Story highlights Bruce Banner killed in latest issue of 'Civil War II'

Comic book fans wait to see if longtime superhero is conclusively dead

(CNN) He's tried to do it himself, countless super-villains have attempted the feat, as have giant, mutated cockroaches. He's even been exiled into deep space, but Marvel this week did what Bruce Banner could never manage to do to the Hulk -- kill off the long-running character.

In the latest issue of "Civil War II," in which the superhero alliance the Avengers -- popularized by Marvel's staggeringly successful movies -- are divided into two opposing teams, Banner's comrade Hawkeye shoots the Hulk's human alter ego in the eye, killing him.

It's a mercy killing, it turns out -- Banner had given the marksman a special arrow and instructions to kill him if he looked certain to go on a rampage.

Banner has been hulking out in Marvel comics since 1962, when he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, caught in a gamma explosion and given an impossibly powerful alter ego.

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