What Is The Best Comic Book Fight Scene?
Featuring Commentary on:
From Marvel Comics
Written by Al Ewing
Art by Joe Bennet
I was tagged recently in a video from a fellow comic book reviewer and content creator on my TikTok channel, Rob from ComicBookChronicles. asking for me to discuss my favorite fight in comics.
Immediately, a number of scenes replayed in my head from numerous titles, but I think that today I want to talk about a fight scene that is memorable to me for two reasons. ONE, because it subverts the format of a traditional, page spanning, momentous, debris covered comic book brawl, and TWO because it is a fight scene that totally alters your perspective of numerous iconic comic book characters in the process. I am talking of course about the now iconic scene depicted in Al Ewing’s legendary series The Immortal Hulk Issue #49.
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE IMMORTAL HULK IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT!
In the lead up to issue #49, we find Jackie McGee, a reporter from Arizona caught up in the investigation of the infamous Hulk, along with friend, psychiatrist, and fellow gamma-mutate Doctor Leonard Samson, accompanying the Hulk to the Baxter Building to meet with the Fantastic Four who had recently devised the penultimate feat of scientific engineering, “The Forever Gate.” This doorway to “anywhere you want to go” caused a number of problems throughout the Marvel Comics Universe after its creation, but in the context of final chapter of The Immortal Hulk, it was the only way for the Hulk to venture beyond the eldritch, “Green Door” of his creation and confront the Leader in the land of the One Below All (seriously, if you haven’t read this series you are missing out). However, before the Hulk is able to do so, he finds a group of familiar faces waiting for him at the Baxter Building…
Issue #49 is written like a short story, or more aptly like a narrative report from Jackie McGee who was present and witnessed the events of the issue alongside the Hulk. This shift in perspective is, first of all, incredibly unique for a superhero comic, and second of all allows for a wider view and account of the scene at hand. In this instance, the reader takes the place of Jackie, a civilian, witnessing a group of legendary superheroes convening- and all hell breaking loose.
I feel like this setup is an all too rare look into a detached “everyman” perspective of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, made all the more interesting by painting them in not so great of a light. Specifically, we, via Jackie, witness Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Captain America, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Blade, Vision, Iron-Man, War Machine and Nova (for some reason? Was he even on Jason Aaron’s Avengers at the time?) confront the Hulk for his series spanning self-appointed status as a villain against human society.
What makes this scene so revealing and informative however, is the idea that perpetuates our fight, the pervading notion that the Hulk literally inspires rage in the people around him. Which is a mind-blowing assertion that cascades throughout the entire Incredible Hulk canon like fireworks through time! Made even more chilling by Jackie’s observation that as the heroes become riled by the Hulk’s mere presence, the Hulk simply stands firm and smiles, knowing what is surely to come next. Which only further underlines the sublime recontextualization that the entire run of The Immortal Hulk has offered for the character of the Hulk, in which we the reader come to fully understand all of the horrors that the Hulk and Bruce Banner have had to contend with and those horrors that continue to persist.
From here, we cut to a monumental splash page, with the Hulk caught in the middle of some of the most powerful characters in fiction, fighting all of them at once. What I love most about this immediate jump into the action, is that it places us, as a comic book reader, in familiar territory. This is a scene that we have seen many times before- but not with the knowledge that we know now. Before we might have looked at a fight between superheroes such as these with a lens of, “oh they are probably pulling their punches, cause they’re friends at the end of the day,” or “it’s amazing how patient and tactical these heroes can be because they don’t give into their emotions like the bad guys do,” but Ewing has tainted and warped our perspective of how we view this scene by giving us Jackie’s perspective. She is telling us that this was no ordinary, friendly fight- the heroes you know and love? They are trying to kill the Hulk. That’s how engaged they are.
Moreover, Jackie provides us with a truly profound narrative question, musing that perhaps “every fight the Hulk has is the same,” since the day the Hulk was born into this world and until the last. Which is a sentiment that we have definitely been instilled with throughout this run, with frequent nuanced reminders of just how hard it is to be the Hulk when you are constantly hunted for existing and having your intentions constantly misunderstood. However, Jackie goes further by wondering, “Do they see themselves in him as well? Is that why they couldn’t stop attacking?” It’s this specific question that has stuck with me, because it is a reminder of the fine line of morality that heroes walk, which is entirely tied to the perspective of their stories. As we see here with Jackie, who until this moment has respected and idolized these heroes, and has feared fringe characters like the Hulk, but has her opinion entirely shifted in mere moments. As Jen Walter’s holds her, crying out in vain to her fellow heroes to stop, Jackie watches the Hulk shield her as he takes a “cacophony” of blows that seemed as if they’d “never stop” but the Hulk “never fell.” It is because of this sacrifice that she writes, “I don’t know if I have it in me to forgive him. But I know him now better than I did. And that piece of him, I recognize.” How crazy does a fight have to be for you to start rooting for the Hulk?! Even as the Fantastic Four arrive and intervene, we witness Thor and other heroes continuing their assault, until they have to be physically pulled away.
The deep rooted emotional display that we only narrowly bear witness to, makes this an incredibly memorable and thought provoking fight scene that feels like the culmination of decades of other fights and moments, branched trails that led right back here to the Hulk and his prideful smile. It may not be the flashiest fight or most impressively rendered on the page- but it is certainly a character defining one that benefits from the concept of “less is more,” with the implications of the scene carrying far more weight than blunt action.
-Nicholas Aaron Hodge
