The guest artists were a deliberate editorial decision, the opposite of Immortal Hulk, where the guest artists didn't cause as much concern with the quality of their art, which we know would never match Joe Bennett's...

But what I REALLY miss about Immortal Hulk, besides its overwhelmingly rich story in content and complex approach, is that great talents like Lee Garbett, Martin Simmonds, etc., were there to reinforce the obscurity of the run...

... Here, these artists are only there to fulfill an agenda and sabotage the quality of what, according to what they say (although I completely disagree), would be the strong point of this Hulk: Nic Klein's art. But what good is Klein if everything there is cartoonish, with horrible lettering by Cory Petit and childish colors by Matthew Wilson? It's already started to sabotage itself; from now on, it might not even reach two printings.

I don't quite see the difference to Immortal Hulk, however, I have only read a few issues here and there - some of them I liked, some I didn't, which is why I never read the whole series. I agree that it often looks like Marvel is sabotaging itself, mostly by doubling down on the woke shit in, say, the X-titles.

When it comes to the lack of content, I guess that's just how comics are done nowadays. In the good old days you got a full story with a beginning, a middle and an ending in one issue. Now sometimes you get one scene in a book!

I agree on the cartoonish characters (although I do like the coloring). Nic Klein was excellent on Drifter a few years ago, while this is much more middle-of-the-road, despite some great panels here and there.

I have to confess, I'm not that familiar with Joe Bennett, but you really seem to like him a lot.

The division of opinions regarding Immortal Hulk continues to this day. Many complained that the retcon of the Hulk's origin was unnecessary, and that there are some forced moments, such as the Gray Hulk sympathizing with trans people, a Black character replacing General Ross in the hunt for the Hulk, and a Black journalist wanting to understand why the white man has so much support and she doesn't. This is what caused some complaints...

......but when I revisited the run, I wasn't bothered, because not only does the script become intense, but the art and creative team behind it do too, and the psychological aspect, which Bill Mantlo established in the eighties and Paul Jenkins in the 2000s, becomes even stronger and more intense...

......and then we move towards violence, scatological gore that can't be replicated, it's no use, Klein isn't qualified for that, and after seeing what he did with Thor, I see that he's actually not capable of presenting a page or double page on the level of Immortal Hulk. And then we have Matthew Wilson, who isn't Ruy José or Belardino Brabo, and not even the designer of this current run helps...

......even when the Hulk wasn't the focus of the issue, Betty, with her new version of the Harpy, delivered a level of violence and horror that Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Klein with Wilson could never have achieved. In the issue where the Hulk and Betty begin to converse inside that soundproof hotel room, you notice their facial expressions, and how the art and creative team shine in a unique way.

Comics are like this nowadays because woke culture is empty, everything in it is empty and uninteresting, and for these people, comics should be like that, a festival of fast food and nothing more.

If Klein were held to a higher standard by the editorial team, perhaps he could shine in Hulk, but they simply leave him there so that the praise he receives monthly is guaranteed, even if he does nothing but more of the same.

Joe Bennett is a kind soul, a rare sight these days. As a human being, he is enlightened, as is his profession as an artist. Seeing the Hulk without him continuing what he built is incredibly sad.

I should probably mention I’m not a huge Hulk fan. I’ve read him a while in the eighties and one or two issues in the 90s, before I checked out Immortal Hulk just a few months ago, mostly because I liked the art (and good art is hard to find at Marvel these days).

For the same reason I started reading the new Captain America series. Since the X-books have become so terrible, I’ve been looking for other Marvel books that might interest me. But I really don’t know much about the history of these characters or the people who worked on them over the years.

I‘m now at a point where I might drop all Marvel titles. There are still a few decent issues here and there, but nothing that really excites me as much as Geiger or G.I. Joe.

Bennett's art, along with the creative team (who shine alongside him), is something Bennett has refined. His work in 2000 was already very good (he portrayed Professor Hulk very well) for a script with a psychological approach (Paul Jenkins, the same one who created Sentry and wrote a very good Inhumans miniseries). Immortal Hulk is directly a sequel to that complex approach from 2000 (life after death, God and Devil, the serpent, etc..).

The original concept of the Devil Hulk wasn't a monstrous serpent like we saw in Immortal Hulk, but rather a serpent trapped in Banner's fractured psyche in an ice cave (a solution taken from the movie Fight Club). The Devil wants to use the body of the Savage Green Hulk, the most powerful Hulk in his primitive form os acting, to kill everyone, including everyone Banner loves.

In Immortal Hulk, the Devil is articulate (the Devil is articulate and extremely manipulative), he agrees with Banner on the end of the world, the extinction of human scum, the end of capitalism for a better world, cleansed of all plague. Devil is Banner's protector against the scientist's abusive father. Although the Devil is the protective persona, he only wants Banner's agreement, and he himself created this persona as a result of depression and a degenerative disease he suffered.

There are good Captain America stories, there are those urban adventures from the eighties from Marvel Team-Up (which Phillip Kennedy Johnson distorts trying to infuse the crap that is progressivism and all its culture) in which he and Spider-Man joined forces, and there's a very good run in the nineties when Steve Rogers lost the uniform and Johnny Walker (who led the West Coast Avengers) takes his place.

Titles I recommend you pick up: Dick Tracy (Mad Cave), Gun Honey (Titan Comics), Heat Seeker (Titan Comics), Scarlett Couture (Titan Comics), Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword Of Conan (Titan Comics).

Thanks for the recommendations. I think I flipped through one of the new Dick Tracy issues, but found the art not very good. Conan is very unsteady. I like De la Torre's art, but none of the other artists are on his level. I'll have a look at the other books!

Dick Tracy, Gun Honey, Heat Seeker, Scarlett Couture... nah, don't like the art. Plus, I'm not a fan of the agent/spy genre.

I'm going to recommend some Hulk-related things; the list includes what made me a fan of the character: The Hulk Magazine (black and white, it's somewhat rare, but worth finding and owning physically; these are stories that pay homage to the TV series (which increased the Hulk's popularity) and portray the Hulk respectfully within his mythology...

Hulk run by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema: begins in issue #245 of Incredible Hulk and ends in issue #313, when it reaches a crossroads. It's perfect! There are no forced elements, and the Hulk finds himself in a man/monster characterization in his savage/primitive version that made him a classic in the eighties. It's a continuation of what Len Wen had done previously, and the savage version, with art by Sal Buscema, adds an extra touch to what Herb Trimpe, Marie Severin, and other great artists.

Take the post-Peter David Hulk era, starting with the John Byrne/Ron Garney omnibus run, and finally everything from the Paul Jenkins/Ron Garney run, and then the Bruce Jones run. That's what you need to read to see how monstrously the Hulk evolved during that period in the 2000s. If it weren't for that, Immortal Hulk wouldn't be the success it is today. The suspense/horror approach, started with Bruce Jones, doesn't disappoint.

I don't recommend Peter David's Hulk; he creates an approach that's acceptable, but saturated, and whose quality plummets absurdly as the issues progress. Incredibly, this guy spent a decade writing Hulk until Marvel figured out what could be done with it to truly revive it, and then we had the 1999 approach and the 2000s with more brutal stories, a darker aspect, and psychology for adult readers.

I recently read the first issue of Devil On My Shoulder from Dark Horse; it has the potential for the next ones to be even better, but it's only worthwhile if you're a fan of movies like I Spit On Your Grave (which was remade in 2010).

I'm really enjoying Terminator (Dynamite) with Declan Shalvey, both in the Terminator series and the new Terminator Metal: Metal. It's honoring the concept of the original 1984 film (focused on science fiction/horror). You might dismiss it because of the art style, but the script with its elaborate solutions has really caught my attention. The latest issue of Metal has some things that I found phenomenal.

Shalvey is a guy I'd love to see on Hulk in that horror vein of Immortal Hulk, but I'm probably asking too much. But Shalvey wrote a really good Immortal Hulk one-shot, and he's even good at the art (he wrote and did the art).

There's a really good comic book called Somna, it's from DSTLRY, the illustrations are fantastic. It was the only good thing I saw from that publisher.

I enjoyed Ryan North's Hulk Smash Everything, and I hope issue 2 onwards is even more dynamic. It evoked a sense of nostalgia, blending several promising decades for the character with something current. A Hulk that hasn't been presented in many years before its complex approaches. North is clearly having fun here with Vincenzo Carratù and the creative team. It reminded me of the second volume of Alan Davis' Savage Hulk, which is also very good.

Alan Davis is the best! He's not as good as he used to be, but that's probably age-related. I think I read his Savage Hulk series when it came out. The Hulk run that really burned itself into my mind, was Mantlo/Buscema. Those were the books that came out in Germany when I discovered MarvelComics in the 80s, but somewhere along the road I lost my interest in the Hulk.

I'm gonna check out your recommendations, but I suspect we have very different tastes when it comes to art and genres.

Mantlo and Buscema were what led me to read Hulk. Before that, I had only been introduced to the TV show, which, by the way, was the first time I saw Banner's transformation (they try to bury him alive by throwing cement on top of him) in an episode of the third season. I realized that this character wasn't just a hero like Spidey, Captain America, etc.. My first story from the Mantlo era was with Hulk in Jarella's world (a two-part arc), Incredible Hulk #247 and #248.

Regarding the recommendations, you might actually dislike some of them. But all the reviews I've done here are based on the quality of those books, which I believe range from the best to the worst. Nowadays, I only buy books that are truly worthwhile, and I'm even lucky that, despite some despicable material appearing, there are good things I want to have on my bookshelf.

“My first story from the Mantlo era was with Hulk in Jarella's world (a two-part arc), Incredible Hulk #247 and #248.” I think that story was in the first German Hulk collected edition that I read too!

I review the books I read for some reason. I’d love to say that all the books I read I read because I like them, but unfortunately I’m invested in some books, especially the X-books, that have been really bad for a few years now. I still want to know what happens to some of the characters. I know it’s silly, because each author changes the characters to fit their needs, but they still feel like old friends to me.

I don't see this woke generation as understanding these characters the way we've learned to understand them. I've never seen a generation so poor; nothing they want becomes a phenomenon, and any industry that aims to meet their needs goes down the drain, to the detriment of its own.

Well said. It's weird indeed. Their individuation doesn't seem to come from being part of a music subculture or any art for that matter, but solely from made-up gender identities and weird politics.

What disgusts me even more is how a writer who proudly proclaims on social media that he served his country simply abandons that honor to cater to a victimized population. That's betraying himself, betraying everything he achieved through principles and moral values. It's unacceptable that the army divides races to favor one in particular; that's not how you make a man. I would never indoctrinate my son or make him read anything related to an agenda.

I‘m so glad I’m not on X. I’ve heard about the whining of some writers.