Hulk 102-107

Rather than go into detail about the plots of these issues, I'd prefer to take a broad-brush approach. Hulk #102 was the first issue of the Hulk's own title, following the splitting of Tales to Astonish into separate mags for Greenskin and the Sub-Mariner. As you can see from the cover, it contains a retelling of the Hulk's origin, rather oddly and in rhyme by an Asgard Oracle:

In that first issue, the Hulk helps defeat an invasion of Asgard by forces led by the Enchantress and the Executioner, then is returned to Earth by Odin. In #103, he faces the Space Parasite (which seems pretty much like a knock-off of the Parasite, a Superman villain of a year or so earlier). He's a former king of an alien world who subjected himself to an experimental treatment in order to defeat an invasion force, but who found himself transformed into a being that needs constant battle in order to stay alive. Needless to say, the Hulk provides plenty of that; indeed, the Space Parasite is defeated.

In #104, some crooks bring back the Rhino, an old Spiderman villain. Like all super-criminals, he is new and improved:

His assignment is to kidnap Bruce Banner, who is currently being held by the authorities and subdued by drugs to prevent him transforming into the Hulk. But of course the process of kidnapping him elevates his blood pressure and he battles the Rhino, apparently killing the villain (hah!).

In #105 and #106, the Hulk fights the Missing Link, a caveman who had come to light in Red China following a nuclear explosion. At the end of #105, Rick Jones, using a ray gun constructed by Reed Richards from plans created by Bruce Banner, turns the Hulk back into BB, just as the Missing Link is getting free of a bunch of debris that the Hulkster had dumped on him. Is this the end?

Well, no, it's just a cliffhanger, for when the Missing Link attacks Banner in the next issue, he turns back into the Green Giant. Meanwhile, a Russian counterpart to Nick Fury named Alexi Brevlov kidnaps the two behemoths onto his flying ship (which looks very much like SHIELD's helicarrier). But as he tries to transport them back to the USSR, they break free. The Missing Link dies and Brevlov is ordered to kill the Hulk (although he does not want to do so, as the Hulk had saved him in the crash of the flying ship).

In the final issue of this run, the Hulk finds himself transported to a remote section of Communist China. The Mandarin wants to control him; you can imagine how that works out.

The series sees several changes in the creative team during this run. The first few issues are scripted by Gary Friedrich, then Bill Everett and Roy Thomas for one issue, then Archie Goodwin and Roy, then back to Gary Friedrich. Initially it's Marie Severin on the pencils with Tuska inks. Then in #106, Herb Trimpe's long association with the Hulk begins. He's inked in that first issue by Tuska, but that pairing didn't seem to be working well:

A little too cartoon-like for Marvel, I'd say. The following issue featured Syd Shores on inks, a much better combination, although that didn't last either, as Johnny Severin took over with #108.

Friedrich's scripts emphasized that the Hulk was a man of peace, hounded by society until he lashed out:

It seems a bit of a stretch but then peace was a big part of the zeitgeist of 1968, when these issues appeared.

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Fantastic Four Fridays: Crossover Central

One of the keys to Marvel's success in the Silver Age was the relentless use of crossover stories to introduce the readers of one Marvel mag to characters in other titles. This story marks the very beginning of that trend.

Ben and Alicia are leaving a performance at the symphony, when Ben's appearance attracts the attention of some soldiers, who suspect he's the Hulk:

After the confusion is resolved, Ben learns that Thunderbolt Ross (the Hulk's nemesis) is requesting the aid of the FF to capture old Greenskin. There's a cute little sight gag:

After the boys brag about how they'd defeat the Hulk, we get another taste of Sue's inferiority complex:

The Hulk is suspected of destroying a secret project in the Southwest. But Bruce Banner believes that the actual culprit is the Wrecker. It turns out that the secret project was an early version of "Star Wars"; a plan to safeguard cities from nuclear attack:

Banner's assistant, Karl Kort, drops his wallet, which conveniently contains a membership card in a "subversive communist front organization". Thus the Wrecker's identity is revealed to Rick Jones. Before he can tell the others, Kort kidnaps him. He leaves a note for Banner telling him to get rid of the FF or he'll never see Rick alive again. So Bruce decides to turn himself into the Hulk again. Remember, this is during the era where Stan and Jack were still experimenting with the Hulk's transformations; at one point it was voluntary, at another it was brought on by nightfall. It was only later that they hit on the idea that stress caused Banner to change.

A little later all three groups are in an underground cave. The first meeting of the FF and the Hulk:

Note as well that the Hulk's vocabulary is a little more extensive than the "Hulk smash!" character of the later 1960s.

There are several pages of the FF mixing it up with the Hulk, when suddenly a beam weapon incapacitates the behemoth. The Thing, angry that his battle was cut short, discovers the culprit: a giant robot controlled by the Wrecker. He makes short work of the robot and the team confronts Karl Kort, who has one last card to play:

But as you can probably guess from that panel, Sue proves useful for more than just morale-boosting. The Hulk gets away.

Comments: Obviously a hugely significant issue in terms of a preview of things to come in the Marvel line. One oddity; the crossover came too late to save the Hulk's own magazine, which saw its final issue come out that same month (March 1963). Incidentally, there was another FF crossover in Amazing Spiderman #1, which also had a 3/63 cover date.

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The Non-Gay Way of Artificial Resuscitation

As demonstrated by the Hulk on Rick Jones:



Not the recommended technique.

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Nobody Loves The Hulk

I wrote about a year ago about rock songs from the 1960s and earlier featuring superheroes; here's a new one on me:



This is not the first effort at rock marketing through comics; as I noted awhile ago, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention advertised their album We're Only In It For The Money with brilliantly weird ads in Marvel Comics in 1967.

Back in the day, you'd see an ad for something like that and you'd wonder whether it was any good. Maybe you came across it three years later and didn't know if the PO Box remained valid. So you were hosed if you wanted to hear this song.

Unless, of course, you came across this 40 years later, Googled it and found a working MP3 download.

"Bruce Banner was working in his laboratory,
When he saw Rick Jones about to go up in a blaze of glory,
Well he saved the boy but what a change,
Explosion made him feel so strange,
For his molecules had been rearranged,
Into the Hulk!"

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Single Issue Review: Incredible Hulk #124

Everybody raise your hands! Although I'm generally a big fan of Herb Trimpe, this is a pretty mediocre cover. Shouldn't Betty have some sort of look of dismay and concern, rather than a happy, almost adoring gaze at something off-camera? The cover is at best an homage to (at worst a swipe from) Fantastic Four #33, complete down to the guy at the bottom right with two horns.

And the story itself is a swipe from virtually every wedding in the DC and Marvel Silver Ages. It opens with the Leader reading a newspaper about Bruce Banner and Betty Ross' impending nuptials.



FF Annual #3 opened with Dr Doom reading a newspaper about Reed and Sue's impending nuptials.



The Leader decides to disrupt the wedding; Dr Doom disrupted the FF's wedding, the Reverse-Flash disrupted the Flash's wedding, and the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime disrupted the wedding of Hank Pym and Jan. The Leader observes Bruce and Betty as they share a romantic rowboat on a lake. He is all set to kill them with one push of a button, when he has an evil genius moment:



What these evil genius moments amount to is a "get out of a plot point free card" for writers of comics stories. It allows the writer to put the hero in a much more difficult situation, because he knows that the villain will not do the obvious thing and immediately put a couple of bullets into the hero's skull. These moments are amusing because even back as teenagers we could see that this was the moment the villain could have succeeded, if only he hadn't insisted that it was too easy, too painless.

At any rate, nobody can accuse the Leader of lacking imagination. He decides that the best revenge would be to have the Hulk return (apparently Banner had found a way to prevent his bestial side from emerging at this point) and kill his bride on their wedding day. But he needs an ally from among the Hulk's enemies, so we get a brief rundown of the Sandman, Namor, the Mandarin, Maximus of the Inhumans, the Space Parasite, and the Rhino, whom he selects.

The Rhino had previously fought the Hulk in IH #104, and nearly died in a fire. In fact, the Hulk thought he had died, but villains seldom died for good in the Marvel Silver Age. He's still in a coma, so the Leader kidnaps him with a giant android, and then revives him with mental blasts. He augments the Rhino's powers and returns his horned suit.

They travel surreptitiously to the house of General Ross, where the wedding is to take place. A gamma-ray beam weapon transforms Banner:



We get another "this is where the plan went off the rails" moment here:



If you think about it, the idea of bringing the Rhino along never made any sense in the first place. If the goal was to use the beam to make the Hulk savage enough to kill Betty, the Rhino is useless. At any rate, you can probably guess the ending of the story from here. The Rhino gets in the way of the ray himself, and in anger turns on the Leader. The Leader tries to escape, but his craft is unstable with the Rhino hanging on and it crashes, apparently killing them both. (Hah!)

But the battle was not without its casualties on the good side:



Now a reasonable person might ask why you're saying this to the fiancee of the man you're talking about killing, especially since it seems clear that Banner himself was completely blameless for what happened. We know Talbot's trying to get Betty for himself, but it hardly seems likely to soften her heart towards him.

This story is unique in the Silver Age in that it is the only one I can find where a superhero (Hulk is arguably a hero) and his girlfriend were prevented from marrying by the villains. Betty and Bruce did marry eventually, but it was about 16 years later.

Trimpe's artwork is terrific aside from that rather dull cover, embellished marvelously (as the Groovy Agent notes in the comments) by Sal Buscema's inks. The story is just okay; although I am a big fan of Roy Thomas, this is not one of his better efforts.

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Single Issue Review: Tales to Astonish #80

Tales to Astonish was one of Marvel's anthology magazines, with two features, much like Tales of Suspense. Initially, of course, it had been a (tame) "horror" magazine, but in issue #27 it carried a story called The Man in the Ant-Hill, featuring Dr. Hank Pym. Dr Pym would go on to become Ant-Man, and later Giant Man (later called Goliath and Yellowjacket, although that was in the Avengers). Effective with TTA #60, the Incredible Hulk was added as the second feature, and with #70 the Sub-Mariner replaced Giant-Man.

Because of the short (10-12 pages) amount of space given to each character, the stories tend to go on for even more issues than even the regular Marvel mags. The Subby story picks up from the prior issue, with old wingfoot facing a creature from out of the Schiff-era Batman:



The creature is being controlled by Warlord Krang (with an assist from the Puppet Master), Namor's rival for the throne and Lady Dorma. The electric eels do not succeed in destroying the behemoth, but they do shock Krang into losing control of the beast, so that the Sub-Mariner is able to defeat it. But before Dorma can learn this, Krang insists that she agree to marry him if she wants to save Namor. So the story ends with Krang departing with Dorma.

Comments: Mediocre monster, but excellent art by Colan. Pretty standard Marvel plot by Stan.

The Hulk story follows, oddly enough drawn by Bill Everett (the creator of Namor back in the Golden Age). Tyrannus (who last appeared in the Hulk #5) transports ol' Greenskin to his underground lair. Since we last saw Tyrannus, he's aged quite a bit, but there's a fountain of youth that he can gain control of if he can wrest it from the Mole Man.

Tyrannus convinces the Hulk to help him in his battle. But the Hulk is tired and wants to rest a bit before fighting (huh?). So Tyrannus uses a threat:



But the Mole Man attacks first, and although the Hulk defeats easily his army, old Moley has a surprise weapon:



But the Hulk defeats the robot by crashing it into the Fountain of Youth, short-circuiting its delicate circuits. As the issue ends, Bruce Banner emerges from the water (complete with his glasses).

Comments: Excellent story, featuring the return of one of the Hulk's earliest villains and the very first Marvel villain of all. Add in the gorgeous artwork by Everett (from layouts by Kirby), and you have a terrific 10 pages.

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Slightly Off Topic, But

I had to comment on this comic:



The Incredible Hulk #141 is dated August 1971, so it's just outside my normal focus, but it's such a gas that I couldn't resist talking about it anyway. Done as an homage to Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic, it's a superb collaboration between Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe and Johnny Severin.

In the story, we meet Malicia and Reggie, a wealthy liberal couple who are looking for a socially responsible cause that they can support. Their daughter has the obviously trendy one featured on the cover, but:



So they decide to take up the cause of the poor, misunderstood Hulk. Now that is a positively brilliant premise for a story, and the execution is near perfect. Severin's inks help set the lighthearted tone, and before you know it, the charity fundraiser for old Greenskin is under way:



I get the feeling the gal in the blue dress is supposed to be Barbra Streisand. The blond-haired fella in the background is Tom Wolfe himself, making his second guest appearance in a Marvel comic.

But you can tell that the bull is about to start knocking over the china. Sure enough, the daughter, who turns out to be pretty good at fighting, leads a protest.



The Enchantress has been watching all this and decides to lend a hand, turning Samantha into the Valkyrie:



Val became a regular in the Defenders series as well, although this issue ends with both her and the Hulk transformed back into their normal, socially-oppressed selves.

Highly recommended!

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Incredible Hulk 4-6; Marvel Stumbles

Although most of what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby touched turned to gold in the 1960s, as pointed out by commenter Thelonius Nick, in mid-1963 they did not yet look like a guaranteed winner. Their second book, The Incredible Hulk, failed to generate sufficient sales to justify continuation after the sixth issue.

Why did the Hulk fail? Looking at the first six issues as whole I would point to several things:

1. Poor development of the supporting cast. The three backup characters are Rick Jones, Thunderbolt Ross, and Betty Ross. Yet after six issues we know nothing more about them than we had in the first issue. Rick's a teenager with a jalopy; how many of those have we seen in the comics? Thunderbolt had some potential as the first JJJ, but his daughter Betty was a typical Marvel love interest of the 1960s; only useful as a hostage.

2. No real sense that the Hulk/Banner relationship has been well-thought out. In the first couple issues the transformation takes place at night a la Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. That seems to have cramped the storylines, so they went to it becoming voluntary for Banner by stepping in front of the gamma ray machine. In the final issue it was changed so that emotions triggered the switch. In fairness, the Hulk was a new type of character among superheroes in that he was not voluntarily "super", so they may have been feeling their way.

3. Few worthy villains. The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime had several more appearances, but Tyrranus (who appeared in #5) and the Metal Master (#6) were characters of limited interest.

4. In an obvious attempt to prop up the sales, there was a crossover into Fantastic Four #12. But that was the same month that Incredible Hulk #6 was published, so it was a little late to save the title. In addition, Steve Ditko took over the artwork with that issue; changing artists is another symptom of a flagging title.

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