A Marxist Reading of The Incredible Hulk

Below are extracts from an essay that used Marxist analysis to determine which of the three characters from Greg Pak’s Planet Hulk is the fictional messiah known as the Sakaarson.

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From a Marxist point of view, Hulk’s reactionary nature is not a negative trait, it is a necessary one. For Hulk to be a true saviour to the people,  Georg Lukacs says that his ideals must be shaped by the world and not the other way around “What is the key to these ‘typical’ heroes of literature?… A character is typical, in this technical sense, when his innermost being is determined by objective forces at work in society.” Hulk does not intervene on Sakaar because of the arrogance of his principles or to force his cultural beliefs like an imperialist power. When he saves a farming community from rampaging wildbots in Incredible Hulk #96 (P. 12) he does so because the current regime declares that protecting the villagers is out of their jurisdiction, “Sorry! You’ll have to file a request through your local community representative!” (P. 11) the authorities declare, fleeing the scene of a potential massacre.

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Hulk’s reactionary rise to prominence is supported by Karl Marx himself, who argues that men do not choose the path that they take, only the actions they make based upon the world presented to them, “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered.” (P. 1). Likewise, the personality cult that develops around Hulk is not of his choosing and any time he completes one of the prophesied labours of the Sakaarson, it is never by design but because the situation prompted such a reaction. He lashes out at any attempt to convince him he is more than a monster and encourages the belief that is the prophesied destroyer, rather than a savior. When the soldier claiming to fight for Hulk questions why he denies his divinity, citing that he “Bled, and green vines grew. Because you held mountains on your shoulders.” Hulk dismisses him, saying “I know exactly what I am. And if you have any brains at all, you’ll shut the hell up and let me walk away before I kill your whole stupid planet.”  (P. 23). This denial of adoration can be compared to Vladimir Lenin’s views on the cult developing around his image. Robert Tucker explains that Lenin was reluctant to promote himself but that his deification happened regardless, “The Cult of Lenin, which Lenin himself opposed and managed to keep in check until incapacitated by a stroke in March 1923, subsequently became a pervasive part of Soviet public life.” (Page 347) He goes on to say that “Lenin refused to tolerate public adulation… he showed dry disapproval of the eulogizing to which his comrades subjected him.” (Page 347) This is reflected in Pak’s writing, especially after Hulk’s ascension to the leader of Sakaar in which he is reluctant to be coronated, saying “You know me, Korg. Why’re you… why’re you doing this?” To which his ally, Korg, replies “Because I know you. And to hold the many different people of the world together, only you have the strength.” (P. 23) Despite Hulk’s best attempts to avoid the mantle of Sakaarson and the developing of the cult around his name, even his closest companions think of him as more than he claims to be. It is this widespread adoration of his name that forces him into a position of power, by the mandate of the people.

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It is through this use of force, and manipulation of the proletariat through entertainment that the Red King manages to stay in power until the arrival of the Hulk. Leo Lowenthal says that the oppressed are placated by distracting them from their plights of the world, “Whenever revolutionary tendencies show a timid head they are mitigated and cut short by a false fulfilment of wish dreams like wealth, adventure, passionate love, power and sensationalism in general.” (P.11) In the case of the Red King, Pak draws on the Roman tradition of gladiatorial arenas as a method of entertaining the people of Sakaar. In Invisible Romans, Robert Knapp explains that historically executions were a separate part of the entertainment, “Crucifixion, burning alive and condemnation to be torn to pieces by wild beasts or killed by fellow prisoners featured strongly… Executions in the arena typically took place at the ‘noon break’ between ‘wild-beast’ hunts in the morning and gladiators in the afternoon.” (P. 266) The Red King finds himself torn between his desire to kill Hulk when he is a mere gladiator and the need to placate his people in Incredible Hulk #95 when his advisor tries to stay the king’s hand saying, “If you kill him, you make him a hero. But he’s just a monster. Let him die like one.” (P.9) In attempting to preserve his own cult and prevent the rise of a rival’s, the Red King allows the man who will overthrow him to live, out of fear of those he rules. Knapp would say that this concern is justifiable, especially in the arena, “The enthusiasm of the crowd could easily spill over into disorder. Elite literature is sprinkled with examples of the crowd shouting insulting things at the emperor from the protection (which sometimes proved illusionary) of the mob.” (P.266) Pak shows that it is the king’s failure to understand his people and the corruption that his rule has created that ultimately leads him to fulfilling the Sakaarson’s prophesied breaking of the world.