Trade paperback with episodes 31 to 35 of the stage that Al Ewing and Joe Bennett left us in the Green Giant collection. Panini Comics recovers the past of characters vital to the Hulk story through original and convenient flashbacks, which serve as social criticism and much more.
The mind control of hypnosis
Xemnu, from the Magical Planet. We all remember him seeing him on Saturday mornings, in the children’s program where we lived his adventures and he made it clear to us that he was there to protect us, to teach us the difference between good and evil. We all know him, he was important in those formative years prior to puberty, he represented values that we had to acquire, an example to pass on to our descendants, a hero who gave his all, who made us better, who showed us the way and left us Of course, otherwise the price to pay would be very high. Or is all this just a hoax? Who really is Xemnu?
Indeed, all this is nothing more than the effect of the hypnotic powers of an alien with malicious intent, not being a good Samaritan, his control through mass hypnotism causes ordinary mortals to succumb to believing in a reality that never existed. And Xemnu knows it, he allies with forces whose purpose is destruction and he will not hesitate to use Dario Agger if it gives him the necessary advantage to achieve his objectives. And he is so powerful that at times it seems that the Hulk is the only one who knows that the truth is not what Xemnu sells to everyone.
A good villain always comes back
And we are not talking about Xemnu now, but about Samuel Sterns. Doesn’t it ring a bell? That is that you are not a regular reader of the Emerald Giant because we are talking about nothing more and nothing less than The Leader, surely the character’s nemesis, his worst enemy by far and the most recognizable due to the shape his head acquires. Abomination may be a physical rival of the same characteristics as the Hulk, but The Leader takes that confrontation further, he rivals not only with the brown beast but with the brain of Bruce Banner, with the intellectual scientific part of him.
It presents one of the most interesting evolutions of the figures derived from gamma radiation, which over the years are not exactly few. Listing them all can generate a long list but to give a simple example we would talk about Doc Samson, “Thunder” Ross or She-Hulk, in addition to those mentioned and without going into more detail (Rick Jones, Betty Ross Banner, Amadeus Cho…)
The episode that Al Ewing narrates for us, with Jackson “Butch” Guice’s pencils as a guest, in which we see the progress and the different phases and deaths that The Leader is going through as a diary, is simply great. Each volume represents a new opportunity after coming back to life, serving not only as “memorabilia” of its origin but as an original walk through its vital evolution. All this with the aim of repositioning him for a new confrontation with the Hulk that will not find his outcome in this volume.
Nemesis
But if someone can be considered a resilient enemy within the Hulk’s soul, it is the figure represented by Brian Banner, his father. Al Ewing has already turned to him throughout the period that he is recovering in these Marvel Premieres, but it is really important to highlight his presence in that Hell that is always present and remember that Bruce’s anger comes from a childhood marked by mistreatment by this deranged and jealous parent. Adding El Líder will lead to the confrontation against his worst demons.
We are facing a trade paperback with a lesser presence of Joe Bennett, counting on the presence of Javier Rodríguez and Nick Pitarra to narrate sequences that take place at another point in time and being replaced by the already named Butch Guice and by Mike Hawthorne in the last two episodes. . Nothing to complain about, we are dealing with more than proven professionals and who carry out relays of a fairly high level, enough for the titular cartoonist to take a break to face all the numbers that will make up the next installment of this compilation. We are facing one of the most original conceptions that we have been able to see in the entire history of the character, a Hulk that is difficult to forget, as much as to kill.