Red Hulk has one major advantage over Bruce Banner’s original green Hulk. Harrison Ford played Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, aka Red Hulk, who made his Marvel Cinematic Universe big-screen debut in Captain America: Brave New World. It may be a while before we get to see Red Hulk clash with Mark Ruffalo’s Jade Giant in the MCU, but a nugget of information that most fans may not realize is that there are two Red Hulks in the comics. The other is Robert Maverick, who coincidentally guest stars in Marvel’s Sam Wilson: Captain America series that launched around the same time as Brave New World. The final issue of Sam’s new comic upgrades Red Hulk in a major way, and even Hulk would be jealous. WARNING: Spoilers for Sam Wilson: Captain America #5 below.
Sam Wilson: Captain America #5 comes from the creative team of Greg Pak, Evan Narcisse, Eder Messias, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, and VC’s Joe Caramagna. It’s the conclusion of Captain America and his allies’ fight against Eaglestar Corporation and their evil CEO, Dennis Harmon. He recruited disenfranchised Black communities to farm land on his flying Skydream facility, where he had Red Hulk as the head of security. Captain America and Red Hulk initially clashed, but Robert Maverick eventually saw Harmon’s evil ways.
Captain America, his cousin Billie, Red Hulk, Falcon (Joaquin Torres), Josiah X aka Shadow Soldier, and Patriot joined together to take Dennis Harmon and Skydream down before he could attack Black cities. Red Hulk was able to take out one of Skydream’s floating fortresses, leaving our heroes plummeting to Earth. Cap and Falcon have wings, allowing them to slow their fall, but that leaves Red Hulk and Josiah X to fend for themselves. Red Hulk knows he can survive the fall, but still uses the opportunity to unveil one of the experimental enhancements Harmon put in him — big red dragon wings.
Red Hulk has mutated gamma wings, allowing him to fly
Part of Dennis Harmon’s wrongdoing involved illegal bioengineering. He used it to create his War Eagles, who were Skydream security that also had individual wings, along with massive mutated birds. It appears Red Hulk was also experimented on, and luckily, it helped save his and Josiah X’s lives. Hulks can use their tremendous leg muscles to travel hundreds of miles in one leap, but flying is another whole world of transportation. Something else that differentiates Robert Maverick’s Red Hulk from the Thaddeus Ross version is that he can only remain in his Red Hulk form for a shortened amount of time, typically an hour. This is due to a plug-in impact located in his arm.
Red Hulk isn’t the only character to get wings, either. Sam Wilson’s cousin, Billie, also gets a pair of wings in the finale of Sam Wilson: Captain America. It’s not known if this is a temporary development or permanent.
Thaddeus Ross is headlining his own Red Hulk solo series that ties into Marvel’s One World Under Doom publishing event. Written by Benjamin Percy and illustrated by Geoff Shaw, Red Hulk finds Thaddeus Ross a prisoner of Doctor Doom, who is using Thaddeus to run war simulations. Red Hulk teams up with other prisoners like Deathlok and Machine Man to escape and take Doom down.
What do you think about Red Hulk’s transformation in Sam Wilson: Captain America #5? Let us know in the comments below!
The post Red Hulk Just Got a Power Upgrade, Making Him Better Than Bruce Banner’s Hulk appeared first on ComicBook.com.
