The Immortal Hulk has become legendary. The series kicked off in 2018, from writer Al Ewing and regular artist Joe Bennett, and immediately enthralled readers. Ewing and Bennett tapped into the horror roots of the character, and gave readers nearly perfect Hulk stories, a potent mix of body horror, amazing action, and the kind of psychological storytelling that has made the Hulk so popular in the last few decades. There are many fans out there who will say that The Immortal Hulk is the best Marvel comic of the last twenty years, and rank it alongside the legends of Marvel. However, I’m going to say something that is going to anger a lot of Marvel fans — The Immortal Hulk completely falls apart in the second half, and there’s a better Immortal book at Marvel — The Immortal Thor.
The Immortal Hulk is definitely a great book, but The Immortal Thor blows it out of the water. Ewing, with regular artists Martin Coccolo and Jan Bazaluda, gave readers a perfect Thor epic for 25 issues, incorporating ideas new and old into the book. The Immortal Thor ended with Thor’s death, and is getting relaunched as The Mortal Thor, taking readers in what looks to be a completely new direction. As great as The Immortal Hulk is, The Immortal Thor blows it out of the water, and it’s about time we all realized that.
The Immortal Thor Is the Quintessential Thor Story
In some ways, it’s not exactly fair to compare The Immortal Thor to The Immortal Hulk. The Immortal Thor is only half way done — Marvel couldn’t resist the name change to get another first issue, the most Marvel thing ever — but this also means it’s only half the length of The Immortal Hulk. However, Ewing feels like he had much more focus in The Immortal Thor than he ever did in The Immortal Hulk. From the beginning, readers were teased with the death of Thor and that gave the books a sense of momentum that we never got out of The Immortal Hulk. In fact, I would say that The Immortal Hulk was more about vibes than actual storytelling. While its story developed over its run, there’s a certain aimless feeling to the beginning of the book for a while. Ewing had to do a lot of worldbuilding on The Immortal Hulk, slowly building the story and revealing the whys of everything going on, and that took up most of the first half of the book. However right from start, The Immortal Thor had a story — the death of Thor caused by the gods of Utgard. This gave the book more of a focus than The Immortal Hulk had in its opening phases — I would make the argument that that it even beats the last half of The Immortal Hulk when it comes to its focus. This helped build the anticipation for the ending.
Now, if there’s one place where The Immortal Hulk definitely beats The Immortal Thor, it’s in the art department. Coccolo, who left the book to draw Wolverine’s current rather mediocre series, and Bazaluda can’t really match Bennett’s pencils on The Immortal Hulk, but The Immortal Thor‘s art does do a good job of capturing the grandeur of the story (although, if you want to see something inadvertently hilarious, look at Loki killing Thor; it’s… something). However, the art is the only place where The Immortal Hulk has The Immortal Thor beat. The Immortal Thor has better supporting cast than The Immortal Hulk in the person of Loki. Loki has gotten more and more popular as the years have gone on, but the version we see in The Immortal Thor steals the show. As the God of Stories, Loki knows more than they’re letting on — I have a theory that the book is being narrated by Loki — and steals everyone scene they appear in. This is the ultimate Loki, a powerful trickster with their own agenda who sometimes saves the day and other times make life worse for their brother. On top of that, we’ve gotten the return of the Enchantress, Lady Sif becoming important to Thor again, and the awesomeness that is Skurge (seriously, Skurge is amazing in this book). I’d even go so far as to say that Ewing’s Thor is a much better written character than his Hulk. Ewing did a great job of capturing the different facets of the Hulk, but there’s just something about his Thor. Thor can be a difficult character to write, but Ewing is able to take every aspect of Thor and incorporate into the character. I love the fact that Ewing’s Thor feels like he’s learned his lessons over the years, and uses his brain as much as his brawn to defeat his various foes.
Finally, I would say that The Immortal Thor‘s ending is way better than The Immortal Hulk’s finale. The 50th issue of The Immortal Hulk feels like it came from a completely different Hulk book, presenting a massive change to the history of Hulk and the Leader that quite literally comes out of nowhere. One gets the feeling that Ewing wrote himself into a corner with the One Below All, and the ending is basically a deus ex machina in the worst possible way. However, the ending of The Immortal Thor completely fits the book. It’s built off everything that came before, and perfectly fits the mythological feel that Ewing has built. Thor’s death, despite being telegraphed since the beginning, was still a shock and The Immortal Thor #25 ties up all of the loose ends, setting the characters in new directions that have their origins in the history of Thor. The Immortal Thor does everything a Thor book needs to do and then some.
The Immortal Thor Is a Modern Legend
The Immortal Hulk is an amazing book, but it’s not perfect, despite what fans have been saying for years. It deserves it lofty place among the best of Marvel, but let’s be real — The Immortal Thor is just plain better. Other than the art (Marvel should have got Carlos Magno, who did a few fill-in issues between Coccolo and Bazaluda, to take over the book), The Immortal Thor has The Immortal Hulk beat. Ewing is firing on all cylinders with every issue, and it has me genuinely excited for Thor for the first time in ages. The Immortal Thor #22 has the best gimmick I’ve seen in a Marvel comic, using coin flips to replicate Thor’s journey through Utgard. It’s better than any other single issue of The Immortal Hulk (although I will say that The Immortal Hulk #25 is close; that issue is legit brilliant), and is the best single Marvel comic to come out in 2025.
The Immortal Thor was able to tell a better, more coherent story than The Immortal Hulk, and that goes a long way in explaining why it’s better. The Immortal Thor did a lot of the same things as The Immortal Hulk — taking the basics of the character and shifting them, showing off whole new facets of a Marvel legend. However, there’s just something about the momentum and storytelling of The Immortal Thor that just works better than The Immortal Hulk. It really is that good, and I implore you to check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
Which do you think is better — The Immortal Thor or The Immortal Hulk? Sound off in the comments below.
