So just what is a Grand Design, anyway? If you’ve read this far, you’re probably interested in learning how you can protect your family. Earth-112 Bruce Banner gets subjected to this personally by President Ross, in futile attempt to get info on Starship Hulk.

Powers as Programs: When the Hulk unleashes a blast equivalent to 3000 Gamma Bombs, Thor is caught in the epicentre and turned into a Gamma Mutate similar to the Hulk. The Hulk then takes up Mjolnir, giving him Thor's powers and cladding him in Asgardian armor. There just aren’t a lot of big-tent family-friendly properties out there built around the cumulative consequences of multiple generations of mental illness and abuse. And yet that’s what the Hulk has been about, explicitly and in-text, since Bill Mantlo’s run in the '80s (although the idea was generated by Barry Windsor-Smith, that’s a long story better discussed elsewhere). Suffice to say, the development turned out to be extraordinarily generative for the franchise. Peter David spent over a decade exploring the consequences of Mantlo’s revelations, and almost every writer since has maintained and further developed the idea that the Hulk—Bruce Banner—suffers from serious mental illness. Dale Keown pencils a later rendition of Banner's childhood abuse. From The Incredible Hulk #377 (Jan. 1991); inked by Bob McLeod, colored by Glynis Oliver, lettered by Joe Rosen, written by Peter David. Death of Personality: Banner fears this. He realizes that while the Incredible Hulk is indeed immortal, Dr. Bruce Banner is not, and every time he dies a bit more of him slips away. This obviously wasn't a serious problem until he started abusing Hulk's immortality in the previous run, killing himself over and over again, and now he doesn't know how much time he has left until the Hulk takes over for good. With the Hulk coming in varying colors of green and gray; not to mention dozens of multiple personalities such as Joe Fixit and the Maestro, this is a character the fans most deserved a chronicle of their extremely confusing history. Don't expect all of your favorite Hulk moments to be here. That time the Hulk joined the Ringmaster's circus is not covered. Neither is the time Hulk and 3 others became the New Fantastic Four. Also don't expect to have a lot of time devoted to your favorite Hulk moments if they do happen to make the cut. Hulk's first meeting with a certain Canadian super-hero is the subject of only one fair-sized panel. Cover image for 75960609966500211 HULK GRAND DESIGN: MADNESS #1 JIM RUGG COVER, by Jim Rugg & Jim Rugg, in stores Wednesday, April 27, 2022 from marvel

Storylines and events that are part of this run

Collects Hulk: Grand Design - Monster and Hulk: Grand Design - Madness. The acclaimed Grand Design franchise continues with the Monster…and the Madness! Writer/artist Jim Rugg follows in the tradition of Ed Piskor and Tom Scioli by unfurling the full saga of the Incredible Hulk, from the very beginning to the present day! From Bruce Banner's volatile upbringing to the fateful gamma bomb detonation that changed everything - to years of anger, smashing and just wanting to be left alone! He's been a hero…a hate figure…even a world-breaker. Now witness the biggest moments in the Hulk's history - through the eyes of a single visionary storyteller! You'll never look at Bruce Banner the same way again! The problem is that Marvel kind of hates this. Marvel really wants the Hulk to be a turnkey operation. For decades, they wanted nothing so much as for the Hulk to be the least challenging book in the line - a trend that didn’t start with the success of the TV show in the late 1970s, although that development sure did exacerbate the problem. For long stretches in the early Bronze Age, the Hulk was a terrible comic. That was when he was pretty much exclusively the dumb green “Hulk smash!” guy, who hung around with the Defenders and pushed over cars on TV. The Hulk’s reputation as a terrible book springs from that era, and it wasn’t unearned. (Looked great when Sal Buscema drew it, but those weren’t otherwise great comics.) Hulk is an ongoing series by Marvel Comics launched in 2021. It is written by Donny Cates with artwork by Ryan Ottley. I’m covering 40 years of this character’s history – in the comics and in our world,” Rugg told ComicBook.com. “I looked at this project as part comics and part history. So part of the theme or arc of this story is let’s look at one of the most popular characters to come out of 20th-century storytelling. Here are some of the notable moments in his story, here are some of the great artists and visuals, and here are some of his achievements as one of the best-known characters in the world!” Cover image for 75960609966500121 HULK: GRAND DESIGN – MONSTER 1 PISKOR VARIANT, by Jim Rugg, in stores Wednesday, March 30, 2022 from marvel

New York, NY— February 4, 2022 — The acclaimed Grand Design series continues next month! Writer and artist Jim Rugg will follow in the tradition of Ed Piskor and Tom Scioli by unfurling the full saga of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, from the very beginning to the present in HULK: GRAND DESIGN! Just in time for the iconic character’s 60 th anniversary, witness the biggest moments in the Hulk’s history through the eyes of a single visionary storyteller! Viral Transformation: In El Paso, Titan infected 27 bar patrons with gamma, turning them into mini-hulks. He then slaughters the lot of them while possessing Banner's body.Titan isn't actually one of Bruce's Hulk personalities, but a demon seeking to take over his body and claim it and its power for himself, and D'spayre was working for him.

Anyway: liked but did not love, enjoyed but not really felt that much more deeply. Still found compelling, for all that, because in the end Rugg nudges it over the finish line with his trump card: it looks great. It may not always be great, but it looks great. And there I go again, qualifying my praise! Sorry. Force of habit. I shouldn't say that, because Rugg really did beat the spread. He's still around, he's still making comics when a lot of other people who were making comics 20 years ago have fallen by the wayside, at all ends of the industry. People who made good comics and bad. So: someone in the company said, let’s give the book to that thirsty guy in sales. He’s got some surprisingly good Spider-Man stuff under his belt. Let him beat his head against the wall for a year. What’s the worst that could happen? An early peak of human drama in Peter David's tenure as writer. From The Incredible Hulk #344 (Jun. 1988), penciled by Todd McFarlane, inked by Bob Wiacek, colored by The (umpteenth) detente Banner had achieved with his alter ego's personality by the end of Immortal Hulk has been destroyed by an unknown force manipulating them. It's worth noting that Hulk is actually still willing to make amends. Banner is the one unwilling to make peace, afraid of his own destructive potential. Not in this book, but over in Thor, it's revealed that the El Paso Incident is Banner somehow accidentally infecting the patrons of a bar with his anger and transformations while something evil infected him and murdered the patrons and destroyed the bar.

DC Preview: Batman/Catwoman #10

Jenkins' run is little-discussed today, even though he did good work with Garney and with John Romita Jr. It was a clear influence on Al Ewing's recent The Immortal Hulk, however, with much of the tone and many specific elements of that series playing prominent roles during Jenkins' tenure. Another strong antecedent to Immortal Hulk was the Bruce Jones run, which featured the aforementioned Romita, Deodato, and Lee Weeks. The Jones run was a signature success of NuMarvel, notable for being an instance of the company rolling the dice not on a Marvel newcomer, but on a veteran who just hadn’t done a lot of work in the previous decade. Jones came through the door with an unorthodox pitch at just the right moment. He was the first writer to treat the title explicitly as a horror comic. Alas, it sort of falls apart in the home stretch, but it wouldn’t be the Hulk if the third act wasn’t just a little bit weaker than the rest of the show. P.S. My personal favorite Hulk artist, since I didn't tell you and I’m sure you’ve been dying to know, is a dark horse: Gary Frank. A weird time on the title, in hindsight, but that was my very favorite series for every month he drew it. Just a perfect comic book. That was the period where the Hulk was strong and smart, living a fairly stable life with his family in Nevada. It was a status quo that was never going to last - never supposed to last, to be fair, obviously just another in a long line of fake-outs involving Bruce getting his shit together. A real heartbreaker when you consider just how unlikely the idea of the Hulk finding domestic bliss, even fleeting. You know Bruce is going to blow up and lose everything, that’s rather the point. It’s just a matter of when - although, if you want to talk about a weak third act, the Gary Frank period on Hulk also qualifies for that discussion. For the most part, I don’t think he really does. The scheme of this Design is such that the first of its two issues, “Monster”, is devoted to everything from the Hulk’s creation up through Bill Mantlo; the second issue, “Madness”, is mainly dedicated to Peter David’s run, bookended on either side by the consequential first Byrne run and highlights of Pak and thereabouts. It stops, pretty much, with a mention of Loeb's Red Hulk - a character I quite liked, at least in his classic form, because Ed McGuinness drew a pretty awesome Hulk. Rugg’s greatest strength is now what it's always been: he’s a very good designer. Extraordinarily good eye. What he seems to enjoy about the Hulk is that he looks cool and that he makes an interesting subject for a book about a visual history. It’s fun to see him stretching his legs and doing game approximations of different artists' styles - that’s the deep pleasure at the heart of the Grand Design impulse, a desire to pay homage, to see contemporary artists native to a different idiom paying their tribute to the greats.

Comes to a full circle in the final issue, where Bruce and Hulk become one again and retake their body from Titan. Marvel - well. Ok. Marvel’s a business. They are all about making money. As I’ve pointed out a few times over the years: Marvel is not above making good comics, if they have absolutely no other choice in the matter. They know how to hire new writers and change up art regimes. The company has done that many times over the years. Maybe it will again, if it can ever learn to properly chafe at corporate ownership. Following the events of Immortal Hulk, it seemed that Bruce Banner and the Hulk had developed a peace of mind with their condition and lives. However, something terrible has happened that has shattered the two badly, thus Banner is doing something he hasn't tried before: turning the Hulk into a "Smashtronaut". What has happened to the two to push Banner into doing such a thing?

Marvel Preview: X Deaths of Wolverine #2

Hulk (Dr. Robert Bruce Banner) (Main story and recap) (Several deaths and resurrections, Joins and leaves the Avengers, joins the Defenders) Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Titan takes elements of both Knull (his appearance and open, direct hostility) and the One Below All (a force trying to commandeer the Hulk). Lampshaded two-fold by Sif. Not only Hulked-out Thor is able to resist the pull of the Bifrost, he also manages to shatter the whole dang bridge.