Al Ewing’s incredible run on Immortal Hulk feels longer and longer ago with each passing day. After an unsuccessful attempt to relaunch an ongoing title featuring the character with the Donny Cates & Ryan Ottley-led Hulk series, Marvel is back at it again and digging up an iconic moniker to try and set things right. Enter The Incredible Hulk #1 from Phillip Kennedy Johnson & Nic Klein, which released today.

The issue begins with a team of raiders looking to steal treasures from a tomb in Iraq. Unbeknownst to them, they awaken a family of ancient evil beings who appear to be the first main adversaries that we’ll be seeing in the series. — they’re back from the dead to wreck havoc now that the Green Door has been closed. This scene sets the horror tone that will come to permeate the book, and hopefully the series.

We then see a disheveled Bruce at a diner looking for a quick meal so that he can get away. It’s revealed that he’s fighting Hulk from reappearing and trying to keep his distance from everyone else to keep them safe. Things don’t end well for Bruce or the diner as he wakes up from being unconscious to find the Hulk has destroyed the building.

The rest of the book plays out as both the FBI & the ancient entities try to hunt down Hulk. The FBI to contain Hulk from causing more damage, and the ancient entities so that they can use him for their own nefarious purposes — to serve their “Mother of Horrors” and bring in the Age of Monsters!

I recently re-read the ‘Planet Hulk’ & ‘World War Hulk’ storylines so I was feeling a sense of nostalgia in anticipation of this new series. Perhaps that’s why I loved the Klein’s artistic approach in this issue. There is an uneven, chaotic presence to his lines that perfectly match the mindset we initially find Bruce Banner in and the mindset we later see Hulk in. It’s definitely not rainbows and butterflies for our main character. Klein’s approach is also a perfect match for the horror genre of this issue. There is one glory-shot of the Hulk after he emerges that may be one of the best, and scariest, of the Green Goliath in recent memory. The entire book’s colors by Matthew Wilson are just dark and brooding enough to keep it from feeling claustrophobic or washed out.

Overall, I really enjoyed the horror in this issue but I’m not sure I loved it as a Hulk issue. The inner conflict between Bruce & Hulk is overdone and nothing Johnson wrote for those scenes gave us a new perspective on the trope. I found myself more invested in this new group of evil ancient beings and wanting to know more about who they were and who they serve. We could have had Marvel character X as their foil and I would have still enjoyed their story.

Rating: 6/10

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