Random Happenstance

Even though posts have been going up, I haven't actually blogged anything--or even sat down with a comic, feels like--for over a week. Let's see if I remember how blog work...We'll start with a fairly recent one, that ties into a pretty old power for the Hulk, that always surprises me when it comes up. From 2025, the Incredible Hulk #27/LEG #808, "The Falling-Down Tree" Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, pencils by Kev Walker, inks by Cam Smith.

I'm definitely not up to speed on current Hulk continuity--I haven't even read all of Immortal Hulk--but this is a stand-alone story, mostly. Chilling in the forest, alone again as usual, the Hulk's solitude is disturbed by a small boy playing, who advises this were his woods, kinda, and did he want to be friends? Remembering recent betrayals and such, the Hulk does not, but the boy warns him to stay away from "the falling-down tree," and explains that he lives nearby, in a bus with his parents and baby sister. Sometimes Daddy gets mean, and they have to go somewhere else...

The boy continues to hang out with the Hulk, over the course of a couple weeks, and it becomes apparent the dad is both abusive and shady, involved with a thievery ring. Speaking through an animal's skull, the voice of Banner tells the Hulk he could help that kid. Sure enough, the Hulk hears a ruckus at the bus: after a shootout, the dad was pulling stakes, but the mom is reluctant to go, since she doesn't want to leave their son...buried alone, under the falling-down tree. Realizing the truth, the Hulk finds the body, then the terrified mom, left behind, finds the Hulk. She pleads for her life, as the Hulk just scowls at her.

The Hulk catches up to the fleeing dad, and over a four-page sequence just demolishes him, screaming "monster." He knew who the real monster was. Later, as the authorities arrive, the boy tells the Hulk his little sister was going to live with their grandma, but wasn't sure what he should do. The Hulk says, "there's no rules...when nobody's looking out for you." He's sorry he wasn't able to help the boy, but the boy's just glad his sister was safe, calling that "hero stuff," and opts to go with her, to teach her hero stuff too. 

 I'm not 100% positive on the issue, but I'm pretty sure the Hulk has been able to see ghosts since way back in Defenders, and that was probably just to explain why the Hulk could see Dr. Strange's astral form in some story! But, Peter David used that one maybe a couple times as well; and later writers have maybe brought that more to the forefront. If I recollect, maybe the Maestro pointed out the Hulk can see ghosts because he was afraid of his ghost dad or something...