When Marvel first announced their new Totally Awesome Hulk series as part of their line-wide "All-New All-Different Marvel" relaunch, they deliberately kept the new Hulk's identity a secret.
But Marvel Comics announced today that the forthcoming Totally Awesome Hulk comic will feature Korean-American super-genius Amadeus Cho as the title character rather than Bruce Banner.
This will be the first time in Marvel's history that they will publish a series starring a Korean-American character made by Korean-American creators – writer Greg Pak, and artist Frank Cho.
The key difference between this new Hulk and the traditional Bruce Banner version is that Amadeus Cho is going to actually enjoy becoming the Hulk.
"[Amadeus] is going to be a very different kind of Hulk. He's 19 years old, he's on top of the world, he thinks he's right about everything…and he might be," Pak told Entertainment Weekly. "Or he might not be. But this is a kid who's got a ridiculous amount of confidence. A lot of it has been justly earned, but he may be in over his head, and he's going to come in here and he's determined to be the best Hulk there's ever been. He loves being the Hulk. And that may cause massive trouble for everyone else in the Marvel Universe. It's just a great recipe."
Amadeus Cho was co-created by Greg Pak and artist Takeshi Miyazawa nearly a decade ago, and he was a supporting character in Pak's previous run on The Incredible Hulk as well as his run on The Incredible Hercules.
Marvel has been reinventing many of their most iconic characters as something other than straight white men recently. When All-New All-Different Marvel launches in October, we'll have an African-American Captain America, a Black Hispanic Spider-Man, and female versions of Thor and Wolverine in addition to a Korean-American Hulk.
