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I just got the new issue of *The Immortal Hulk* and the final splash page has me completely stumped. I can't figure out if the figure in the shadows is meant to be a corrupted version of Rick Jones, or if it's actually a new persona for Bruce himself that we haven't seen before.

I skimmed the final splash and my gut says the shadow could be Rick Jones. The jawline looked a little off, and the silhouette had that rough, wry grin Rick shows when he’s in trouble. But it might be the uncanny effect of the art.

To me it reads as Bruce in a new corrupted version of himself, like the Hulk persona is leaking into Bruce's face. The glow behind the figure is redder than Hulk, and the way the cloak of darkness folds feels like a new mask rather than Rick.

I went back to earlier pages where the team teased a hunger for power angle; there was a panel of Bruce looking unsettled while Rick stood nearby. It could be playing with who’s controlling whom, but nothing definitive.

I zoomed in on the splash, tried to compare features, and came away with nothing solid. The eyes were too smeared, the mouth too shadowed. It feels intentionally vague.

Also maybe the printing or color grading is doing a number on the silhouette. In my print the blacks were heavy, the red glow smeared in a way that makes it feel more like a mood than a person. Still, the question nagged me the whole ride home.

I want to answer, but I don’t feel confident. It could be either, or neither, or maybe a new character we’ll meet later. The page hints at something big, but it’s not giving a clean identity.

Is it possible the problem isn’t the identity but that we’re reading too much into a splash page and the real twist is somewhere else in the issue?

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