{"id":29684,"date":"2024-04-17T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29684"},"modified":"2024-04-16T09:06:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T09:06:24","slug":"incredible-hulk-epic-edition-volume-8-1976-1978-the-curing-of-dr-banner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/04\/17\/incredible-hulk-epic-edition-volume-8-1976-1978-the-curing-of-dr-banner\/","title":{"rendered":"Incredible Hulk Epic Edition volume 8 (1976-1978): The Curing of Dr. Banner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Len Wein<\/strong>, Roger Stern<\/strong>, Sal Buscema<\/strong>, Herb Trimpe<\/strong>, Jim Starlin<\/strong>, David Anthony Kraft<\/strong>, George Tuska<\/strong>, Keith Pollard<\/strong>, Joe Staton<\/strong>, Ernie Chan<\/strong>, Tom Palmer<\/strong>, Alfredo Alcala<\/strong>, Frank Giacoia<\/strong>, Mike Esposito<\/strong>, Joe Sinnott<\/strong>, Josef Rubinstein<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-4879-5 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Bruce Banner<\/em> was a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, stress and other factors trigger transformations into a big green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. One of Marvel\u2019s earliest innovations and first failure, after initially troubled early years he finally found his size-700 feet and a format that worked, becoming one of the company\u2019s premiere antiheroes and most popular features.<\/p>\n

The Gamma Goliath was always graced with artists who understood the allure of shattering action, the sheer cathartic reader-release rush of spectacular \u201cHulk Smash!\u201d moments, and here – following in the debris-strewn wake of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe – Sal Buscema was showing the world what he could do when unleashed\u2026<\/p>\n

This chronologically complete compendium re-presents Incredible<\/strong> Hulk King Size Annual<\/strong> #6 and issues #201- 226 of his monthly magazine, spanning July 1976 – August 1978.<\/p>\n

Crafted by writer Len Wein and illustrated by Buscema & Joe Staton, Hulk<\/strong> #201 features \u2018The Sword and the Sorcerer!\u2019<\/em> wherein the monster is marooned on a perilously primitive sub-atomic world just long enough to liberate its people from brutal despot (and demon-possessed pawn) Kronak the Barbarian<\/em> before starting to shrink uncontrollably. He soon arrives in the promised land of his beloved long-lost alien love Queen Jarella<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Havoc at the Heart of the Atom\u2019<\/em> reveals how his last visit had rendered the barbarous world tectonically unstable and wrecked the ancient civilisation which once had the power to blend Banner\u2019s mind with the Hulk\u2019s body. Moreover, the once-gentle population then turned on the queen they held responsible\u2026<\/p>\n

Reunited with his beloved, the simplistic brute swears to fix the problem confronting the antediluvian horror who first hijacked him to the Microverse\u2026 and who still craves bloody revenge. Once again evil fails at great personal cost. The \u2018Assault on Psyklop!\u2019<\/em> delivers crushing defeat to the vile insectoid and a guardedly happy ending for the man-brute – until a rescue attempt from Earth brings Hulk home, carrying an astounded Jarella with him\u2026<\/p>\n

Herb Trimpe briefly returned in #204 to plot and pencil a tale of time-bending might-have-beens, as brilliant theoretician Kerwin Kronus<\/em> offers to eradicate Banner\u2019s problems by turning back time and undoing the accident which created the Hulk. Sadly, the experiment succeeds all too well: briefly forming an alternate timeline wherein original sidekick Rick Jones<\/em> died and the time-master became an even greater menace to reality. Banner\/Hulk must make a heartbreaking sacrifice to close that unacceptably \u2018Vicious Circle\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Do Not Forsake Me!\u2019<\/em> in #205 depicts the most tragic moment in the Green Goliath\u2019s tortured life when Jarella sacrifices herself to save a child from rampaging robbery robot Crypto-Man<\/em>, leaving the bereft Hulk \u2018A Man-Brute Berserk!\u2019 <\/em>His trail of destruction leads from Gamma Base, New Mexico all the way to New York City where even his friends and allies cannot calm the grieving green goliath, leading to a brutal battle \u2018Alone Against the Defenders!\u2019<\/em> who finally realise compassion is the only method that will work against their traumatised ally-turned-foe\u2026<\/p>\n

The bereft beast is still beside Defender-in-Chief Doctor Strange<\/strong> for David Anthony Kraft, Trimpe and inkers Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito for Incredible<\/strong> Hulk King Size Annual<\/strong> #6\u2019s \u2018Beware the Beehive!\u2019<\/em> wherein a band of mad scientists attempt to recreate their greatest success and failure. Morlak<\/em>, Hamilton<\/em>, Shinsky<\/em> and Zota<\/em> were a rogue science collective known as The Enclave<\/em>, who – from t<\/em>heir hidden \u201cBeehive\u201d lair – had originally spawned puissant artificial man Him<\/em> (latterly AKA Adam Warlock<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Here, three of them reunite for another go at building a compliant god they can control, but when they abduct Stephen Strange<\/em> to replace their missing fourth, the magician has the Jade Juggernaut save him from the experiment\u2019s inevitable consequences: a compassionless super-slave dubbed Paragon<\/em> whose first task is to eradicate Strange and subdue mankind. Happily, after a border-shattering, army-crunching global rampage, that\u2019s when the Hulk kicks the wall in and goes to work\u2026<\/p>\n

In Incredible Hulk<\/strong> #208 Wein, Buscema & Staton reveal \u2018A Monster in Our Midst!\u2019<\/em> as Bruce Banner finally rejects ending his pain-wracked existence and begins a new and – hopefully – stress-reduced life where his alter ego will never be seen again. That resolve only lasts as long as it takes maniacal Crusher Creel<\/em> – freed as a consequence of the Jade Juggernaut\u2019s most recent rampage – to accept a commission from a triumvirate of hooded schemers who want the Hulk dead. Of course, even though \u2018The Absorbing Man is Out for Blood!\u2019<\/em>, the super-thug proves no match for Hulk\u2019s unfettered fury, but his well-deserved drubbing results in Banner collapsing unconscious in alley where he is eventually found by a mystic do-gooder in search of an ally\u2026<\/p>\n

With #210, Ernie Chan became Buscema\u2019s regular inker as Wein\u2019s \u2018And Call the Doctor\u2026 Druid!\u2019<\/em> finds both Banner and his brutish alter ego crucial to a plan to defeat ancient mutant Maha Yogi<\/em>, his vast mercenary army and alien bodyguard Mongu<\/em> before they complete their preparations for world domination. Although the battles of \u2018The Monster and the Mystic!\u2019<\/em> are a close-run thing, virtue is eventually victorious, but makes little difference to the Hulk\u2019s former teen companion Jim Wilson<\/em> as he hitchhikes across America, utterly unaware he is the target of a vicious criminal conspiracy. The plots hatch once Jim reaches New York City where his hidden tormentors decide that he must be \u2018Crushed by\u2026 the Constrictor!\u2019<\/em> Neither they nor their ruthless high-tech hitman expected the Hulk to intervene\u2026<\/p>\n

With a friend and confidante who shares his secrets, you\u2019d expect Banner\u2019s life to get a little easier, but the authorities never stop hunting the Hulk, who initially realises \u2018You Just Don\u2019t Quarrel with the Quintronic Man!\u2019<\/em> (inked by Tom Palmer) before bouncing back to trash a formidable five-man mecha suit. As Chan returns, this bout leads to a frenzied clash with a new hyper-powered hero resolved to make his name by defeating America\u2019s most terrifying monster in \u2018The Jack of Hearts is Wild!\u2019<\/em> \u2026<\/p>\n

Macabre old enemy Bi-Beast<\/em> is resurrected in #215; still eager to eradicate humanity in \u2018Home is Where the Hurt Is\u2019<\/em> and nearly succeeding after seizing control of SHIELD\u2019s Helicarrier. Only desperate action by General Thaddeus Ross<\/em> saves the day, as the old soldier uses the carrier\u2019s tech to shanghai Banner: letting nature take its savage course and hoping the right monster wins the inevitable blockbuster battle before a \u2018Countdown to Catastrophe!\u2019<\/em> leaves the planet a smoking ruin\u2026<\/p>\n

A moodily poignant change of pace comes in #217 as \u2018The Circus of Lost Souls!\u2019<\/em> sees the shell-shocked Hulk lost somewhere in Europe, defending a band of carnival freaks from the dastardly depredations of The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime<\/em>: a solid demarcation signalling Wein\u2019s move \u00a0away from scripting in favour of co-plotting, allowing Roger Stern to find his own big green feet to guide the Green Goliath\u2019s future\u2026<\/p>\n

That begins with \u2018The Rhino Doesn\u2019t Stop Here Anymore\u2019<\/em> (#218 by Wein & Stern, with George Tuska, Keith Pollard & Chan handling visuals) as super-strong, gamma-tainted psychologist \u201cDoc<\/em>\u201d Leonard Samson<\/em> takes centre stage battling the ruthless Rhino,<\/em> whilst in #219 Banner learns \u2018No Man is an Island!\u2019<\/em> (Wein, Stern, Sal Buscema & Chan) after hiring on as a freighter deckhand, only to have it sunk from under him by submarine-based pirate Cap\u2019n Barracuda<\/em>. Washed ashore on a desert atoll, Hulk is befriended by a deluded soul who believes himself to be Robinson Crusoe<\/em>. As events unfold an even stranger truth is revealed when Barracuda captures the madman to pluck the secret of making monsters from his broken mind. The cruel corsair has utterly underestimated the ferocious loyalty and compassion of the Hulk, who unleashes devastating destructive \u2018Fury at 5000 Fathoms!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

With Stern in authorial control, Sal Buscema is joined by Alfredo Alcala for #221\u2019s \u2018Show Me the Way to Go Home\u2019<\/em>, with still all-at-sea Banner rescued from drowning by marine explorer Walt Newell<\/em>. He ferries his exhausted passenger back to Manhattan where he is recognised as Banner. Realising he has unwittingly unleashed The Hulk on a major population centre, Newell exposes his own secret identity as subsea superhero Stingray<\/em> and pursues his former guest. The battle is painfully one-sided and Stingray near death when Jim Wilson intervenes, saving the marine crusader\u2019s life, but only at the cost of Hulk\u2019s trust\u2026<\/p>\n

Wein returned for one last hurrah in #222, scripting a plot by artist Jim Starlin (abetted by Alcala). A potently creepy horror yarn begins as the Jade Juggernaut tears through another unfortunate army unit before being gassed into unconsciousness. Banner awakens in the care of two children living in a cave, but they\u2019re not surprised by the fugitive\u2019s transformations: not since the radioactive stuff changed their little brother\u2026<\/p>\n

Now people have been disappearing and although they haven\u2019t grasped the truth of it yet, Bruce instantly grasps what is involved in \u2018Feeding Billy\u2019<\/em>\u2026 and what his intended role is\u2026<\/p>\n

Now firmly established, Stern began an ambitious storyline in #223 (illustrated by Sal & Josef Rubinstein) as \u2018The Curing of Dr. Banner!\u2019 <\/em>sees the monster\u2019s human half spontaneously purged of the gamma radiation that triggers his changes. Heading for Gamma Base to verify his findings, Bruce discovers the entire facility has been taken over: mind-controlled by his ultimate archenemy\u2026<\/p>\n

As the villain makes everyone \u2018Follow the Leader!\u2019<\/em>, Doc Samson and General Ross escape and beg Banner to again sacrifice his humanity for the sake of mankind. Only the Hulk has ever defeated The Leader and their only hope is to recall and harness his unstoppable fury. Tragically, the halfway measures fail at the final moment and the villain has cause to ask \u2018Is There Hulk After Death?\u2019 <\/em>With Bruce seemingly deceased, his compatriots jumpstart his system with another overwhelming dose of gamma rays and soon everybody involved has cause to regret the resurrection of the original Gamma Goliath as another ordnance-obliterating clash with the military in #226\u2019s \u2018Big Monster on Campus!\u2019 <\/em>(Stern, Buscema & Joe Sinnott) leads to the man-monster invading his old college and suffering a psychological trauma that could end his rampages forever\u2026<\/p>\n

To Be Hulk-inued\u2026<\/p>\n

Graced throughout with covers by Rich Buckler, John Romita, Trimpe, Dan Adkins, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Giacoia, Ed Hannigan, Chan, Starlin, Rubinstein and Ron Wilson, this cataclysmically cathartic tome is rounded out with a blitz of bonus features. Front & back covers for The Incredible Hulk Marvel Treasury Edition <\/strong>#17 (1978) by Jeff Aclin & Tony DeZu\u00f1iga precede a panoramic landscape pin-up poster by Trimpe of Hulk smashing the Hulkbusters from a UK Marvel mag (by way of F.O.O.M. <\/strong>#19). These are followed by an airbrush treat by Ken Steacy, starring old Jade Jaws, Ant-Man & The Wasp<\/strong> as first seen on Marvel Comics Index<\/strong> #7A (1978) plus its star-studded frontispiece by Franc Reyes. Contemporary house ads lead into an unused Cockrum cover and a selection of original art by Buckler, Chan, Starlin, Alcala, Buscema & Rubinstein, said pictorial treasure treats climaxing with 5 stunningly beautiful pencilled pages of a never-completed story by Wein and Swamp Thing<\/strong> co-creator Bernie Wrightson.<\/p>\n

The Incredible Hulk<\/strong> 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\u2019t do better than these exciting episodes, so why not Go Green now?
\n\u00a9 MARVEL 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Len Wein, Roger Stern, Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Jim Starlin, David Anthony Kraft, George Tuska, Keith Pollard, Joe Staton, Ernie Chan, Tom Palmer, Alfredo Alcala, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Joe Sinnott, Josef Rubinstein & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-1-3029-4879-5 (TPB\/Digital edition) Bruce Banner was a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Incredible Hulk Epic Edition volume 8 (1976-1978): The Curing of Dr. Banner”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,94,175,158,66,98,79,174,219,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-avengers","category-defenders","category-dr-strange","category-horror-stories","category-hulk","category-marvel-superheroes","category-nick-fury","category-s-h-i-e-l-d","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7IM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29687,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29684\/revisions\/29687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}