Spoiler Alert: This article has Thanos #15spoilers. You have been warned.
After Thanos wins over the Marvel Universe, he decided to carry a souvenir with him as Hulk – his new hunting dog. It is quite a weird and painful turn of events in the sadistic Thanos comic from Marvel. Based several millennia into the future where Thanos had ultimately won, the Mad Titan has now become King Thanos, the king of the cosmos, comprising of just about half a dozen people. They include Thanos himself, the Ghost Rider earlier known as The Punisher, the latest Thor who was previously the Silver Surfer, and the guy who was earlier famous as Bruce Banner, but, now has been subjected to some unfathomable living conditions.
In case you are not a follower of the comic books created by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw, you might easily become disoriented in such a weird story, but, that will help you in understanding Thanos’ mind. Not the King Thanos of the future, but, the Thanos of present day, hurled into the future to support his older self. The story is so weird that merely thinking that Hulk survived everything to eventually live like a pet dog at Thanos’ feet, is simply unbelievable.
In case you have digested that then how about accepting that Hulk was so broken that he chomped off Captain America? That must be weird, right?
After Thanos entered the last days of the Marvel Universe, the tone of the cosmic play and imagination was very clear (clearer than his series had been till that point). Thanos’ teaming up across ages was a superb turnaround, but, fans were not prepared for the Frank Castle version of Ghost Rider or even his solo comic book. Frank is driven insane due to the centuries of lonely existence of a dead planet Earth, and he takes Thanos to feed the King’s Dog. The story’s dementia grows further. By that point, even Thanos appeared to be ready to believe in anything shown to him as an evidence of the crazy future.
In another story, you might see an aged Hulk, surviving in a dark pit full of bones of his food as well as ex-friends, and it would break your heart. In fact, it would be outright disgusting. To see the Ghost Rider reveal the news about Hulk eating Steve Rogers, seem to be nothing more than temporary insanity driven home due to a fever created dream. Since insanity has become the norm by this point, everything is simply a double take on the frightening, disgusting, dark and hellish Thanos who reshapes the Marvel Universe several thousand years into the future.
Above all, it is a very poor move to come out with this story at a time when Marvel has confirmed Hulk’s immortality. Therefore, Thanos was incapable of killing him, but, Hulk wasn’t capable of escaping the tyrant’s clutches either (we don’t yet know whether Bruce recuperated from the injuries of his past battles which saw Thanos annihilate the Avengers, and leave Hulk’s head only in the form of a skull. Maybe those were the last few visuals of the Totally Awesome Hulk.
It is simply unbelievable that we really saw the last bits of Hulk in this narrative, despite the two Thanos’ having plenty to deal with courtesy the Silver Surfer Thor. Bruce Banner might exact revenge, and still prove that no matter what, he is forever a very good boy.
You can buy the Marvel Comics Thanos #16 now.
