Is Marvel’s New Hulk Comic Enough to Matter?

Marvel is rolling out another Hulk miniseries this December, Hulk: Smash Everything by Ryan North and Vincenzo Carratù. The pitch is simple: Hulk smashes dinosaurs, planets, cosmic forces, maybe even reality itself. Five issues of pure carnage in “the mighty Marvel manner.”

But here’s the real question: does anyone care?

The MCU Nerf

For over a decade, the Hulk most people know is Mark Ruffalo’s version from the MCU. A punchline. A softened mascot. A guy who dabs and takes selfies with kids. That portrayal drained the danger out of the character. He is not the tragic monster anymore. He is comic relief.

So when Marvel Comics announces a new Hulk comic promising destruction, how much weight does it carry? For an entire generation, Hulk is not fury. He is a gag. And getting those fans to invest in a darker, more violent Hulk on the page is an uphill climb.

Comics vs. Movies

Marvel has not figured out how to separate its two worlds. The films constantly reference the comics for credibility, but when it comes to marketing, comics feel like an afterthought. Marvel Studios is its own juggernaut with billion-dollar franchises and global campaigns. Marvel Entertainment, the publishing arm, does not get that same spotlight. Instead of a coordinated push, the comics limp along as “inspiration material,” rarely positioned as essential in their own right.

That fracture leaves the Hulk caught in two competing identities. In the movies, he is a supporting act. In the comics, writers like Phillip Kennedy Johnson are pulling him back into horror and Gothic dread. The problem is that most moviegoers do not even know that comic version exists. They do not see ads for it. They do not hear actors talking about it on press tours. There is no bridge between the two Hulks, and Marvel seems unwilling or unable to build one.

The result is simple: for comic fans, Ruffalo’s Hulk is an embarrassment. For movie fans, the comic Hulk is a stranger. That disconnect keeps new books like Hulk: Smash Everything from breaking out of the echo chamber.

Fatigue or Just Repetition?

Every time Marvel trots out another relaunch, critics scream “superhero fatigue.” But the fatigue is not with superheroes. It is with repetition. How many times have we been asked, “Is Hulk really the strongest there is?” How many times can the answer be stretched into a five-issue slugfest?

Readers are not tired of heroes. They are tired of publishers recycling the same plots and pretending it is new. That is why manga and anime are dominating. They keep delivering new characters, new arcs, and fresh stakes. Chainsaw Man didn't exist five years ago. Now he's bigger with Gen Z than most Marvel icons. Hulk, meanwhile, is circling the same question from 1962.

The Weight of Peter David

Carratù cites the influence of Peter David, who redefined Hulk by leaning into fractured identities and psychology. That work gave Hulk depth. It made him more than muscles and rage. But that was the ’90s. Since then, Marvel has been promising to rediscover Hulk every few years. Rediscovery has become repetition.

If Hulk: Smash Everything really wants to stand out, it needs to offer more than “look how big the next thing Hulk punches is.” Otherwise, it is filler.

Will It Matter?

Here is the blunt truth: most new Hulk comics do not matter outside LCS walls. They get a press cycle, a couple variant covers, and then disappear. Marvel knows the collector market has a ceiling, but they keep pretending each launch is a seismic event. It's not.

So will this miniseries matter to people beyond the direct market? Probably not. Unless North and Carratù push Hulk somewhere truly unhinged, it's another December release competing for oxygen in a crowded market.

And that's the larger issue. Marvel does not lack for talent. North is clever. Carratù can bring the fury. But the character is weighed down by decades of recycling, plus the MCU baggage. When the broader audience sees “new Hulk comic,” they don't think “tragic monster.” They think “Ruffalo in a cardigan.”

The Hope

There is still potential. North promises “wild places” readers will not expect. Maybe the absurdity works. Maybe leaning into Hulk as the id unleashed cuts through. Maybe there is an emotional core buried beneath the chaos.

But hope isn't a strategy. Marvel keeps betting nostalgia and recognition are enough to sell books. They aren't. If Hulk is going to matter again, he needs stories that break him free from the cycle. Otherwise, every new Hulk comic is just another punch thrown into the void.

The Smash Test

So, is Marvel even trying? Sure. They hired good people, put Kubert and Granov on covers, and scheduled a holiday launch. But trying and succeeding aren't the same. If Hulk: Smash Everything wants to be more than noise, it has to remind people why Hulk exists in the first place: as the raw, uncontrollable fury we all carry.

If it fails, the character stays stuck where he has been for years. Recognizable. Marketable. Tragically irrelevant. And the world will keep looking elsewhere for new characters worth caring about.

Last Quarter🪙

Marvel is asking us one more time to believe that Hulk is “the strongest there is.” But strength is not the problem. Relevance is. The new Hulk comic can smash planets, dimensions, and cosmic forces, but if readers feel like they have seen it all before, it'll vanish as quickly as it arrived.

Hulk deserves better than being a punchline on screen and a retread on the page. If Marvel wants him to matter, they need to stop recycling the same questions and start telling stories that only Hulk could carry. That is the final smash test. Not how hard he can hit, but whether anyone outside the diehards still cares.

I guess we'll find out if people do care on December 3rd, when this one goes live from Marvel Comics.