Warning: contains a preview of Hulk #2!
Comic companies make friendly digs at each other all the time, but DC and Marvel's new favorite way of sniping at each other is only growing more frequent, with the newest issue of Hulk making it clear that won't stop anytime soon. The "Big Two" have some of the world's most well-known fictional characters, and sly references and parodies of the immediate competition has long been a tradition in good fun. But after a year in which each company has gone further than usual in borrowing the other's characters, Hulk shows neither is feeling any urge to stop.
Two of the most prominent parodies, of course, have been riffs on the Justice League and the Avengers. The recent Heroes Reborn event saw the Marvel Universe transformed, trapped under the boot heel of evil pastiches of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Marvel's other Squadron Supreme members. Meanwhile, DC's multiversal adventures as seen in Infinite Frontier and now Justice League Incarnate have involved dark or incompetent versions of the Avengers, with Machinehead (an Iron Man parody) slain by Darkseid, and Doctor Multiverse (DC's Doctor Strange) actually joining the cross-reality team. But despite having spent a lot of 2021 ripping each other off, Marvel and DC aren't done.
Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley's Hulk began a brand new saga for Bruce Banner and his smash-driven alter ego. Bruce has decided to take control of his life by splitting himself into three different parts. Bruce Banner's personality is at the wheel piloting the physical body of the Hulk, now turned into a spaceship, while the Hulk's psyche is tormented by waves of enemies. Hulk's rage, in turn, powers the modified Hulk body. To pursue his new goals, Bruce has left Earth, stepping through a portal and ending up in the space between realities. There, he's challenged by yet another group of heroes intended to parody a DC property.
If it isn't immediately obvious that the heroes are modeled after DC's Authority (two of them are clearly inspired by Apollo and Midnighter), the name "Alternate Universe Timeline Hazard Operations Response & Intervention Team Y--" literally spells it out as an acronym. Readers get no real characterization for this new pastiche - just enough to know what they're lampooning before Hulk plows through them while asleep at the wheel. While Marvel and DC are at least telling larger stories with their Avengers and Justice League parodies, here the Authority exist only to be effortlessly slaughtered in a new barb at Marvel's competition.
Crafting parody characters is a great way to for writers to touch on trends in the industry, but the darkly violent punchline here feels more in line with commentary likely to be found in The Boys rather than a Marvel comic. The two comic book titans have traded barbs for years, taking most hits on the chin without escalating too much, but now they seem increasingly interested in stealing each other's toys. The bloody spoof found in Hulk could become increasingly common between Marvel and DC as the back-and-forth war of parodies continues.
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