Marvel's Axel Alonso Addresses Changes to Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor
While Hulk won't be undergoing quite as dramatic a shift as Cap or Thor (there already are several other Hulks of both genders running around, after all), he is undergoing a significant status quo shift thanks to his buddy Iron Man. Tony Stark recently saved Bruce Banner from a gunshot wound to the head thanks to the same Extremis process that once molded Tony into a newer, stronger Iron Man. But Banner has since discovered during the course of Marvel's Original Sin storyline that Tony may have been responsible for the gamma bomb accident that created Hulk in the first place. In last week's original Sin: Hulk vs. Iron Man #2, Banner again dosed himself with Extremis, and the results were dramatic:So it seems that Hulk's new status quo as Original Sin wraps and Marvel kicks off their "Avengers NOW" marketing push is that he's no longer a savage, monosyllabic brute. And this development plays into the upcoming Superior Iron Man series, where Tony makes the Extremis process freely available to the citizens of San Francisco. If it can fix Hulk's brain, just imagine what else it could do.Hulk's post-Original Sin status quo will be explored as new writer Gerry Duggan takes over from Mark Waid in August's Hulk #5. That issue begins a new storyline called "Omega Hulk." Here, Hulk decides to commit his newly enhanced intellect to the challenge of ridding the world of gamma technology and weapons. That goal includes ridding the world of Hulks. "Some of these people are addicted to the power. They've been enhanced long enough that they're used to it and don't want to give it up," editor Mark Paniccia tells USA Today. "Hulk fans love seeing big smash-ups and superhuman fights, so we're going to have some pretty epic battles."This wouldn't be the first time we've seen a smarter Hulk. Peter David famously introduced several distinct Hulk personalities during his long run on Incredible Hulk in the '80s and '90s. More recently, Hulk evolved into a cruel but cunning version of himself as a result of Greg Pak's Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines. The balance between Banner's mind and Hulk's strength is always shifting, but rarely have we seen Hulk this intelligent.Hulk #5 will be released in August 2014. Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.