In their second Next Big Thing press call of the week, Marvel turned the spotlight on Indestructible Hulk, which landed the #2 spot in the Marvel NOW! titles that we’re most excited for. Joined by writer Mark Waid, artist Leinil Yu, and editor Jon Moisan, the call shed some light on what’s to come for Bruce Banner and his fan-favorite alter ego.

First and foremost, Waid is aiming to take Hulk in a new direction and tie him more directly into the familiar surroundings of the Marvel Universe. “I’m trying to take [him] on the most imaginative Marvel Universe-based ride we can concoct. Like with Daredevil, part of the edict was let’s make sure we strengthen Hulk’s ties to the Marvel Universe in general. As part of that, you get to see the Hulk fighting villains that he’s not necessarily fought before; we get to see him in locales that are familiar to Marvel books,” said the writer. “We want to bring Bruce Banner and the Hulk into the Marvel Universe tapestry a little more tightly. The most immediate way to do that is to – as implausible and strange as this sounds – to make Hulk an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

While Hulk working for S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly sounds like a bizarre idea, Waid is confident that it will showcase Banner himself in a new light. “Banner’s biggest takeaway of Avengers vs. X-Men is that he doesn’t get to be the science hero; he never gets to be the science hero. He’s the guy who smashes stuff,” he explained. “We always speak of him in the same breath that we do Hank Pym and Reed Richards and Tony Stark; we do that as creators and we do that as fans. But in the context of the Marvel Universe, Banner spends almost all of his time in a lab trying to make himself not the Hulk anymore.”

“Hulk is a chronic condition, hence the phrase ‘indestructible Hulk.’ Bruce has come to this post-AvX epiphany that no matter how hard he tries, he can’t seem to get rid of the Hulk permanently,” he continued. “It doesn’t mean that he won’t try in the future and it doesn’t mean that he’s given up on it, but it does mean that he’s decided to take a bit of sabbatical from trying to control Hulk. Instead, he’s taken the new philosophy of ‘Hulk destroys, Banner builds.’”

In light of this realization, Banner will strike a deal with S.H.I.E.L.D., though Waid confirmed that it won’t be as simple as Banner asking the organization for a job. Instead, there will be a “web of intrigue” (isn’t there always with S.H.I.E.L.D.?) in regards to their relationship. “Exactly the deal he cut to make that happen is part of the mystery that spills out over the next few issues,” said Waid.

Yu expressed his excitement working with Waid again, saying that the writer has left him a lot of room in the script to add his own flavor to things. “He seems to be able to read my mind. He knows how to make use of my strengths,” said the artist.

Waid returned the compliment, describing how Yu’s work brings “a real sense of power to these characters,” referring to how we often think of Hulk as “a lumbering brute who stomps around Frankenstein-like when he’s angry,” but in reality, “Hulk moves like lightening when he’s angry. He’s not slow by any stretch of the imagination. Leinil does such a beautiful job of capturing that sense of the Hulk as a force of nature.”

Waid referenced the great reception that his work on Daredevil has received and how its success was an obstacle in terms of being able to catch lightning in a bottle twice. “With Hulk, you don’t get to write witty banter. With Hulk, it’s harder to put him in danger. With Hulk, it’s a less human book; it’s a less street-level book. All of the things that were sort of obvious to duplicate from Daredevil were difficult to translate to Hulk,” explained Waid. “I stepped back further and found that the commonality between the two books it that, like we’ve done with Matt Murdock, Bruce Banner has reached a point in his life where he realizes that the things he’s been doing for the recent past have not worked.”

“What Stan and Jack did so beautifully back in the day was they created the world’s first persecuted superhero,” he continued. “The guy who every day and every moment of his life was filled with angst and turmoil and agony about his super powers. Yes, Ben Grimm didn’t like being the Thing either, but he still could laugh every once in a while. Bruce Banner was the atypical morose, tortured superhero. 50 years later, and you can go to a comic shop and pick up a bunch of superhero comics at random and most of those characters are tortured and angst ridden now. That seems to be the big thing, ‘Oh, I have superpowers, my life is terrible!’ So I thought rather than Hulk continue on that same route, let’s try and turn left. Let’s try to make Hulk’s perspective on his life and his powers unique again, as it was back in the day.”

In terms of Hulk’s intelligence and ability to speak, Waid said that it will vary, but there’s a reason for it. “A lot of the Hulk’s level of articulation or his ability to communicate his interest in doing anything other than smashing has a lot to do with how angry he was when he turned into the Hulk. It has a lot to do with the circumstances of the moment.”

Waid continued to explain that S.H.I.E.L.D. “thinks of him as a cannon, not a bomb,” and that it’s their job to simply point him in the right direction once Banner Hulks out. However, fans know that Hulk isn’t exactly the type of character that’s easily controlled. “S.H.I.E.L.D. has what they believe is a fairly tight leash on the Hulk. They are mistaken.” He referenced the armor-like clothing we’ve seen on Hulk in some of the cover images, which has been speculated as a piece of equipment for S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep Hulk in line. Waid said only, “It’s not for Hulk. It’s for Banner.” He later referenced the “floating robot head” on one of the covers and said that it somehow ties into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s plan for controlling the Hulk.

The writer expressed the fun of writing Banner interacting with S.H.I.E.L.D. head honcho Maria Hill, saying, “They both have a different idea of what the Hulk’s role in all this is.” He said later that Banner isn’t above dropping a heavy box on his foot just to make Hill sweat.

As far as the villains of the book go, Waid confirmed a few: Attuma, Frost Giants, and a revamped Quintronic Man, who Yu added was a lot of fun to redesign. “There is a big bad behind the first year,” teased Waid, offering little more insight into the overarching vision for the book.

Though Maria Hill came up quite a bit throughout the call, surprisingly a bulk of the supporting cast for the book won’t be S.H.I.E.L.D. related or even contain the traditional Hulk mainstays. Instead, the supporting cast will consist of lab assistants and interns that are crazy enough “to work alongside Bruce Banner in a closed space all day long.” Expect their debut in issue #3, each with “a hidden self inside them that may or may not need to be explored.”

Finally, Waid said there is “no question” that Hulk and Daredevil would be meeting up under his watch. “I really want to do ‘Blind Justice’ or ‘Blind Rage’ or something with these guys.”

Walt Simonson Variant Cover

Indestructible Hulk #1 hits comic shops and Comixology on November 14.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

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