The following contains spoilers for Incredible Hulk #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
The Hulk is back on Earth in his new ongoing series, The Incredible Hulk, by writer Philip Kennedy Johnson, artists Nic Klein and Matthew Wilson, and letterer Cory Petit, but that's not necessarily good news for the jade giant, as he finds himself with a bounty on his head with all of the Marvel Universe's monsters on his trail.
This is tied together with a new demonic villain at the center of this new series, a villain who ties in with the ending of the Hulk's last Earth-centric series, The Immortal Hulk, and also brings along a very familiar face to the Hulk, Bruce Banner's estranged wife, Betty Banner.
Who are the Hulk's new enemies?
In the recent classic series, The Immortal Hulk, writer Al Ewing introduced the concept of "The Green Door," which allowed Gamma beings like the Hulk to constantly come back from the dead after they died. At the end of that series, the Hulk and Bruce Banner worked together to finally close that door, which affected not only them, of course, but all of the people in their orbit, including Betty Banner (previously the gamma-created beings, The Harpy and the Red She-Hulk). In the first issue of this new series, we learned that a mysterious group of monsters were awakened by some tomb raiders a year ago, and the knowledge that the Green Door was finally closed was a big deal to them, as they were all the children of "The Mother of Horrors," and have been acting against the Hulk since that point, including somehow ensnaring Betty Banner and forcing her to work with them.
When the series was announced, Johnson explained how his run is heavily influenced by The Immortal Hulk, “The work that Al [Ewing], Joe [Bennett], and the rest did with IMMORTAL HULK was so impactful and spoke so clearly to me personally, it was impossible to come up with an idea that wasn’t inspired by it. We’re getting back to Stan Lee’s Frankenstein/Jekyll & Hyde inspirations for the character, and giving readers a proper monster book in the best, truest Hulk tradition. If you loved IMMORTAL HULK, if you love ghost stories, if you love Marvel monsters, if you loved old school ‘adventure of the month’ stories from books like MARVEL TEAM-UP, and if you want the best, most timeless Hulk art you’ve ever seen, you do not want to miss this return of INCREDIBLE HULK.”
Who put a bounty on Hulk's head with the monsters of the Marvel Universe?
We see that in action at the end of the issue, when the Mother of Horrors' Eldest invokes her mother's name to contact all of the monsters of the Marvel Universe and essentially place a bounty on the Hulk's head, so that once he is dealt with, a new age of monsters can rule in the Marvel Universe.
As Johnson notes, this will lead to a number of intriguing clashes in the future between the Hulk and notable Marvel monsters (all while the Hulk and Banner are warring with each other for the control of their shared body).
The Incredible Hulk #1 is on sale now.
Source: Marvel Comics