Is The Hulk Immortal?

Two glorious years ago, it was suggested that the Hulk may have died up to three times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - or even four times, if you count the questionably received Hulk film as part of the film canon.

Now, for a long time, our understanding of the Hulk in both the MCU and the comics themselves was that, while Bruce Banner could be killed, his big green alter ego was far, far more difficult to take down. As such, the pair's constant revival after Banner's deaths was put down to the gamma radiated beast bringing him back to life.

So, no big deal, right? It's not exactly surprising that the jolly green giant is harder to kill than a fragile mortal scientist. Well, it gets a whole lot more complicated than that.

Because one thing the comics established a good while ago is that our emerald enraged beast could, if not slain, live forever. Not only do we see this when the Hulk meets Maestro - an evil version of himself from far, far in the future - but series like Old Man Logan make it clear that our boy Hulk will live far, far longer than any human heroes.

Interestingly enough, these series also showed that, at the time, the Hulk could be killed, shown in gory detail when Wolverine carved up his former ally from inside the beast's stomach, tearing free and killing him.

Then, the Immortal Hulk comic came out, and everything changed.

We'd seen the Hulk come back to life - most notably after the events of Civil War, where the dude was shot with an arrow that was specifically supposed to kill him for good, but that actually only kept him down for about a week. What we hadn't yet seen, however, was the idea that the Hulk simply could not be permanently killed at all - which the Immortal Hulk made into the new canon.

While this initially might make him seem way overpowered, the series somehow completely inverts this expectation. As it turns out, being immortal and invulnerable still doesn't make up for childhood trauma, and Banner's fears of being a monster are only increased by the realisation that he's going to live forever.

So, why might the MCU Hulk follow in his comic counterparts big old footsteps...?