Roxxon Energy Corportation is one of the Marvel Universe's most enduring institutions, surviving scandal after scandal, only to emerge stronger than ever. However, it's now in the cross hairs of the MU's most dangerous and destructive force, the Immortal Hulk. Making matters worse for Roxxon is that the Hulk, Bruce Banner and all of their alternate identities are united in the belief the mega-corporation must be destroyed.
That conflict is front and center in the current arc of The Immortal Hulk, by writer Al Ewing and artist Joe Bennett. It's already drawn in Roxxon CEO Darrio Agger, a movement of angry youth with a moniker familiar to longtime Marvel fans, Amadeus Cho, Iron Man and Namor. Those disparate forces will be drawn further drawn into the fray as the arc unfolds, and the Hulk's feud with Roxxon escalates. The conflict will also draw in new players, like giant kaiju, classic Hulk foe Xemnu the Titan, and some of the major forces in the Marvel Universe.
CBR spoke with Ewing about those current and upcoming developments, and what they mean for the series.
CBR: At the end of Immortal Hulk#27, the Devil Hulk persona appeared to be able to watch a sunrise, and mentioned that he and Banner have been working together. That raises a couple of questions: How active can the Hulk be during the day now, and do Banner and the Devil Hulk necessarily trust each other?
Al Ewing: We'll get some answers to this in Issue 29; it's not an instant switch that's been flipped. This is the consequence of a few encounters with natural and artificial sunlight, and Hulk and Bruce testing the boundaries in response. If you remember your back issues, Joe -- the Grey Hulk -- finally came out in the day when Bruce accepted him. That hasn't quite happened for Devil Hulk just yet, but they're not in opposition, either. This isn't like the Bruce/Hulk relationships of old, when Bruce was at war with the monster inside. Bruce Banner is a system of alters, and they've all come to realize that over the years - now they're making a serious effort to co-exist and work on a common goal.
The first two issues of this arc made me think of some lyrics from the Clash song, “The Clampdown,” "Let fury have the hour. Anger can be power. Do you know that you can use it?" Is that's what's happening here? Are Bruce and the Hulk trying to use their anger to do what they believe is good?
That's a good quote! Probably a little too outside the public domain for us to use, but it's on the money. This is one of the themes we've been exploring right from the start - the idea of anger as something that can be harnessed and used, and used for positive change. We've had periods of Hulk's history where Bruce has tried to use the Hulk to do good, but there was still that separation between them -- Bruce's desire to divorce himself from his own rage, to deny it, to lock it down.
Now, by fully accepting his dissociative identity disorder and working closely with his alters, Bruce is arguably more complete and whole than he's been in a very long time. But if anger is a useful emotion -- and I think it can be -- is it enough on its own? How far can you go with just your rage as fuel? If you can only destroy, how much good are you really capable of? These are questions Bruce has run afoul of before, and might again. His losing faith in himself as someone who can build as well as break might be his undoing. Or maybe I'm just thinking out loud.
In Issue 28 you're introducing a new take on the classic Hulk concept of the Teen Brigade. What can you tell us about this new version?
Well, it's not so much a single group as a general name assigned to the people inspired by the Hulk - we saw some kids in green hoodies in Issue 24, and we've seen graffiti, there's a general sense that there are members of the public who'd like to see Roxxon in particular, and maybe society in general, take a fall. What's changing for this particular issue - thanks in large part to that wonderful Alex Ross cover -- is that they're getting a more coherent visual identity in the form of those plastic Hulk Halloween masks, which obviously doesn't do anything to make them less creepy. I was originally thinking of Issue 28 as a kind of look from above, with a lot of vox pops and quick cuts to show the impact Hulk was having, but I decided that coming out Issue 25, we needed as complete a picture as possible of where Hulk was at, so I ended up pulling that stylistic trigger earlier, in Issue 26. So now Issue 28 is more of a look at the impact Hulk is having at the micro-scale, through the eyes of Dario Agger and one of his lowest-level employees, illustrated by Matias Bergara and Tom Reilly respectively. (And they both do wonderful work!)
And after that, we get macro again - in the form of some giant monsters. You can't get bigger picture than kaiju wrecking a major American city. I you live in Phoenix, you might recognize a couple of the landmarks in the brief panels before they come down.
In the new year, you're introducing Xemnu, a classic Marvel monster that I mostly know from comedic stories, into your current story arc. What made you want to bring him into Immortal Hulk? What do you find most interesting about the character?
So many things. To begin with, he was nearly the Hulk. Before Bruce Banner came along, he was the Living Hulk. If Stan Lee hadn't been fond of the word "Hulk" enough to re-use it, he would have been the only Hulk going. What would that look like? A world where Xemnu took the Hulk's place? Maybe we'll see.
Thing two: If the Hulk we know is a creature of chaos, a monster outside normal boundaries and rules, Xemnu has him beat and then some. He's a gigantic, alien, cyborg, yeti who can cloud human minds, turn into gas, possess people, throw up psychic shields, control inanimate objects, take the form of a creepy old man, and at least based on his various heights during his appearances, he can change size -- he seems to develop fresh powers almost as he needs them. Which, given how much I like nebulous power levels that function more as metaphors than as fight metrics, makes him catnip to me.
All that could still be played as goofy fun -- and Xemnu has been played for laughs very often -- but there's something wonderfully sinister in his methods. He always comes back to controlling minds through mass media - a pair of googly Muppet eyes gazing guilelessly out of your television set to quite literally steal your children. So he's kind of the perfect villain to drop into this story, that's already heavily about public perception and media reach. I did promise a while back that Immortal Hulk is never that far from being a horror story -- no matter where we go, we'll always orbit back there -- and... yeah. This is all going to get very spooky.
This current arc has already featured cameos and guest appearances from Namor, Amadeus Cho and Iron Man. Will we see any more them before this story is over? And will any other major Marvel players become involved as the story goes on?
Absolutely, yes. I've got an arc planned in the future -- around about the Issue 40 mark -- where events will almost require various high-profile guest stars. I'll let you guess what those events might be for now, but I will say that I am planning on a rematch between the Hulk and the Thing - and it'll be the exact opposite of whatever anyone expects. Also, if we're talking returning supporting characters -- look out for Gamma Flight coming back in #30. Titania fans in particular will be happy, I think.
Both you and artist Joe Bennett seem to enjoy the scenes with Roxxon CEO Dario Agger, who appears even more monstrous in his minotaur form. What is it about the character that makes him so interesting to you guys? What can you tell us about his role in this arc and the series moving forward?
Personally, I like that he's so irredeemable. I don't think we've had this bad a guy in the book since Dr Clive, and Agger makes that guy look benevolent. And if anything, he's a little toned down in our book - I was going back and reading Jason Aaron's Thor, and Dario Agger gets up to crazy stuff that makes our version look almost controlled, like he's learned to mellow out. That said, I'm pleased with the touch we added, that he's staying in Minotaur form all the time now because he realized nobody will give a damn on any level that can affect him. Which gives Joe a chance to cut loose in the way only he can - he gave the minotaur a hideous, slobbering mouth full of jutting teeth that always makes me feel slightly sick whenever I see it, which is obviously excellent.
Moving forward, this arc, this act of the drama, is about pride and the fall. Agger thought nothing could touch him - here comes the Hulk. Now, as we'll see, the Hulk is riding high, and we're going to see how a motivated, cunning Agger chooses to act on that. Of course, that's assuming it's a two-way struggle, and there won't be any third parties entering the narrative... and I'm not talking about Xemnu.
Banner and the Hulk's initial attacks on the world have been on American soil. Are they just focusing their energies there for the time being? Or is their campaign a global one?
Right now, the US is where Roxxon is based, and -- partly thanks to Namor's intervention, partly thanks to Roxxon picking up the anti-Hulk contract - Hulk is focussed completely on them. It's possible we'll see them tackling Roxxon assets further afield, but right now I'm enjoying Hulk traveling around America. Since the start of the series, he's been touring all sorts of states that Marvel heroes don't tend to find themselves in - for instance, this week, he's heading to Wyoming. Which kind of gets back to an idea from earlier in the series - if you live in Wyoming, or Arizona, or New Mexico, Spider-Man and Captain America are people you see on TV. Hulk is the guy they have an alert siren for. So in New York, with the Avengers, Hulk is the B-lister in the background - in the other 49 states, especially the Southwest, he's got a much bigger profile. So when he comes on the TV, people are going to listen.
Finally, speaking of other nations, can you talk at all about Banner and the Hulk's thoughts on Krakoa? Might we see the mutant nation and some of its heroes pop up in a future Immortal Hulk story?
I'm walking a bit of a tightrope here between making this a series people can come back to in five or ten years time, and making it a series that makes sense in the context of the rest of the Marvel Universe right now. So when Bruce Banner off-handedly mentions Krakoa or Wakanda, I think making it more than an off-hand mention would probably lead to the work aging quite visibly. That said, I can tell you Bruce's thoughts on Krakoa - as presented in #26, he thinks they're doing interesting things, but those things will ultimately be of little benefit to the human race as a whole. Is he right? Will my time on the book come to an end before we find out? Who can say?
I will say that there is room for some mutant guest appearances in the coming arcs - they're not right at the top of my list of potential guest-stars, so I won't make promises, but I've never written Cyclops and I'd like to.
I'd like to finish this up by thanking readers from all over for supporting this book and making it the success it's become, through whatever weather I choose to steer us through. I've made it a very chaotic ride - the one promise I'll make about the Hulk is that you'll never know what to expect next, and I think that's going to hold true right to the end - so I really appreciate everyone who's embraced that. I was at the Dallas Comic Show recently - my first time in Texas in over two decades, and my first time in North Texas ever - and not only was it a lovely convention in itself, but everyone was so welcoming and had so many nice things to say that I almost felt bad about all the horrible things I'm going to put Bruce and company through over the next year. Almost. But not quite.
The Immortal Hulk #28 goes on sale Wednesday.