Warning: Contains spoilers for The Incredible Hulk #16! Hulk Fans should be very familiar with the Green Door by now, as it has been a mainstay in it Hulk Study since The Immortal HulkAnd continues to be in the Jade Giant’s current series. However, while fans may think they know the purpose of the green door, the latest addition to Hulk Myth proves otherwise, as Marvel Comics just revealed his true purpose, thereby changing Hulk Know forever.
The Incredible Hulk #16 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Danny Earls throws fans into the ancient past of 3600 BCE, back when the first Hulk called Enkidu roamed the land. Enkidu was hunting a monster known as the Elder. Enkidu defeated the Elder, but only with the help of the One Below All, who channeled his power through the Green Door during their fight. The Elder recounts the fight in the modern day, explaining to one of the lesser monsters that things will be very different this time when she comes face-to-face with Enkidu’s descendant, the Hulk.
The comic is an excellent history lesson in regards to the Hulk’s ongoing conflict with the Elder and the Mother of Horrors, but there is also an understated point about the Green Door in this issue: The One Below used the Green Door to hold an . Eye on the mother of horrors’ children on earth, ensuring they remain dormant. And that’s why the monsters are against now, because in The Immortal HulkThe green door was closed forever.
Hulk’s green door is not only for gamma mutants, but also eldritch monsters
The green door first appeared in Avengers #684
Previously in Marvel Comics, the green door was used exclusively by gamma mutants, because it was their passage between the hellish afterlife, all gamma mutants are cursed when they die – the underworld – and the mortal world. Gamma is directly connected to the energy of the One Below All, meaning anyone mutated by Gamma has access to the One Below All’s realm through the Green Door, and when they die, they can travel back through the Green Door again to come back to life.
This is how the Hulk became immortal in The Immortal HulkAnd the same was true for every other Gamma Mutant in the Marvel Universe. However, it has now been confirmed that the Green Door is not just something gamma mutants can use to escape death, it is also a way for the One Below to have a constant connection to the mortal world, as well as the creatures that called that World their domain, i.e. the mother of horrors and her children.
The one below all sought to keep the monsters in check, using his gamma mutants to do his bidding on Earth. But now that the green door is closed (what happened in The Immortal Hulk), the one below all has lost the connection, allowing the mother of horrors’ children to run rampant on the earth.
The Hulk will have to reopen the green door to stop the mother of horrors
Now that fans know the Green Door was used as much to keep the Mother of Horrors’ Monsters at bay as it was to allow Gamma Mutates access to and from the underworld, it seems that Hulk has no choice but to reopen the Green door. The Hulk did it in the first place to stop the One Below from taking over the physical realm, but now, the Hulk can only have to trust that the Otherworldly God won’t do it, because it means that the Hulk Will need his help to stop the Elgrich monsters once and for all.
Although it remains to be seen if the Hulk will actually need to reopen the green door after it was closed in The Immortal Hulk To ensure the defeat of the Mother of Horrors, the one thing that became clear when reading this issue was the true purpose of the Green Door, something that was never fully explored in Hulk Know so far.
The Incredible Hulk #16 by Marvel Comics is now available.