One of the most enjoyable traditions in Marvel Comics are its “What If?” scenarios, which provide bizarre spins on familiar characters and settings. And on that note, a new limited series is posing the question of what would happen if the Incredible Hulk and Captain America were combined into one character. Okay, so it’s probably not something people were crying out for, but the Avengers/Defenders: Tarot series is exploring this idea through magic and an unusual team-up regardless.
Written by Alan Davis, with art from Paul Renaud, the series combines the Avengers and the Defenders for a special mission. It’s worth mentioning here that the Defenders are not the Netflix team, but an older version including the Hulk, Doctor Strange and Namor the Sub-Mariner as typical leads. For this series, they’re joined by Valkyrie and the Silver Surfer, with the Avengers line-up including Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Thor and Vision.
The plot revealed so far revolves around Namor recovering a memory from WWII that causes him to seek out Captain America, and leads both teams into a confrontation with Ichor of Ish’lzog. This confrontation then presumably leads to a magical spell that combines Captain America and the Hulk into one being, but from future covers and solicitations for the series, also appears to fuse the two teams into one band of heroes.
If this wasn’t tantalizing enough for the Incredible Hulk fans, we’ll also be getting the series Immortal Hulk: Great Power in 2020, where the Hulk persona and powers are transferred to Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, while we’ve recently seen a Venom-Hulk hybrid. Based on what we can tell, then, from Avengers: Defenders: Tarot, there’ll be a lot for readers to sink their teeth into. The first issue of the series will be with us on January 1st, 2020, with more issues following over the coming months as the Avengers and Defenders literally merge to take on an as-yet-secret magical threat, so be sure to stay tuned.
