Earth’s Heroes prevented a cataclysmic event thanks to a new Inhuman named Ulysses, who seems to be able to predict the future. After Captain Marvel chose to act on one of his visions and ambush Thanos, She-Hulk was left in a coma, and Jim Rhodes, A.K.A. War Machine, was killed.
The death of his best friend galvanized Tony Stark against Carol and he abducted Ulysses to try to find out how the Inhuman’s power worked. When the other heroes arrived to confront Iron Man, Ulysses hit them with a vision of the Hulk going on a murderous rampage, leading Captain Marvel to seek out the reclusive Bruce Banner in his mountain lab.
As tensions rise, each hero will have to make a choice: protect the future or change the future?
Summary
Bruce Banner is dead! That’s right the Hulk is dead and by the hands of Hawkeye! Now Matt Murdock is questioning Captain Marvel in Federal Court about the events that transpired not only concerning the confrontation with Bruce Banner but that lead to his death. Captain Marvel begins to tell how she, Tony Stark and a delegation of heroes went to confront Dr. Banner due to the vision of the future shown to them by Ulysses. In that vision, the Hulk had gone on a rampage and had killed many heroes in the process. Dr. Banner tells Carol and Tony he has gone over a year without a “incident”, but Carol insists on knowing what experiments Bruce is conducting. Carol and Tony try to explain the vision they saw, but Bruce is genuinely confused as to why the delegation would come to confront him. Carol has Dr Hank McCoy hack into Bruce’s computers which reveal that he has been experimenting on himself. Bruce starts to get agitated and is shot with a specially designed arrow which kills him. More evidence is brought to light about conversations between Clint and Bruce, but Tony has already made up his mind that Carol is to blame for Bruce’s death because of her use of Ulysses. As the verdict comes in Friday alerts Tony that she has located the origin of Ulysses power.
What I thought
The Hulk is dead. I am still shaking my head at that one. How do you kill a hulk? It was frustrating reading this story because of the long history of attempts that have unsuccessfully been made to try to kill Bruce/Hulk. Leave it to Bendis to rewrite 50 years of history and continuity. Did you know that the Hulk can survive getting his head cut- off? It’s true! In issue #1 of the Avengers Ultron Forever mini-series the Hulk gets his head cut off. I mean, headless horseman off. The Hulk not only grew a human head, but reattached the severed head. The story alludes to the fact that this Hulk was from Banner’s early years when he still dosed himself with the gamma rays in order to control his metamorphosis, but still, he grew his head back! Now you are trying to make me believe he can be shot with an arrow and killed? Get out of here! Once Bruce is killed, we see a clear division in the ranks about using Ulysses, with the young Avengers (excuse the pun) seeing things Tony’s way. With the recent teasers, we know there will be a split in the Avengers team with the youngsters going and forming their own group. Now let’s check our scorecard; we already have a new Hulk, so now the old one has been killed off,;we already have the next Iron Man, so War Machine has been killed off; She- Hulk has been placed in a coma for God knows how long; and Tony is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I am still on the fence about the series, but at least this book was better than the previous two. 3.5/5 stars
