Contains SPOILERS for AnnIhilation 2099 #3

Marvel’s Annihilation 2099 miniseries introduces a new Red Hulk into Marvel lore, and this version of the Crimson Goliath has one of the most horrifically grotesque origin stories in the publisher’s history. Lost in space and stranded on Ego the Living Planet, Ross Romero will have to endure the wrath of new cancerous abominations.

Looper released a preview for Annihilation 2099 #3 depicting the long torturous final moments of Ross Romero’s life, after he has been abandoned in space by his team and company. While the constant threat of being consumed by alien Abominations is bad enough, Ross’s greatest problem is starvation.

As the last vestige of his will fades from Romero, the Living Planet heaves and shimmers as a perfectly fleshy fruit springs from the floor. It tastes of iron, but it’s sweet like wine; it’s disgusting but delicious. What follows will certainly tear Ross Romero apart.

Marvel’s New Red Hulk 2099 Is A Disturbing Cosmic Twist On Classic Hulk Lore

Ross Romero’s Origin Story

The transformation of Bruce Banner into the Hulk has always, to one degree or another, been Marvel’s greatest contribution to the body horror genre. Now, Marvel 2099’s Red Hulk is taking that to an extreme new level. As the preview for issue #3 shows, when Ross Romero is left for dead on the sinewy planetary mass of Ego the Living Planet, he pushes himself to the brink of death to avoid mounds of fleshy bipedal aberrations. Hiding in an undulating cave of organic tissue, Romero drains the last of his resources. There is no food, no water, and no breathable air.

As he laments about his tortuous last days of existence, Ross notes that the air almost feels cleaner. When his throat cracks from dehydration, the celestial body’s water becomes drinkable. In his final moments, as his stomach is left to digest itself, the planet produces a bright red fruit that the abandoned explorer instantly inhales. While ferally consuming the miraculous fruit, Ross Romero begins to feel sick, as readers of Annihilation 2099 #3 witness the birth of a new cosmic Red Hulk.

Ross Romero’s Transformation Suggests A Sinister Future For The New Red Hulk

Annihilation 2099 Continues To Reinvent Familiar Heroes

While most of Marvel’s other gamma mutates have their moments of lost control, some more than others, they ultimately possess the executive authority over their own free will. However, Ross Romero’s mutation into the Red Hulk is created by a sentient cosmic force, one that intentionally gifts Romero with the catalyst for his transformation. Ross is terrified by the abominable golems that noticeably share a similar tone with the planet’s landscape. He has yet to realize that the celestial body, the Abominations, and the inexplicable fruit are one and the same.

If, by consuming the planet’s fruit, Romero has exposed himself to the same fleshy organism, then one must wonder if he will remain himself or a puppet of the planet’s will. Annihilation 2099 has already introduced dark twists to the lore of some of Marvel’s most iconic characters; if this miniseries is anything like the primary continuity’s Annihilation event, the heroes of Marvel 2099 have worse to come. Only time will tell the fate of these perverse characters as darker threats appear on the horizon.