HULK, INHUMANS, Bombs Away

Indestructible Hulk #16 courtesy Marvel
Indestructible Hulk #16 courtesy Marvel

Black Bolt ignited a bomb to stop Thanos.

 

The Mad God wasn’t stopped but the impact ignited dormant alien DNA in the human race.

 

Now Inhumanity is spreading across Earth. Humans are becoming Inhuman.

 

S.H.I.E.L.D. calls on Dr. Bruce Banner to develop a “Humanity” Bomb?

 

Don’t they know bombs and Banner have a…complicated history?

 

After the cosmic war Infinity and Inhuman, Dr. Banner plans to build a bomb with more devastating power than the Hulk!

 

This week in Indestructible Hulk #16 – Mark Waid launches Banner and his alter ego into Inhumanity. Waid told Marvel.com how Banner will take on something Hulk can’t smash:

 

“Thanks to the events of Inhumanity, something noxious this way comes,” says Waid, “There’s something drifting over from where [the Inhuman capital] Attilan used to be, over toward more populated areas. The world’s greatest scientists—the Reed Richards, the Tony Starks and so forth—bow to Bruce Banner and his expertise. No one knows more about weird radiation that can turn you into a monster than Bruce Banner does.”
Enter Banner – super scientist for S.H.I.E.L.D. as Earth’s first line of defense:

 

“The problem is that this isn’t something you can punch,” Waid adds. “This is more of a problem for Banner and his assistants than for the Hulk. Obviously the Hulk manages to elbow his way into every conflict anyway, and that will happen here.”

 

The upcoming arc will be a rematch (of sorts) for Hulk and the Inhumans while playing on Waid’s foundation of the smash hit reboot of Banner and Hulk:

 

Incredible Hulk Annual #1 courtesy Marvel
Incredible Hulk Annual #1 courtesy Marvel

“One of my fondest memories of the Hulk is that first Incredible Hulk Annual where he met the Inhumans,” says Waid. “He’s one of the first, if not the first Marvel hero outside the Fantastic Four to ever deal with the Inhumans. There’s a long history there. I want to play with that. There’s also beauty in the fact that certain Inhumans have powers weirdly complimentary to Hulk’s. To some degree they’re like scalpels to Hulk’s jackhammer approach, but I can’t imagine a conflict between these factions would go well for either side.

 

“The whole ethos of this run has been ‘Hulk destroys; Banner builds.’ That paradigm is reversed here. Banner is building a bomb. But remember: This, in a way, is Banner’s chance to redeem himself for the gamma bomb he built all those years ago that created the Hulk and caused all this destruction. It’s really an interesting internal conflict in the Marvel Universe and everyone turns to Banner for a solution. His solution is, ‘Okay, I’m going to build a bomb.’ That’s not what you want to hear out of Bruce Banner, but there’s a method to his madness and a redemptive method to this madness.”

 

For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.

 

Indestructible Hulk #16 smashes into comic book shops this Wednesday.

 

Matt Fraction is writing Inhumanity and a new Inhuman series coming in 2014.

 

By Editor