Summary
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Annihilation 2099 #3!The originalRed Hulkhas always been a character that stood on his own separate from theHulk, with an alternate origin and unique powers that made Red Hulk feel like more than just ‘another Hulk’, but someone worthy of fans’ collective attention in his own right. And now, Marvel is applying the same level of creative effort in shaping the story of an all-newRed Hulk, who has a freaky power that no gamma monster hasever had before.
InAnnihilation 2099#3 “The Rage Reborn” by Steve Orlando and Pete Woods, readers bear witness to the origin story of Red Hulk 2099. Ross Romero is an Alchemex employee who was chosen by the company for a special mission: investigate a rogue planet that mysteriously appeared close to the sun. Romero and his team take off for this strange world to collect samples from its surface, but when they arrive, they realize this planet isn’t like anything they’ve seen before. Indeed, this world was none other than Ego, the Living Planet, who was just barely hanging on to life.
Ego suffered a fatal wound after Terrax the Planet Hunter attacked him. So, when Romero found himself stranded on Ego after one of his fellow crewmates betrayed him, Ego made efforts to ensure his own survival in some form. Ego presented Romero with a piece of ‘fruit’ grown from his flesh, and when Romero ate it in order to keep from starving to death, he mutated into 2099’s Red Hulk. While Hulk-level strength was included in his transformation, Romero got another ‘power’ that’s decidedly unique: Ego’s memories.
Hulk’s Immortality Gets a Terrifying New Meaning as Bruce Banner Dies
Despite the fact that the Hulk is immortal, it seems that immortality doesn’t necessarily extend to Bruce Banner, which is made clear after his death.
Red Hulk 2099 Has the Knowledge of an Elder of the Universe
While Ego perishes by the end of this story, his memories live on inside Red Hulk 2099, allowing a piece of his essence to continue existing in the universe. That means Marvel’s new Red Hulk isn’t just super strong, but he also has the knowledge of an Elder of the Universe. Centuries of traveling the cosmos, interacting with the most powerful Abstract Entities, and everything else experienced by Ego now exists inside Red Hulk’s mind through the memories the Living Planet passed on to him.
This unique power makes Red Hulk a true force to be reckoned with in the cosmic sense, and a perfect recruit for any space-faring superhero team in the 2099 reality. His mind has effectively become an impossibly extensive road map of the entire universe, with information on every major player across the cosmos. Red Hulk is free to travel the universe as if he’s been to every location he ventures to before, all thanks to Ego’s final gift to him just before the Living Planet met his end.
Marvel’s Original Hulk has His Own ‘Memory Power’, but It’s Nothing Compared to Red Hulk
Sentry#3 by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee
The memory power of Red Hulk 2099 is, indeed, unique in Marvel Comics lore, but interestingly enough, the original Hulk has his own memory power as well. InSentry#3, after Doctor Strange made the world forget about Sentry to protect them from a villain called the Void, it’s revealed that the Hulk was the only living person on the planet that remembered who he was, confirming that he was immune to Strange’s magic. The same thing happened inSpider-Man’s “One Moment in Time” arc, as Hulk remembered Spider-Man’s secret identity despite seemingly being forced to forget.
While interesting, the Hulk’s memory power is nothing like that of Red Hulk 2099, both in terms of what their respective powers actually entail, and their usefulness. It’s cool that Hulk’s memory is immune to magic, but compared to what Red Hulk 2099 can accomplish with the knowledge of an Elder of the Universe,Hulk’s power is trivial at best. Indeed, Marvel’s newRed Hulkhas a power no gamma monster has had before, and fans should be very excited to see what he does with it.
