, something only Hulk can do, because as we all know, Hulk is the Strongest.

Check out our interview with Phillip Kennedy Johnson!