In this review of Spider-Man: Long Way Home #1, The Punisher encounters a ruthless version of the Hulk during a scuffle for a Cosmic Cube. Spider-Man is called in for help with the fallout.
SPIDER-MAN: LONG WAY HOME #1
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
Art and Main Cover: Adam Kubert
Variant Covers: Dave Johnson, Mark Brooks, Stephen Platt, Björn Barends
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: June 17, 2026
This review contains spoilers
Spider-Man: Long Way Home #1 begins by posing a philosophical question. What’s worse between a moral man ignoring his conscience, or a monster without morality? It’s framed over Bruce Banner asking a Catholic priest for forgiveness.
Elsewhere, a black ops squad engages in a mission to retrieve a Cosmic Cube from an AIM base. This squad includes The Punisher, who correctly deduces that HYDRA is about to ambush the facility.
During the raid, the squad encounters a broken down Super-Adaptoid, along with a scientist who claims the Cube is defective. He gets blasted by the ambushing HYDRA agents, who then get obliterated by the Hulk. In the aftermath, the squad grabs the Cube and bolts, but are chased down and picked apart by the Green Goliath.
The Punisher and Doorknob become the last 2 remaining. Doorknob asks the Hulk what he wants with the Cube. Hulk responds articulately but dodges the question. Doorknob uses the Cube to blast the Hulk away, but the impact kills him instantly. The Punisher reflects on the death of his squad, as he retrieves the Cube.
Soon after, another vigilante gets involved. Its Spider-Man, who’s been contacted by SHIELD to help him clean up their mess. They reveal they hired The Punisher’s crew, and need a superhero as strong as Spider-Man to take on the Hulk, whom the Web-Crawler isn’t too enthusiastic about engaging.
Analysis
The imagery of Hulk in a jungle is very well done. There’s a panel specifically focusing on the green of his eyes, which match the greenery of the wilderness. It gives the perception that the Hulk is at home in this savage setting, perfectly in tune with the monster portrayal of the whole issue.
Additionally, the setting also allows for some crazy shots and feats, like Banner’s jump over a bridged cliff. The zoom out shows the immense scale of his vertical power.
On the topic of monster Hulk, the tough-as-nails squad slowly losing their will to fight before bolting away– with their eyes popping–as they scream “RUN!” does wonders for the Hulk’s portrayal. They start out ready to engage, but before they even get to, they look at the size of him and instantly decide to dart.
The only negative I had for Hulk’s portrayal is that the character positioning is wonky. Bruce Banner starts out the story, but there’s no real foreshadowing to the Hulk’s appearance. He just shows up.
The issue is enjoyable MCU synergy with the upcoming Brand New Day movie starring these 3 characters, and it avoided a similar bottleneck to Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s first issue (the other ongoing MCU synergy run). By starting out the chapter with a philosophical question from the core of the Hulk mythos, giving The Punisher a massive loss, and portraying Spider-Man’s fear at the idea of taking on the Hulk, Long Way Home #1 creates a solid emotional backbone from the jump.
Final Thoughts
Spider-Man: Long Way Home #1 is a fantastic start to the limited series, using the main characters from the upcoming movie to create a gritty and engaging plot.
