WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Immortal Hulk #43 by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo, Paul Mounts & VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
There have been many iterations of the Hulk over the years, but the one thing that usually remains constant is that he is a reluctant hero. When Bruce Banner is in control of his brain, he always wants to be the good guy. When Hulk is raging, he usually wants to be left alone but still helps people in need.
However, one version of Hulk never once cared about being a good guy or a hero, Joe Fixit. During his time as Hulk, he worked as a heavy in Vegas, dishing out punishment to anyone who crossed his employers. And in Immortal Hulk #43, Joe is in charge of Hulk again, and he still has no desire to be a good guy unless someone pushes him in that direction.
After spending most of the issue pick-pocketing people on the street or running scams, something happened at the end of the issue that not even Joe could look the other way from. Joe walked by a kid wearing a "Hulk Smash" hoodie and texting on his cellphone. That is when two police officers yelled for him to stop, calling him "Hulk Guy." The kid got scared and ran, but the police chased him down, saying guilty people don't run. They even pushed by Joe Fixit and told him to move aside. The police tackled the kid, who said he didn't do anything. They pushed his face into the wall. One officer told him to put his hands behind his head, and the other told him to put them on the ground. Then they decided they needed to pepper spray him, which was all it took for a switch to flip in Joe's head.
Joe Fixit looked at his reflection in the window and decided to let the kid out. Hulk picked up a car and told the "puny humans" to "leave Hulk's friend alone." He ripped the car in half as the officers ran, realizing they couldn't bully the Hulk. While this seemed like Hulk is doing the right thing -- helping to fight social injustice -- there is more to it than that. If one person can emphasize with anyone who has faced police brutality, it is Hulk.
From the first time that Hulk showed up, before he ever did anything or hurt anyone, the military and police attacked him. He would often just be sitting alone and not bothering anyone, and they would attack him. Even people he trusted, such as the Thing, have him up for a military attack in the past.
As Mr. Fixit, Hulk has a much smarter and more cunning brain behind the brawn. Fixit knows how to skirt the system, and he knows how to survive in the real world. He also knows that others don't have it as lucky as he does. While this moment where Fixit decided to be a hero and take it to authority figures abusing their positions backfired with the attack of the U-Foes, it makes sense that Fixit was the Hulk who would become a hero at the most unlikely of times, fighting real injustice.
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