The Immortal Hulk is at his lowest point. The Hulk has always been hated and feared by the general public, but he still had friends who knew he was good at heart. Even when he was alone, he had his own conviction to lean on. But all of that has been taken away. Bruce Banner is a stranger to himself, reprogrammed by a psychic force, and even the Hulk isn't strong enough to overcome that. But the strongest Hulk ever just might be. In Immortal Hulk #32, the last hope for a Hulk trapped in his own corrupted mind is the World-Breaker.
Xemnu, an alien monster with hypnotic eyes, appeared at the end of issue 30 and spent the next chapter turning the populace against the Hulk in a staged fight that allowed him to broadcast his mind control over worldwide television. The creature has boosted his natural influence using a global culture driven by consumerism, nostalgia, and endless screen-watching. In issue 32 we see the result: Xemnu has replaced the Hulk in the memories of the public and the Hulk has been cast as a radical eco-terrorist whose activism is driven by evil. Even Bruce Banner himself believes the spin; he's frothing at the mouth and planning to strike at the vulnerable rather than hitting the rich and powerful, as part of Roxxon's push that climate change is the fault of the average person and not corporate polluters.
Some people are resistant to Xemnu's mass-media brainwashing. Bruce's fellow research scientist Charlene, a trans woman, has enough experience with corporate culture violating her sense of self to see past this new attempt to control her. The Hulk himself is also fighting back, but Bruce is repressing him, pushing his anger down in a programmed effort to "be rational". As the issue ends on a desperate note that makes the Hulk a helpless victim in his own mind, a voice calls out to him. "Xemnu's rewritten him. That's not something you can punch. It's stronger than you are. But not stronger than we are." The Worldbreaker Hulk emerges from the shadows of Bruce's subconscious, clad in his trademark alien gladiator apparel. "After all, I'm the strongest there is. Remember?"
Just who is this incarnation of the irradiated antihero? The madder Hulk gets, the stronger he gets, and the World-Breaker Hulk is the angriest that the Jade Giant has ever been. The Illuminati, a secret society of Marvel's most prominent thinkers and political leaders led by Reed Richards, chose to deal with the Hulk's destructive power by trapping him on a rocket and sending him to another planet. Over the course of the Planet Hulk storyline, he became a hero to the people on his new home and started a family. Then that family died in an accident involving the Illuminati ship. Fueled by rage over having his life taken away twice, the Hulk made landfall on his home planet with a fury that literally shook the earth.
Each of the Hulk's personalities exists in Bruce's mind, able to independently voice their opinions or trade over control of Bruce's body. Until now, the scheming "Devil Hulk" personality has been dominant, while the World-Breaker Hulk has been deliberately silent. It looks like he may have been holding back because Bruce was trying to be merciful... or perhaps because nothing had happened to make him angry enough to resurface. But Xemnu has made the mistake of forcing the World-Breaker's hand. Now it looks like the revolution will be televised after all... and it might destroy the world as we know it.
Immortal Hulk #32 is available now.