Since his introduction in 1962, The Incredible Hulk has always been one of the most iconic heroes at Marvel Comics. Throughout the years, Hulk has seen many reinventions from a monster, Avenger, Professor, World Breaker and much more. With such a rich history between Banner and his monstrous alter ego, writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson has expertly been able to embrace the characters’ long and convoluted history to bring the Jade Giant back to his roots as a true monster.
Coming off the heels of Al Ewing’s now legendary Immortal Hulk run and the following 2022 Hulk series from Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley, Hulk and Banner’s relationship was more fractured than ever. Picking up the pieces of this fallout, PKJ has taken Hulk in an all-new direction that builds upon the pieces left behind by both Ewing and Cates. Hulk and his new companion Charlie fight new monsters in nearly every issue as they are hunted by the primordial being known as Eldest, who seeks to awaken her creator, The Mother of Horrors.
10 Norgul Of The Rutlings
The tiny creature is more than a nuisance
In Incredible Hulk #23 (by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Mathew Wilson, and Cory Petit), Hulk and Charlie encounter a small creature named Norgul, who steals Charlie’s skin in hopes of becoming Hulk’s friend. In the early days of Earth, before the appearance of humans, the West was filled with massive trees whose roots seeped far below the Earth. They were home to a race called the Rutlings, who worshiped the trees. When men began to tear down the trees, they emerged from their underground homes and learned hatred. Developing a taste for human flesh, the Rutlings became hunters of men who watered the roots of the trees with their blood and draped their skins over branches.
Norgul is the last of the Rutlings and has watched humans for two hundred years, forgetting what it was like to have company and longing for a friend. After Charlie discarded her skin with her new powers, Norgul took her skin for himself. This also gave him her powers, which he claimed was his right by the Old Laws of Eldest. Hulk and Charlie removed the skin from Norgul, and despite Hulk letting him go because he is harmless and puny, Charlie bit his head off anyway. This marked the end of the Rutlings.
9 The Tragedy of Sally Barstow
A young woman's violent murder awakened a terrible evil
When the British began their expansion into the New World, Sally Barstow was the servant of a military general who crossed over the Atlantic. Sally was a faithful servant to his family who cooked, cleaned, and helped raise their children. One day, the general’s wife discovered that Sally was pregnant. Upon finding out it was her husband’s baby, she cursed Sally as a seductive Witch and claimed that the baby was the child of Satan. Sally was chased down to the swamp, beaten and trampled by horses, and left to rot. However, Sally actually was a witch, and upon her death, all of her magic, love, and grief flowed into the swamp and gave birth to a giant, horrifying monster composed of hatred and grief.
Being able to create projections of lost loved ones, the Swamp Witch lures people into its domain by exploiting their grief and regrets. Affecting not just the swamp but also the creatures who inhabit it, the grotesque creature claimed its vengeance on all who crossed its path until everyone in the town was dead and became dormant. Upon being awoken by Eldest, Hulk and Charlie encounter the creature in Florida after being recruited by the Man-Thing, who couldn’t stop her. Hulk defeats the horrifying monster by exploding it with a punch to the mouth, finally putting Sally Barstow to rest.
8 Jinni Dagaal, The War Devil
A once-loving spirit became corrupted by humanity
The evil entity known as Jinni Dagaal began as a gentle spirit in the grasslands of Africa with a love of all things that grow. After the emergence of humans, the spirit became fearful, which grew into anger. After a group of hunters wandered into the spirit’s sacred grove, killing its favorite deer and destroying the land, the spirit learned hatred and possessed one of the hunters to kill and eat his companions. The spirit continued hunting down the surrounding tribes and any humans it came across, becoming the War Devil and the first hunter of man.
Once awoken by Eldest, the War Devil possessed the Hulk in Incredible Hulk #6 (by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Mathew Wilson, and Cory Petit), while he and Charlie were staying with a community of migrant workers in Texas. Hulk was able to reject the War Devil, and the Jade Giant teamed up with the World War II Ghost Rider, Sal Ramirez, to take the ancient beast down. While the two heroes won the fight, Jinni Dagaal couldn’t be killed as his spirit has passed through the blood spilled across eons and will live until the last two warriors kill each other.
7 The Frozen Charlotte
The fallen angel takes what was promised
While The Mother of Horrors was the ultimate ruler of the Earth, the elder god still allowed other Gods to exist within her world. During Lucifer’s rebellion against God, the Lightbringer seduced one of his angels, Nephele, whom he promised to make his queen and become the mother of all the angels of heaven. Once Lucifer and his followers were banished to Hell, Nephele fled Heaven and came to Earth where she was stripped of her divinity. After hiding away for thousands of years, Nephele decided to take what was promised to her and began collecting children whom she deemed innocent. She trapped them in dolls made from their bones.
Hulk and Charlie encounter the fallen angel in The Incredible Hulk #9 on the streets of New Orleans after she kidnaps Charlie. After Hulk finds her underground lair, the two fight, with Hulk coming out on top. However, they are stopped by Lucifer, who had come for his lost love. Lucifer takes Nephele and tells Hulk their business is concluded, but Hulk then finds that she had already trapped Charlie’s spirit within one of the dolls. Being a fallen angel, Frozen Charlotte was one of the few monsters on Hulk’s journey who was able to stand against him for a short while.
6 The Flesh Weaver Is Pure Evil
Sumanguru wasn't born a monster but became one
Sumanguru was once a normal man who lived in a village whose name had been lost to history. The young Sumanguru became close to a witch named Abeba, and he begged her to teach him magic. Abeba eventually agreed and tasked Sumanguru to bring her a child every moonless night. She revealed herself as a giant spider that would feed on the children. Samanguru learned many things from the spider witch, but mainly how to weave a person’s flesh into a new body. Once the fellow villagers discovered what Samanguru was doing, a hunter killed him. However, the young sorcerer used his flesh-weaving abilities to reform himself and continued with his insatiable ambitions. Sumanguru was later imprisoned in a soul cage by Doctor Voodoo.
Hulk sought the help of Sumanguru after Charlie’s soul was trapped by Frozen Charlotte. While imprisoned, the Soul Weaver still possessed great power and could conjure an army of different creatures from the flesh of his victims he had collected. Every monster born outside the light of The One Above All is a child of the Mother of Horrors, but Sumanguru wasn’t born outside the light but chose his fate willingly. Among all the children of the Mother of Horrors, The Flesh Weaver is one of the most unique and shows how some monsters are created, not born.
5 Lycana, First of the Skinwalkers
The mythical beast was Eldest's favorite child
The Mother of Horror’s firstborn, Eldest, had many children herself, but none were as fierce and beloved to her as Lycana. Born from the body of a dead god, Lycana was a giant wolf with wings and grew to be the greatest predator of all living things. Being able to assume the flesh of her victims, Lycana walked among humans for many years until she caught the Gods’ attention and was struck down by Thor. As her body fell from the sky, a tribe who had fled their village found her and ate her flesh to survive but found that whoever wore the pelt became the living vessel for Lycana, and all those who ate of her flesh became skinwalkers themselves.
The skin of Lycana became known as the Godskin and was the greatest honor among the Skinwalkers to be sacrificed as the next vessel. After Hulk was captured by Eldest, Charlie was freed by one of the skinwalkers. He took the Godskin to save Hulk and became the new vessel for Eldest’s favorite child. As the new Skinwalker god, Charlie was possessed by great power, as seen in Incredible Hulk #22 (by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Mathew Wilson, and Cory Petit). However, this same issue also showed how powerful Lycana’s corruption was, with Charlie being overcome by violent rage numerous times and biting Norgul’s head off despite Hulk’s protests. Even in death, Lycana’s power and lust for blood are still very much alive.
4 Varcolac, The God of The Wolf Lords
Varcolac is the father of many mythical monsters himself
Varcolac was a Wolf Lord spawned by Chthon from experiments on early humans and demons. Varcolac is not only the creator of werewolves but the strongest and most feared of all the Wolf Lords. Along with being the father of werewolves, Varcolac is also the father of Angerboda, the giantess of Jotunheim who would give birth to the Midgard Serpant and Fenris the wolf. After Charlie became the vessel of Lycana, Varcolac was awoken by the skinwalkers to get revenge for his sister. However, Varcolac didn’t care about Lycana and only wanted to claim more blood for himself, specifically Hulk’s.
After being transported into his dimension in Incredible Hulk #21 (by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Nic Klein, Mathew Wilson, and Cory Petit), Hulk was able to beat Varcolac’s physical form with the help of Werewolf by Night but did not kill him and Charlie flew them to safety before he could re-manifest. Varcolac is even more powerful than he is terrifying and one of Eldest’s other favorite children. Within Varcolac’s domain, he retains the souls of every skinwalker who has ever lived, leaving Hulk with the dark prophecy of the fate that awaits his new companion.
3 Udru, The Brother Deep
Udru was meant to be a mockery of God
At the beginning of the Mother of Horrors’ creation, she sought to create a warrior to oppose The One Above All, seeing him as a tyrant of all reality. To this end, she created her second child, Urdu, meaning brighter than He, to be a mockery of The One Above All. Once discovering the Earth and laying his eyes upon Urdu, The One Above All came to know rage, which created The One Below All and imprisoned Urdu within the Earth. The champion of the Mother of Horros spent eternity trapped inside a mountain, with his burning flesh infecting the surrounding area.
Being one of the first creations of The Mother of Horrors, Urdu is the most powerful monster to exist next to Eldest. With many hands to build, many eyes to see, wings of gold and a voice like sacred music, Urdu was meant to be The Mother of Horrors’ elite soldier and rival to The One Above All. While imprisoned in torment, Urdu’s evil was so great that the fumes from his eternal burning body seeped through the earth and into the surrounding air of the mountain, causing the people of the town to become undead monsters devoted to freeing the evil god. Hulk encountered Brother Deep’s followers in Incredible Hulk #3, where the monster was awoken by his sister, Eldest. Thankfully, Hulk was able to defeat the wounded elder god and put him back into his prison.
2 Eldest Wants Hulk at All Cost
The Mother of Horrors' first child is her worst
Eldest was the first child of the Mother of Horrors and her most powerful. After the fall of her brother Udru and her mother being imprisoned by The One Below All, Eldest survived and began creating monsters of her own. Eldest later moved to Assyria, where she possessed the body of a child and enslaved the population. Eldest then encountered Enkidu, the first to open the Green Door in 9500 BCE to become a gamma mutant.
As a vessel for The One Below All, Eldest possessed Enkidu to free her mother with his power, but The One Below All manifested himself and burned her out of him. The two died in the flames and were buried together for thousands of years until a group of looters found their tomb in Incredible Hulk #1, and Eldest escaped. Being the first daughter of the Mother of Horrors, Eldest’s power is nearly unimaginable, and her true form is beyond comprehension. With Hulk having the key to freeing her mother, Eldest has awoken all the monsters of the Earth to capture Hulk at any cost. With Charlie possessing her favorite child’s skin, Eldest’s battle against Hulk has gotten even more personal.
1 The Mother Of Horrors Created Herself
The primordial evil was the only thing not created by The One Above All
In the beginning of the Marvel Universe, before Eternity or Celestials, there was only The One Above All. Being the supreme creator of all existence, The One Above All is omnipotent and creator of all things, with his only weapon being love. However, as the universe began to expand, a being known as The Mother of Horrors emerged from existence itself outside the creation of The One Above All. Resenting The One Above All for claiming reality as his, she hid the Earth from him and created things of her own. After creating Udru as a mockery of The One Above All, he finally discovered Earth and saw her creation. A being knowing only love then learned rage, which manifested as The One Below All who ripped Urdru apart and imprisoned The Mother of Horrors.
The Mother of Horrors more than lives up to her name, with every single creature and evil thing in existence being born from her lineage. Even while imprisoned, her firstborn Eldest continued to create more and more children who would seed the world with monsters since the beginning of time. Among all the monsters PKJ has introduced in his Hulk series, The Mother of Horrors doesn’t just challenge Hulk but reshapes the entire mythos of monsters within the Marvel Universe.
