The Immortal Hulk #16 (2019)

Writer:	Al Ewing
Artist: Pencils	Joe Bennet
Artist: Ink	Ruy Jose
Cover Price: Secondary Market:	$3.99 $3.99 – $120.00
Variants: 2	Asgardian Variant Cover 1:25 Wraparound Variant
Publisher:	Marvel Comics

Something odd has happened with Immortal Hulk #16.  While I am extremely glad that the Hulk is one of the hottest books on the planet I am also frustrated with how the book has suddenly taken on a life of its own on the secondary market.  People are paying wild prices for back issues – and now that has bled into pre-sale prices.  People driving up the prices of books yet to be released.  If that sounds crazy to you that’s because it is!  I have said it in the past and I will say it now – collectors can be their own worst enemies!  Case in point is the 1:25 wraparound variant for this issue.  What should have been a $12-$25 book suddenly shot up to $120 on eBay, so of course the shops followed suit and charged a premium for them as well.  I am lucky enough to have a shop charge me a little under half of the trending value.  This is also significant since the value has dropped to about $70-$80 after the book was released.

Even crazier?  There will be variants to the 2nd printings to this book!  How insane is that?  Variants to a 2nd printing is completely unheard of!  This is the biggest cash-grab I have seen in all my years of collecting.  This is collectors ruining the market for fellow collectors.  This is almost as crazy as people paying hundreds of dollars for a movie ticket to Endgame!  Can we all just get a grip here?

So, currently, from what I can count there will be the following variants released for this issue:

• 2nd Print
• Cover B 2nd Print
• 8-Bit Hulk #1 variant
• Ryan Brown variant
• Shattered Cover variant
• Hyuk Lee variant

So, you see, the world has gone done lost its mind!  I haven’t even gotten into the review of the book!  The issue was another solid read as the Hulk continues unwrapping the mystery of who this new Hulk incarnation exactly is.  Samson and Hulk realized that people have taken Rick Jones body – and we see the horrific experiments the scientists do to the corpse.

I think we all know that we will be seeing Rick Jones again real soon – what will he look like though?  I don’t think even I can answer that!  The Hulk and Samson have a heart to heart while chasing down the assassin who shot Betty.  The two frenemies enter an underground lab where some terrible experiments have been executed resulting in gamma animals!  But don’t worry, this isn’t another Jason Aaron monkey poop moment that will be an embarrassment in Hulk history.

Meanwhile, another group of government spooks are trying to track where Betty Banner has gone.  They fond something both brilliant and exciting – feathers!  Huge crimson feathers – but feathers none the less!  It will be interesting to see how the writer works in Betty’s transformation into the harpy -as she should have been in the Red Hulk title – and the inclusion of the Red She Hulk history that this series seems to have embraced in a positive way.

Samson and Banner track Burbank into a dark room where suddenly UV lights flood the entire place and transform Hulk back into Banner.  Bruce runs to a dark corner but we leave the issue with the assassin seeking out Bruce but Bruce’s inner monologue letting the readers know that he isn’t who he seems!

Villains:	Burbank (Sniper)
Grade:	Bag and Board It Share It Read It Leave It

Advertisements

In Case You Missed It… Round 18

Avengers: No Road Home is still trucking along with issue #6 hitting the stands this past Wednesday.  Immortal Hulk is still showing some questionable morality and an inability to work in a team dynamic.  Kinda loving it all.

The Grey Hulk also has a quick cameo in the recent Cosmic Ghost Rider series where he sort of re-writes Marvel history.  The Green Hulk also appears on the 1:50 cover:

Nothing Gets by This Guy…

I might disagree with him about which series is better – but heck… at least he noticed the change in the Hulk’s complexion! And look at Marvel back tracking!

Dollar Bin Finds!

Let’s just take a moment to really enjoy the little things in this hobby.  A lot of amazing stories are easy to afford and even easier to find – if you have the time to scour the $1 bins!  This Marvel UK series – one that I had never even heard of until today – called Shadow Riders has a small appearance by none other than Rick Jones and a cameo by… wait for it – The Incredible Hulk!

Also found this fun Overstreet issue with a great Jim Valentino cover:

If only I had a time machine.  A DeLorean time machine of course…

Many Years with the Hulk!

We have the original, the secondary Hulk – then the Ferigno Hulk – and every Hulk movie appearance… except, curiously, the 2008 movie?

PX Gallery Exclusive Grey Hulk Diorama (2018)

I have been enjoying the Diamond “statues” or dioramas for what they are. More affordable and often because the paint applications or sculpts aren’t as detailed as some of their counterparts, some collectors aren’t very impressed with these pieces.  I can’t say I blame them, but for me, they are a really alternative to the supremely expensive collector’s market of statues.  Sideshow and the like have taken the idea of high end collectables to a different stratosphere with their $600+ pricing on most of their products.  Some say this was an inevitable evolution to the market where as I see it more as a travesty to the entire industry as a whole.  Less people collect statues now than ever before as a result.

Like I mentioned, Diamond got into the statue game a few years back introducing us to these less expensive alternatives.  Sure they paint applications aren’t as exact – in fact, one of the reasons I don’t have the Thanos piece of theirs in my collection is due to the many run offs I saw on the finished product.

This Grey Hulk is no exception as I’ve noticed a few areas that don’t have the precision to detail you’d like to see but it certainly isn’t an eyesore when displayed.  This particular piece is the paint variant to the green (and, unfortunately, red) Hulk released years before – this time with a new head mold.  I like the grimace that appears on this Hulk as the green piece had too many paint issues on the face with the gritting teeth usually being the culprit of most of the complaints.

This sculpt has none of those issues as the mouth is left in an aggravated, almost “sour puss” expression.  Unfortunately, this grimace doesn’t really lend itself to the pose that the diorama is in.  While this is not the greatest piece it’s not bad.  Truthfully, I wasn’t willing to shell out the retail on this so I was psyched to find this at my local GameStop, on sale, for an absolute song!

Brain Freeze!: A Year’s Worth of Hulk Gluttony – Week 47

Road trip with the Hulk!  Doesn’t sound as good as it may at first… especially having an on the road meal of 2 dozen slurpees and chilidogs.  The night may go smoothly until all of that hits his digestive track and comes back out one way or another!  To be fair, don’t we all wish we could eat like this?  A smorgasbord of empty calories and grease and have it not effect us negatively?  Man, the Hulk has it made with that high metabolism and being imaginary.