Hulk-The End Part Three

Summary of Hulk-The End

WARNING: This is a work of fiction. I will be discussing the plot in this post. If you don't want to know the ending, do not read this post.

This is an strange story to summarize. Very little actually happens in the story. Mostly it is a monologue by Bruce Banner with occasional interruptions by the Hulk persona.

The story has Bruce Banner walking about in a deserted wasteland. The world had at some point destroyed itself with nuclear fire. The only survivors are Hulk/Bruce Banner and cockroaches-who have mutated into monstrous new forms. At some point a recorder android had arrived to record the end of mankind, leaving a recording probe to await the death of Banner. Eventually Banner’s physical form can no longer survive and he dies-leaving only the Hulk.

Analysis:


First I’ll comment on the art of Dale Keown. It is fantastic. The Hulk looks, powerful, brutal, and menacing. Fantastic images abound in this graphic novel that truly deserves the term.

This is the greatest Hulk story ever, though you wouldn’t know it from the summary. This is because most of the drama is internal.

This story examines the Hulk from several different angles. One is the Hulk as symbol. The subtitle of the story is The Last Titan. Within the story this is expanded. Prometheus gave man fire. For this transgression he was chained to a great rock and a vulture ate his liver each day. The Hulk was born in the dawning of the Nuclear Age. He was one of the first. Mankind’s knowledge of nuclear fire would destroy it, and the Hulk pays for it by being devoured by the bugs each day, only to regenerate.

There is also the futility of the Hulk’s wrath. In the end, Banner sees eternity stretching out before him. An eternity of peace and being reunited with those that he has lost. In an interesting twist, it is presented in a way that he may simply be hallucinating. However, the Hulk will not go. He ignores Banner’s pleading and changes to avoid going with him. Raging against the dying of the light indeed.

Finally, there is the futility of power. In the end, mankind’s power destroyed it. In the end, the power of the world’s superheroes could not save them or the world. In the end, the Hulk’s power leaves him utterly, totally alone.

The final words are haunting, especially given the Hulk’s oft-repeated mantra of “Hulk just wants to be left alone!”

“Hulk feels...

...cold.”