By Roger Stern, John Byrne, Peter B. Gillis, Elliot S! Maggin, Roger McKenzie, Steven Grant, David Michelinie, Doug Moench, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Jim Mooney, Josef Rubinstein, Joe Sinnott, Klaus Janson, Bob McLeod, Mike Esposito, Bob Layton, Bruce Patterson, Chic Stone, Don Perlin, Jack Abel, Alfredo Alcala, Al Milgrom, Jack Kirby & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5536-6 (TPB), 978-1-3025-2915-4 (Digital edition)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Thumping Good Read… 8/10
Halloween’s a-comin’ and it wouldn’t be the same without the actual king of comic book monsters…
Bruce Banner was a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, stress and other factors caused him to transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. He was one of Marvel’s earliest innovations and first epic fail, but after an initially troubled few years finally found his size-700 feet and a format that worked, to become one of the company’s premiere antiheroes and most popular features.
The Gamma Goliath was always graced with artists who understood the allure of shattering action, the sheer cathartic reader-release rush of mighty “Hulk Smash!” moments, and here, in the debris-strewn wake of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema (plus friends and a few returnees) was showing the world what he could do when inspired and unleashed…
Spanning cover-dates September 1978 -February 1980, this chronologically complete monster monolith re-presents Incredible Hulk #227-244 and Hulk Annuals #7-9, plus a key crossover from Captain America #230. Previously, new writer Roger Stern had begun an ambitious storyline to solve the Hulk’s problems through psychoanalysis, and the dream initially worked! Sadly, when archfoe The Leader took over anti-Hulk citadel Gamma Base, and defeated and enslaved S.H.I.E.L.D., superhero psychologist Leonard “Doc” Samson and elderly career soldier General Thaddeus Ross through mind control, Banner had to again sacrifice his humanity for the sake of mankind.
With both the Leader gone and Banner apparently dead, his compatriots jumpstarted his ravaged system with another overwhelming dose of gamma rays which brought the beast back from the brink, only to trigger another ordnance-obliterating clash with the military after the man-monster invades his old college and suffers a psychological trauma that might end his rampages forever…
We begin here with IH #227 in the throes of an emotional breakthrough that renders the Jade Juggernaut pliable and reasonable. Thus, under extraordinary conditions, Samson becomes ‘The Monster’s Analyst’ (#227, by Roger Stern, Peter B. Gillis, Sal B & Klaus Janson). Aided by Hulk’s recently arrived former sidekick Jim Wilson, Samson probes the psyche of Banner and the beast within, gaining insight into the troubled physicist’s childhood, college days, nuclear accident and turbulent time with the original Avengers. He also inadvertently sparks a clash of personalities that seems to eliminate Banner utterly…
On that cliffhanger note we switch attention to Incredible Hulk Annual #7 wherein Stern, John Byrne & Bob Layton revisit two semi-retired X-Men as they are targeted by the madly-mutated, mutant-hunting Sentinel Master Mold. The resurrected horror then merges with another manic former X-foe in ‘The Evil That is Cast…’ which happily finds our peripatetic pistachio powerhouse on hand to balance the odds after the amalgamated monster attacks Angel & Iceman, hauling them into space to die…
Returning to Samson at Gamma Base, the Green Goliath is targeted by a new mind menace in Incredible Hulk #228’s ‘Bad Moon on the Rise!’ (Stern, Gillis, Buscema & Bob McLeod) as psychologist Dr. Karla Sofen offers her therapeutic services, planning to subvert the Gamma Goliath to her current employers’ needs. Within hours of her arrival, Sofen (and her evil alter ego Moonstone) have undone weeks of progress and triggered another deadly rampage. She goes further in #229’s ‘The Moonstone is a Harsh Mistress!’ (inked by Mike Esposito) whilst revealing how she gained her first taste of true power after treating an empowered patient. The upshot was to deprive its original inept owner of a power-bestowing lunar rock that made the first Moonstone a match for Captain America. Now she seeks to isolate the Hulk from all human help and contact – and succeeds…
On the run again, Hulk encounters ‘The Harvester From Beyond!’ (#230 by Elliot S! Maggin, Jim Mooney, Layton & Bruce Patterson), unwillingly surrendering biological samples to an extremely determined extraterrestrial before returning to Earth for #231, for Stern, Buscema & Esposito to introduce another human outcast who befriends the monster. Then in ‘Prelude!’ hippie student Fred Sloan escapes a redneck beating thanks to the Hulk’s intervention, even as, at Gamma Base, Sofen makes contact with her employers to find ruthless plutocratic organisation The Corporation counts US Senator Eugene Stivak amongst its ruling elite.
As leaders of a group that has manipulated heroes including Machine Man, Torpedo, The Falcon, Marvel Man/Quasar, Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. for months, they are now actively pursuing an endgame which means capturing Jim Wilson and bending the Hulk to their agenda.
Stivak – AKA “Kligger” – makes his move when the Jade Juggernaut & Fred spark a riot in California, neatly dovetailing into a congruent storyline unfolding in the Sentinel of Liberty’s own title. There, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Super-Agent program was infiltrated, Cap was ambushed by The Constrictor and other Corporation flunkies. When Sam Wilson/The Falcon was abducted by Kligger for reasons unknown, the hunt for him culminated in Cap exposing their rotten apples in Washington and across the USA, leading to an ‘Assault on Alcatraz!’ (Roger McKenzie, Stern, Sal B & Don Perlin). With the Star-Spangled Avenger leading former Super Agents Marvel Man and The Vamp to rescue hostage friends and end the villains’ depredations, their arrival in the abandoned prison coincides with the Hulk & Fred’s capture, exposure of Corporation West Coast CEO Curtiss Jackson and a trans-continental power-grab by Kligger/Stivak and his merciless agent Moonstone in Captain America #230. That’s when a traitor in the group is revealed and the Hulk completely loses his cool…
The clash concludes in IH #232 as ‘The Battle Below’ (Stern, David Michelinie, Buscema & Esposito) finds assorted villains thrashed, and Curtiss making a desperate attempt to flee with an utterly incensed gamma goliath in hot pursuit. The frantic chase leads to another battle ‘At the Bottom of the Bay!’ (Stern, Buscema & Chic Stone) before he calms down enough to flee with Fred Sloan, and leading to a reunion with an old valued friend at a California commune.
As this chronologically complete monster monolithic monster mash-up unfolds the world was going Hulk-wild thanks to an immensely popular TV show. Bombastic fantasy was downplayed in favour of human interactions as our Growling Green Giant utterly dominated global TV screens. Thus, with Jackson in hiding and Kligger dethroned, the aftermath saw the Emerald Titan flee with drop-out Fred an a quixotic road trip that ended on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles where the man-monster was reunited with another old pal…
Trish Starr championed an alternative, magic-adjacent lifestyle when The Defenders fought her mad scientist uncle Egghead and had since moved her peace-&-love message into a student house on campus. Now, laid-back student dudes get a taste of another world when the Hulk moves in with them. Fear and suspicion are impossible to suppress and when one “drops a dime and calls the fuzz” (or notifies authorities, if you prefer) the result is chaos. Sadly, said authorities informed are not cops but The Corporation, and frantically-rebuilding Jackson sees opportunity to re-ingratiate himself with his fearsome Board of Directors and remove two thorns in his side at the same time. By Stern, Sal Buscema & Jack Abel, IH #234 finds the Gamma Goliath angry and unleashed in ‘Battleground: Berkeley!’ after Jackson frames misunderstood and needy robotic AI Machine Man for kidnapping Trish, luring the Jade Juggernaut & Fred to Jackson’s Central City base – The Mid-State Tower – where his forces are ready to end the blockbusting brute…
Meanwhile, the real robot hero has been cleared of crimes covertly orchestrated by Kligger and is a free “man” when #235’s ‘The Monster and the Machine’ (inked by Mike Esposito) finds the incensed Hulk attacking Machine Man’s human friend/advisor Dr Peter Spaulding. The clash rapidly escalates in ‘Kill or Be Killed!’ with Hulk now nigh-mindless with rage. His mechanical foe is far more controlled and detects the villain’s radio communications. Sadly, so does the viridian berserker who heads for the Corporation’s secret skyscraper HQ to save Trish and punish Jackson…
Beyond all reason The Hulk turns his wrath on Jackson with everyone else in sight caught in the carnage. As Machine Man (who went on from this clash into his own revived solo title) valiantly strives-but-fails to stop the devastation, the earthshaking battle culminates in the fall of the tower in #237’s ‘When a City Dies!’ (Jack Abel inks). With Jackson done & dusted, Hulk emerges from the rubble of the 80-storey shambles but his appetite for destruction is not sated. Thankfully, before collapsing in the robot version of utter exhaustion, Machine Man mesmerises the monster into a coma and uses an anti-gravity push to send the sleeping beast, far, far away…
Written by Stern & Byrne, with art from Sal B & Alfredo Alcala Incredible Hulk Annual #8 follows with ‘Sasquatch!’ seeing still-surly Hulk waking up in a mostly unoccupied region of British Columbia. Befriended by understandably nervous, self-imposed hermit Maureen Mores Friesen, he gradually calms enough to revert to Banner, but only until the Canadians deploy their own gamma monster. Dr Walter Langowski of government super-squad Alpha Flight soon arrives to end the incursion at any cost…
The catastrophe that results sees Hulk still at large as US President Jimmy Carter, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clay Quartermain and assorted researchers survey what remains of Central City in IH #238’s ‘Post Hulk …Post Holocaust!’ (Stern, Buscema & Abel). The monster’s peregrinations then bring him to the attention of a clandestine cabal who bedevilled heroes for years. Cautiously, “They-Who-Wield-Power” plan their next atrocity…
As seen primarily in Marvel Team-Up, a shadowy trio of observers with an undisclosed agenda monitored superbeing episodes and provided advanced technologies for monsters and villains like Lava Men, Stegron & The Orb to battle Spider-Man, Hercules, Nova, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Thor and others. Now they subtly pull strings drawing Hulk ever southwards, using bullion bandit Goldbug as their latest instrument and go-between. It comes together in #239’s Esposito-inked ‘All That Glitters…’ as a brief pause in the brute’s travels sparks a military incident.
Taking a nap atop national monument Mount Rushmore, the monster is confronted by a joint military and S.H.I.E.L.D. response. However, instead of more shattering violence, the stand-off ends peacefully when Goldbug slips in, offering escape in his shiny new ship. Sadly, it’s built to siphon Hulk’s energies to fuel the vessel all the way to South America where the thief can plunder a literal city of gold in the Andes. Hulk is not happy and escapes, but not before they reach their destination where The Brotherhood of They are waiting…
Despite the Monster constantly being reintroduced and kept in touch with overarching Marvel continuity by guest shots from visiting heroes & villain, he generally carved his own path at this juncture. In #240’s‘…And Now El Dorado’ (inked by Joe Sinnott) years of scheming come to fruition as a hidden civilisation (last seen as the Forbidden Land in Avengers #31, August 1966) welcomes the awesome outcast and the cunning criminal mastermind to an idyllic paradise covertly controlled by a back-stabbing triumvirate seeking dominion of Earth. Autocrat Prince Rey and cleric Lann, Keeper of the Sacred Flame have warred with each other for decades, but the balance of power is maintained by aged enigmatic Des, who perpetrated They’s campaign to create global tectonic anomalies that fed the Flame. Des also exerts a shocking hold on the Hulk, dangling the prospect of resurrecting his lost love Jarella if the monster behaves and follows orders…
A bitter truth is revealed in Buscema-inked ‘Partners in Deception!’ when Banner becomes fuel for the Sacred Flame, with Des stealing his power to eradicate his allies and regenerate himself. Revealed as one of the Hulk’s earliest enemies and with Goldbug forced into playing hero to save his own skin, ‘Sic Temper Tyrannus!’ sees the unlikely outworlder allies saving Earth as their enemy briefly ascends to godhood before inevitably overextending himself and again underestimating the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Jade Juggernaut.
The end comes courtesy of plotter Stern, scripter Steven Grant & Sal B, in #243’s ‘Death… and Destiny!’ With the world restored, the Hulk resuming his wandering and Goldbug getting just what he deserves, in the wings, the mental collapse of General Thaddeus Ross has left a vacuum the US government fills with his protégé Glenn Talbot promoted to lead the US anti-Hulk task force…
Written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Steve Ditko & Al Milgrom, Incredible Hulk Annual #9 delivers a short diversion as the monster is stalked by chess-obsessed millionaire Charles Reigel and fellow members of the Gotham Game Club in a high-tech safari against the epitome of unreasoning brute force. Sadly, ‘A Game of Monsters and Kings’ is not what the Green Goliath wants and the Hulk does not play well with others…
This titanic tome terminates its storytelling component with a concise continuity palate-cleanser as Incredible Hulk #244 reintroduces Hollywood special effects wizard Bob O’Bryan who, thanks to alien invaders, can possess and animate a gigantic stone statue. His efforts to keep the mighty It, the Living Colossus from evil Dr. Vault was once the stuff of LA legend, but means nothing to Bruce Banner on awakening in Tinseltown after another Hulk-out.
In ‘It Lives!’ (Grant, Carmine Infantino & Esposito) sheer coincidence and concatenation conspire to bring all players together for Vault’s last pursuit of the petrified prize, only to learn that gamma beats granite every time…
To Be Hulk-inued…
With covers by Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan, Byrne, Ron Wilson, Josef Rubinstein, Trimpe, McLeod, Dave Cockrum, Layton, Dan Adkins, Milgrom and Ditko, the bonus portion of this blockbusting bonanza includes the covers (front & back) of Hulk-starring reprint tabloids Marvel Treasury Edition #20 & 24 – by Bob Budiansky & Abel and Budiansky & Bob Wiacek respectively, and a gallery of Hulk pinups by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, Dave Hunt & Pablo Marcos created for Marvel UK titles. Also included are house ads and pertinent pics from Marvel Calendar 1975; The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976; Marvel Comics Memory Album Calendar 1977, by Sal B, Trimpe, Ed Hannigan & John Romita.
Inspired by TV stardom and preceded by feature pages on then-upcoming calendar taken from company fan mag F.O.O.M. #22 (Autumn 1978) next comes the all-Hulk Mighty Marvel Comics Calendar 1979, with entries by David Anthony Kraft & Jim Salicrup, and key points in the Monster’s life revisited by Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr, Joe Sinnott, Walt Simonson, Sal B & Adkins, Dave Hunt, Cockrum & Layton, George Pérez, John Buscema & Rubinstein, Wilson & Marcos, Keith Pollard & Tom Palmer, Byrne & Terry Austin, Hannigan & Janson and Trimpe (again), as well as a brief retelling of the origin by Trimpe.
Even more lost treasures include Steve Fastner & Rich Larson’s 4-plate portfolio Marvel Super-Heroes: The Incredible Hulk (1980) before closing with the plot breakdown for Annual 7; a vast selection of original art pages, cover sketches and assorted character designs by Byrne, Cockrum and Mark Gruenwald.
The Incredible Hulk is one of the most well-known comic characters on Earth, and these stories, as much as the cartoons, TV shows, games, toys, action figures and movies are the reason why. For an uncomplicated, earnestly vicarious experience of Might actually being Right, you can’t do better than these exciting episodes, so why not Go Green and embrace your inner not-so-mean?
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