Hulk's Powers Just Got a Disturbing New Spin (But Finally Make Sense)
Warning: contains spoilers for Black Widow #11!
Ever since he was irradiated in a gamma bomb detonation, Bruce Banner has been able to assume the huge, muscular form of the Incredible Hulk, but not everything about this transformation makes sense. Hulk is one of the strongest mortals in the Marvel Universe, but he comes by that strength honestly, his massive frame growing mightier the angrier he gets. But as any physicist will tell you, mass doesn't come from nowhere. The idea that Bruce Banner's body contains everything it needs to grow so strong that his left hook could make even Galactus stumble just can't be right.
The latest issue of Black Widow (from Kelly Thompson and Rafael de Latorre) offers a solution to this quandary. After escaping a fake life built by villains to keep her safely away from her duties as a superhero, Natasha has moved to LA to start again. Assembling a team jokingly referred to as the "Spy-der Ladies," Black Widow is trying to find out more about the underworld of the West Coast. Looking for information, Natasha and Yelena Belova seek out socialite twins Liv and Lars.
Though Liv and Lars are happy to provide information, they also can't resist the chance to fight some of the greatest martial artists in the Marvel Universe. The superstrong Liv takes on Natasha, while the far skinnier Lars slashes at Yelena with a knife despite clearly being outmatched. Unfortunately for the Spy-der Ladies, once Black Widow finally has Liv in her grasp, the fighter's muscles disappear, and she slips free while Lars is suddenly able to shatter brick with a single blow. The twins reveal that their power is to shift mass between them, allowing either to grow stronger at a moment's notice.
It's a novel solution to the question of how a character who can become superstrong actually gains muscle mass, though sci-fi powers are still needed to explain how mass passes from one to the other. The question of how heroes draw on huge amounts of mass and energy is one the comics have attempted to answer multiple times. Avengers Academy experimented with the idea that heroes like Ant-Man and Reptil can rapidly gather or displace energy by connecting to parallel dimensions, while X-Men/Fantastic Four theorized that all superheroes draw on an intradimensional energy nicknamed Godpower.
Hulk's own powers have been explained by his body gathering radiation from the world around him, and even by his connection to a metaphysical force of hate and rage, but these high-minded solutions have never quite scratched the itch of fan speculation. While Doctor Strange's bolts of energy make sense as originating from other dimensions, Hulk is a far more physical presence, and it's hard to buy that his fists are suddenly able to grow to five times their size because he's quickly hoovering up radiation. Liv and Lars' more grounded powers keep superstrength as a physical process, to the extent that the twins are actually capable of accidentally drawing too much mass from each other in what seems to be a potentially fatal process that leaves Lars hauntingly emaciated.
While Hulk may not yet have a comparatively earthy explanation for his abilities, Lars and Liv show it can be done, and Black Widow turns a common fan question about Bruce Banner's abilities into a disturbing new source of strength. Sadly, unlike Hulk, Lars and Liv are as much about plotting and scheming as smashing, and while Black Widow is able to use their shifting mass against them to force a ceasefire, the information they give her is revealed to be bait for an as yet unrevealed trap at the end of the issue.
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