Warning! Spoilers for Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place #1 below!
The Hulk has undergone some seriously twisted transformations over the years, especially in the darker Immortal Hulk series from Al Ewing and Joe Bennett. However, his latest transformation is his most disgusting to date, as his process of turning into the Jade Giant is revealed in gruesome detail.
Immortal Hulk has turned the popular Marvel heroes ongoing into a straight-up horror series, with plenty of gnarly scenes, body horror, and brutal transformations. Earlier this year, Bruce Banner transformed by the Hulk literally climbing out of his corpse, ripping and squishing it. That transformation - and many since - have been nauseating. However, in the one-shot Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place, Banner's transformation into the Hulk might be the most graphic as it's ever been.
Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place #1 by Jeff Lemire and Michael Del Mundo sees Bruce visits a small town in Kansas City, where a young girl has gone missing. Bruce senses that her disappearance is linked to gamma testing in the town and investigates. After finding an experimental testing farm with the gates ripped clean off, he's approached by the daughter's father. He knocks Bruce down with the butt of his shotgun and police take the longtime Avenger into custody. Locked up, Bruce hears a crashing outside his cell. He tells the officer to run, before transforming into the Hulk.
Banner's transformation is nightmarish, as his organs, intestines, and guts pulse and wrap around his body, as his human body turns into something much more monstrous. The image is mid-transformation, as we can see Banner's body shift itself around to facilitate the Hulk. Del Mundo's image is equal parts beautiful and horrifying, as he and colorist Marco D'Alfonso have turned Banner's transformation into a brutal, yet a gorgeous piece of body horror.
Now fully transformed, the Hulk turns his attention to the guard who refuses to give him answers about what's really going on in the town. The Hulk pops his head like a balloon after he squirms out of answering his questions. Ultimately, it turns out the farm was using gamma to grow super crops, which inadvertently turned the missing girl into a monster. The Hulk makes quick work of the facility, killing the scientists and destroying the gamma crops. All-in-all, between the disgusting body horror and the Hulk straight-up murdering people, Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Hour proves to be a dark affair for everyone involved. It will take something truly vile to ever top this particular Banner-to-Hulk transformation.