Warning: contains spoilers for Immortal Hulk #44
Marvel’s version of Cthulhu, which made its latest appearance in a newly released Hulk comic, could replace the King in Black as the universe’s next big bad. The One Below All has been behind the curtain throughout the entire Immortal Hulk run, and he may be on his way to breaking free of the Below-Place, taking the world as his own just as Knull has done. One character in particular who recently gained extraordinary powers after gamma exposure just hinted at the potentially inevitable coming of this elder god.
In Immortal Hulk #44 by Al Ewing with art by Joe Bennett and Ruy Jose, the Hulk is getting the beatdown of his life courtesy of the incredibly deadly U-Foes, a government-backed team of supervillains tasked with tracking down and killing Marvel’s great green brute. While the U-Foes take turns laying their blows upon the once Strongest Avenger, some of the Hulk’s allies were on a different mission entirely. In the previous issue, Immortal Hulk #43, Doc Samson, Puck, and Shaman made their way towards Shadow Base Site G in New Mexico with the intention of recovering Samson’s original body and freeing him from the Sasquatch body in which his soul currently resides. While they are successful in locating the gamma base, they run across a cosmic horror they didn’t intend on seeing.
The malformed half-living corpse of Rick Jones, which was previously home to the essence of the Leader, stumbled towards the three through the desert. Samson, Puck, and Shaman watch the supernaturally undead oncomer, stricken with awe before a few more unexpected entrances are made. Charlene and Jackie McGee, two more known allies of the Hulk throughout this series, translocate to the Shadow Base site to check out a gamma spike that turned out to be the undead Jones. McGee, who was once a journalist obsessed with writing about the incidents involving the Hulk, was exposed to concentrated amounts of gamma during the series and has gained otherworldly power. While these didn’t turn Jackie into the next She-Hulk, they did give her a unique ability. Her power is a gift of sight, peeking through the veil and beyond the Green Door at what lies below all, and when she takes a look at Rick she sees something that would assuredly make even the King in Black shiver.
Beyond Rick Jones’ mutilated visage was a scene from a Lovecraftian nightmare. Twisted forms of ghoulish entities appeared behind the gamma-mutated Jones. While what McGee saw was clearly just a vision from beyond, it may very well become the Marvel Universe’s new reality. Back in New York where the U-Foes are beating the Hulk to a pulp, fans discover that the team of villains are successful in their mission of killing the Hulk. Once dead, the Hulk and Joe Fixit find themselves in the Below-Place where they see something that gives credit to McGee’s vision of an other-worldly take-over similar to that of the King in Black’s invasion. Hulk and Fixit see the Leader who has merged with the One Below All, seemingly summoning the power necessary to take over the world.
Now that the King In Black crossover event is reaching its end, which it evidently already has by the time of Immortal Hulk #44, the One Below All could be the next logical Avengers level threat. Plus, if the One Below All does become the next main threat, the Hulk would be rejoined with his fellow Avengers, a team he has been apart from for a fairly long time, and the last time the Hulk and the Avengers met they didn’t quite get along. The potential for the reuniting of old colleagues as well as the visions of what may be to come leads one to the conclusion that Marvel’s version of Cthulhu could replace the King in Black.
