When science fails, apparently you call an exorcist
There are plenty of ways to begin a Spider-Man/Hulk team-up.
Have them misunderstand each other. Throw in some gamma monster. Let Hulk smash something expensive while Peter complains about having to explain it to the Avengers.
Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone #1 instead asks a far stranger question:
What if Bruce Banner decided the Hulk might need an exorcism?
Kevin Smith and Andy McElfresh write this wonderfully odd opening chapter, with R.B. Silva handling the art and Federico Blee on colors. And while the issue definitely has something deeper brewing underneath all the smashing, it wisely spends plenty of time being a ridiculous Spider-Man comic first.
PROS
The opening is immediately fun.
Peter is photographing an Easter Mass in Central Park headlined by Cardinal Leviticus Thornhill when the service is crashed by one of the most hilariously specific villain teams I’ve seen in a while: the Manosphere.
Yes. Really.
And apparently membership requires having “Man” somewhere in your name.
So we get Absorbing Man, Mole Man, Stilt-Man, Man-Bull, Sandman, Titanium Man, Molten Man, Plantman and even Everyman barging into a religious gathering like somebody accidentally booked the world’s worst supervillain convention.
Spider-Man, naturally, has a field day with this.
The jokes fly almost as quickly as the punches, and the best part is that several villains seem just as embarrassed by the team name as Peter is. There’s something very old-school Marvel about watching Spider-Man bounce from one wonderfully stupid threat to another while relentlessly mocking everyone involved.
Then Hulk arrives.
And the issue basically becomes professional wrestling in Central Park.
R.B. Silva clearly enjoys having two completely different physical styles in the same battle. Spider-Man flips, swings and improvises while Hulk simply treats every villain unfortunate enough to stand near him as throwable furniture. The contrast makes the action easy to follow despite the frankly absurd number of bodies flying around.
But the comic does something smart once the smoke clears.
Hulk helped save the day—but his rampage also nearly killed an eight-year-old girl after Titanium Man was hurled into the crowd. Suddenly the usual superhero logic of “bad guys defeated, everything’s fine” doesn’t quite work.
And that leads us into the stranger half of the issue.
Bruce has been struggling to find a way to control the Hulk and admits that after science failed to give him the answer he wanted, he began looking elsewhere. Specifically, he has found comfort in scripture and in Cardinal Thornhill’s teachings.
That is where Fire and Brimstone becomes much more interesting than its goofy first half initially suggests.
Bruce Banner is one of the smartest people alive. He understands exactly what created the Hulk. Yet desperation has pushed him to wonder whether the answer might exist somewhere beyond a laboratory.
Peter’s reaction is perfect.
When the Cardinal publicly suggests that Hulk may essentially be a form of demonic possession—and offers Bruce an exorcism—Spider-Man responds like any reasonable person would: he assumes this sounds like the plot of a movie.
Preferably in 4DX.
But Bruce isn’t laughing.
He knows gamma radiation created Hulk. He knows the science. Yet he also asks a deceptively simple question: who created the gamma rays?
Uh-oh.
By the final page, Bruce has decided he wants to “send the Hulk to hell,” and suddenly this very silly comic has a genuinely intriguing hook for issue #2.
CONS
The Manosphere may actually be too funny for its own good.
They arrive with such wonderfully stupid energy that once the story pivots into Bruce Banner’s spiritual crisis, I found myself temporarily mourning the loss of nine grown men arguing about villain branding while Spider-Man insults them.
That tonal whiplash is clearly intentional, but the transition from “Mole-dramatic Harvey!” to theological questions about Hulk’s soul happens at roughly gamma-powered speed.
Also, Cardinal Thornhill might as well be wearing a giant neon sign saying SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY UP WITH THIS GUY.
Maybe he’s completely sincere.
Sure.
And maybe J. Jonah Jameson is secretly running a Spider-Man fan club.
FINAL THOUGHTS: GRAB A COPY NOW! READ AND ENJOY!
Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone #1 is weird.
I mean that as a compliment.
It gives us a ridiculous villain team, classic Spider-Man quips, gorgeous Hulk smashing, mysterious hawks, Bruce Banner discussing pineapple juice, religious philosophy and the possibility of exorcising the Incredible Hulk.
Somehow, it works.
The issue understands that Spider-Man is especially useful in a story this bizarre because Peter keeps one foot firmly planted in reality. While Bruce starts questioning science, faith and the nature of the Hulk itself, Peter is standing nearby basically saying:
“Guys…gamma bomb. We all remember the gamma bomb, right?”
And yet even Peter may eventually discover there is something here that science alone cannot explain.
Next stop: Hulk versus Hell.
Sure.
Why not? 🕷️💚
