THE INCREDIBLE HULK: FUTURE IMPERFECT #1 Marvel Comics, 1993

Regarding yesterday's post:

OK, I have to admit that technically Avengers Annual #16 does not take place in an alternate universe at all -- it happens in the regular Marvel Universe and everybody really does die, but they get made better by Death, The Person. If everybody had goatees and wore daggers and sashes, then it would be an alternate universe. I was thinking of renaming Alternate Reality Where Everybody Dies Week and just calling it Everybody Dies Week. Or maybe Everybody Hurts Week. But no, there's no point changing horses midstream in the war against the bats.*

Anyway, in Avengers Annual #16 everybody dies and that's what counts.

Today's comic is The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, and I suppose it technically takes place in the regular "616" universe as well. In this two-part series by writer Peter David and artist George Perez, the Hulk of the year 1993 is visited by rebels from Dystopia, a hellish possible future in which The Hulk has exterminated all the superheroes and set up shop as planetary ruler. The mid-90's Hulk was no mindless caveman; he was smart and mean and fond of puns and he had a ridiculous hair cut. This Hulk goes up against The Maestro, a bearded and warty and super-evil future version of himself, and shit gets destroyed big time. It's a pretty good read. This book is chock full of lovingly rendered rubble and debris, courtesy of George Perez, who delivers yet another insanely detailed comic book.

The rebels of Dystopia are led by an cadaverously ancient Rick Jones, The Hulk's former teen sidekick back in the day. The decrepit Jones has a secret underground base that is full of morbid superhero tchotchkes that Jones has collected over time. Check out this great two-page spread of Rick's museum of slain heroes:

I love that spread, it's just chock-a-block with Marvel zombie goodness. They threw in eveything from Nova's helmet to the Eye of Agomotto. The blue pelt of the X-Men's Beast hangs on a back wall. The Red Skull's red skull adorns a bookshelf. I think those are Quasar's quantum bands being used as planters. Notice how Captain America's shield is perfectly intact and mounted with care, while USAgent's shield is all busted up on the floor. Rick Jones himself gets around in Professor X's old hoverchair.

But wait a minute. How did Rick Jones get Thor's hammer mjolnir into that display case? Only Thor and a select worthy few beings in the universe can pick it up. I call bullshit on that.

Okay, that's it. Just wanted to drop some George Perez kung fu on you during Alternate Reality Where Everybody Dies Week.

*Painfully obscure pop cultural reference. There was a Saturday Night Live a few years back that Ben Stiller hosted. They had this wacky bit where Stiller and Tim Meadows were small-town politicians in a series of dueling campaign ads. They're running for mayor of a town that is under siege by giant bats. The commercials become progressively more extreme, with the candidates advocating solutions to the bat problem such as soldier monkeys, erupting a volcano under the bat cave, and getting larger and more agressive bats to eat the giant bats. One of the candidates' slogans is "Don't change horses midstream in the war against the bats." So that's the reference.