Incredible Hulk Marvel Masterworks volume 6


By Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5042-8 (HB)

As the 1970s opened the Incredible Hulk had settled into a comfortable – if always spectacularly destructive – niche. The globe-trotting formula saw tragic Bruce Banner hiding and seeking cures for his gamma-transformative curse, alternately aided or hunted by prospective father-in-law US General “Thunderbolt” Ross and a variety of guest-star heroes and villains.

Herb Trimpe had made the character his own, displaying a penchant for explosive action and an unparalleled facility for drawing technology – especially honking great ordnance and vehicles. Scripter Roy Thomas – unofficial custodian of Marvel’s burgeoning shared-universe continuity – played the afflicted Jekyll/Hyde card for maximum angst and ironic heartbreak even as he continually injected the Jade Juggernaut into the lives of other stalwarts of Marvel’s growing pantheon…

This chronologically-curated hardback and eBook compendium treat re-presents issues #121-134 corresponding to cover-dates December 1969 through December 1970 and opens – after Thomas’ Introduction shares a few intimate behind-the-scenes secrets – with Incredible Hulk #122, hotly touting ‘The Hulk’s Last Fight!’ (Thomas & Trimpe).

When the Fantastic Four advertise a cure for Banner’s condition, the fraught physicist makes his way North from Florida, with the police and army hunting him every step of the way. His quest only falters at the very last moment thanks to a clerical error…

What should have been a quiet transition and resolution instead results in a shattering clash between the Hulk and FF, but eventually the beast is subdued and the cure attempted in concluding episode ‘No More the Monster!’

Sadly, even now that Banner has complete control of his inner demon, he learns that you don’t always get what you want – especially when gamma-super-genius the Leader involves himself in the plan.

Seemingly cured of the curse of the Hulk, Bruce Banner finally marries his troubled sweetheart Betty Ross, but ‘The Rhino Says No!’ and the subsequent set-to (rather heavily finished and inked by Sal Buscema) returns him to the tragic status quo of hunted, haunted antihero perpetually on the run…

Trimpe again took up the inker’s brush for the bludgeoning battle in #125 ‘And Now, the Absorbing Man!’ after which Doctor Stephen Strange guest-stars in trans-dimensional duel with the malign Undying Ones.

‘…Where Stalks the Night-Crawler!’ is a spooky, all-action tidying-up exercise closing a saga from the good Doctor’s own cancelled title – and one which ultimately led to the formation of the outsider super-team The Defenders.

In ‘Mogol!’ (#127) the child-like, eternally-lonely Hulk is transported to the Mole Man‘s subterranean realm where he thinks he’s finally found a friend, only to endure bitter disappointment once more. His subsequent subterranean pain-filled rampage threatens to destroy California (#128) when he starts ripping his way surface-ward via the San Andreas Fault. And the American authorities are compelled to call in the Big Guns.

‘And in this Corner… The Avengers!’ sees the assembled heroes seeking a solution to the problem, but they can’t hold the Green Goliath long, leading him to more trouble when ‘Again, The Glob!’ attacks. The embattled Hulk has no idea old enemy The Leader is behind the swampy assault…

Incredible Hulk #130 then sees Banner totally divorce and separate himself from the Hulk in ‘If I Kill You… I Die’, but the scientifically-implausible separation has potentially disastrous consequences for Los Angeles, if not the world, and only Iron Man can help when ‘A Titan Stalks the Tenements!’

This powerful tale introduced black ghetto kid Jim Wilson and is made doubly enjoyable by the inking wizardry of the legendary John Severin who signed on for a 3-issue stint that would eventually turn into a long-term commitment.

In #132, the Hulk is ‘In the Hands of Hydra!’ – although not for long and to their eternal regret. His casually explosive escape leaves him stranded in Mediterranean totalitarian state Morvania, an unwilling freedom fighter against the despicable dictators Draxon on the ‘Day of Thunder… Night of Death!’

Sal Buscema returned as inker for the conclusion of the tale and end of this volume as ‘Among us Walks… the Golem!’ from Incredible Hulk #134 sees revolution free Morvania with the Jade Juggernaut as the most unlikely symbol of freedom ever…

The Hulk is one of the most well-known comic characters on Earth, and these stories, as much as the movies, TV shows and action figures, are the reason why. For an uncomplicated, honestly vicarious experience of Might actually being Right, you can’t do better than these yarns, so why not Go Green?
© 1969, 1970, 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.