The Immortal Hulk just robbed Knull of what could have been the King in Black’s biggest weapon. The two characters encountered each other in the tie-in issue King in Black: Immortal Hulk, which is part of the massive King in Black crossover affecting the entire Marvel Universe. The issue was written by Al Ewing with art by Aaron Kuder and is on sale now.
The King in Black storyline has seen Knull the Symbiote God deploying an all-out assault on the Earth and its heroes. Knowing Knull’s forces were on their way, Venom teamed up with the Avengers in an attempt to stop Knull’s army of symbiote dragons before it could decimate the planet. All of their plans failed, and the King in Black proceeded to murder the Sentry and cover the entire planet in a symbiote dome. He then began a path of destruction that has seen the defeat of several heroes.
While many Marvel heroes have bravely engaged with Knull’s forces, the Immortal Hulk came across them quite by accident. In King in Black: Immortal Hulk, the Hulk is in a severely weakened state. He has been drained of all of his personas except the childlike Savage Hulk and Bruce Banner’s body, whose mind is occupied by Joe Fixit. While Savage Hulk is wandering the streets of New York at Christmastime, scaring residents and trying to get presents, he encounters a symbiote member of Knull’s army. The symbiote tries to assimilate and enslave the Hulk, but Hulk manages to blast it with electricity and send it scurrying.
Savage Hulk then runs into some police officers and flees, hiding out in a department store. The police officers are unknowingly assimilated by the symbiote, who heads toward the store in another attempt to enslave Hulk. Joe Fixit takes over Hulk’s body at this point, luring the symbiote into the department store and blasting it with loud music. Because of the symbiote’s weakness to sound, this incapacitates it long enough for Joe Fixit to light it on fire and defeat it.
If this encounter had gone differently, it could have been the final nail in the coffin for humanity’s fight against the King in Black. Among Knull’s many powers is the ability to assimilate incredibly strong beings such as Celestials and the Silver Surfer. Once they are turned into symbiotes, Knull can then control them. If he were to gain control of the Hulk, he would be in possession of an immensely powerful weapon that he could turn against Earth’s heroes. Even though Hulk is currently in a more physically weak state than normal, it is inevitable he will eventually gain his strength back, at which point he would be an absolutely unstoppable force.
Savage Hulk managed to avoid joining the King in Black’s army, at least for now. But this was not Hulk’s first encounter with a symbiote. In the 2019 crossover Absolute Carnage, Bruce Banner’s angry alter ego was assimilated by a symbiote to become Venom Hulk. If this terrifying version of the Hulk were to make a reappearance as part of Knull's army, it is unlikely anybody would be able to stop his onslaught.
King in Black: Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Aaron Kuder is on sale now.