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Post by Hoosier X on May 27, 2014 0:48:18 GMT -5
I've read a few more issues in The Essential Hulk, Volume 3, and I think I'm in the middle of one of the best runs the Hulk ever had. I already mentioned how I think the Herb Trimpe era of the Hulk is one of the best long runs in super-hero comics, but though I've read about two-thirds of issues of Hulk between #102 and #200, there's still stretches of the run where I haven't read that many. Before I started on this volume, I had read all of the Hulk series from Tales to Astonish #60 to Hulk #124 except for six issues, but I had only read two of the issues from Hulk #125 to #135. I'm now up to Hulk #131 and I'm reading one INCREDIBLE issue after another. (I would say this creative spurt starts with #121.)
(With Hulk #131, the John Severin inking returns for a few issues. A different kind of awesome.)
I already said a few words about #128, the issue with The Avengers, but let me repeat that it is pretty cool to see Trimpe illustrating this particular bunch of Avengers - The Vision, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Clint Barton version of Goliath. Thinking about it a few days later, the story is a little weak. I don't think the Vision is used as well as he could be. (I'm thinking Vision vs. the Hulk should be a thing the way The Thing vs. the Hulk is.) I also don't like Wanda's powers pooping out on her. I'd really like to see Wanda vs. the Hulk! But the other Avengers are characterized very nicely, especially Goliath. He's brave, yes, but also a bit of a butthead.
The next issue is #129, and I used to have a copy of this. Banner makes friends with an amnesiac truck driver. They talk about their problems, and then the truck driver, Sam, runs off and turns into ... The Leader! Ol' Big Brain had turned human and given himself a subconscious command to turn into the Leader again after learning something that can be used against his hated enemy the Hulk! And so, while Banner hides in the sewers in Los Angeles for several weeks, The Leader revives the Glob (from Hulk #121) and sends him to L.A. (they don't explain how the Leader or the glob knows where Banner is) to fight the Hulk.
I love the way the Leader keeps popping up during this part of the run. And writer Roy Thomas varies each appearance enough so that it doesn't get stale. (And when it does start to get a little stale, a different villain keeps popping up, shifting from the Rhino to the Abomination.) And the whole "Leader turns amnesiac human to become his own pawn in revenge plan against the Hulk" is just another reason the Leader is so creepy!
The next two stories in The Essential Hulk, Volume 3, are from Captain Marvel #20 and #21, guest-starring the Hulk! Roy Thomas is the writer and the art is some beautiful work by Gil Kane, inked by Dan Adkins (who inked a few of my favorite issues of The Hulk a little over a year earlier). Rick Jones searches out Bruce Banner at one of his secret labs in the desert. Then the Hulk terrorizes the campus at Desert University and Captain Marvel must stop him!
The Captain Marvel issues are, like the Hulk issues of this period, a lot of fun.
The next two issues, Hulk #130 and #131, are a single story where Banner seeks out an old colleague from his college days and they work on a cure for Banner's condition. It almost works - Banner and the Hulk are separated! And the Hulk wants to kill Banner! And the military, led by General Ross, show at just this moment because they've been tracking Banner! And it turns out the colleague was secretly jealous of Banner and has been plotting against him!
It's really very exciting!
Somehow, they all get separated in the ensuing confusion and the Hulk sort of wanders into Los Angeles where he gest inked by John Severin and he meets Jim Wilson. Yay! Jim Wilson! This is his first appearance. He lives in a large ghetto that seems to composed exclusively of fire-gutted tenements. Jim gives Hulk his last candy bar and that's how Hulk knows that they are friends. (The Hulk is too polite to note that he prefers Hostess Fruit Pies.) Then the Hulk threatens Jim and tells him to go get Banner and bring him to the ghetto so that Hulk can smash him.
It doesn't quite go as planned. Jim had no problem sneaking onto the base and finding a cozy perch where he can spy on General Ross, Banner and Betty as they discuss top-level strategy. (I wonder what Betty Ross's security clearance is.) Anyway, they all become friends and Iron Man is called in. He sort of apologizes that they didn't get the "real" Avengers the last time they asked for help. He says:
You seemed less than pleased with the contingent of Avengers who answered your last request for aid! So this time, when I heard what was afoot, I came on my own!
And so they all go to Los Angeles and Iron Man and the Hulk and the military mix it up for a few pages and then Banner intervenes and the two entities are united again and the Hulk is knocked unconscious and captured by the military and Jim feels bad for his role in getting the Hulk.
TO BE HULKINUED! ...
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Post by Hoosier X on May 30, 2014 0:11:47 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #132 - October 1970
Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, John Severin
The hits just keep on coming! Jim Wilson feels bad about helping the military capture the Hulk, so he mopes around the ghetto and evades Major Talbot, who has been sent to spy on Jim, and doesn't Talbot look silly trying to look inconspicuous in full military regalia as he peeps out from alleys and hides in doorways and climbs fences.
Jim is recruited by Hydra and helps them abduct the Hulk. (You see, Jim, being a very poor teenager, lives in a burned-out ghetto and has never seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier, so he doesn't know that Hydra is evil.) Hydra's plan doesn't work out quite as intended and the not-so-jolly green giant wrecks their airship headquarters and barely extricates Jim alive.
The Incredible Hulk #133 and #134 - November 1970, December 1970
Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, John Severin, Sal Buscema
After handing off Jim to General Ross in a clearing, Hulk hides in a crate for weeks and ends up in the tiny Mediterranean nation of Morvania, where he fights the dictator Draxon for two issues. Hulk doesn't want to fight, but a little blonde girl whose father is the leader of the rebels makes a sad face and asks Hulk nicely to be like the golem of the legends and help free the nation from the bad people.
You would think extending this story to two full issues would be padding it out, but there is a lot going on here - the Hulk hiding out in a ruined village, the rebel leader's family, the tale of the golem, Draxon's ranting about how he's the new Napoleon or Hitler - and it's just another good story in this excellent run.
The first chapter is inked by John Severin and the second is inked by Sal Buscema. It's fun to compare these two different styles on the same story, and I know I couldn't say which one I think is better.
The Incredible Hulk #135 - January 1971
Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema
Kang sends the Hulk back in time to World War I to prevent the Phantom Eagle - the character find of 1968! - from destroying a gigantic cannon that the Germans will soon use on the Allied troops in France. If the Phantom Eagle is stopped, then the gigantic cannon will kill a buttload of people, and Bruce Banner's grandfather is among them. (Kang explicitly says that Banner's grandfather is French.) With Banner's grandfather dead, then Banner will never be born and will never become the Hulk, and so the Avengers will never come together and Kang will be able to take over the 20th century!
That's so crazy it just might work!
But if there is no Hulk, then who went back in time to make sure Bruce Banner's grandfather was killed?
And how old is Bruce Banner anyway? The story takes place in 1917, so Banner's mother (I'm assuming this is Banner's maternal grandfather since Banner isn't a French name) can't be born until 1918. So if she marries a visiting American when she's 18, then that means Bruce Banner couldn't be born until 1935 or 1936, which means he was only 27 when he became the Hulk, which seems kind of young for the nation's foremost physicist. I guess it's possible.
Still, this story has some great sequences where Kang over-explains everything - they call it "Kangsplaining" among the super-hero crowd - and the Hulk rampages in 1917 France and we get to see the Phantom Eagle, who's kind of cool for reasons that escape me. (I pulled out Marvel Super-heroes #16 to read his first appearance later tonight.)
And we also get to see Kang's dead girlfriend Ravonna in a transparent tank of some kind, and he talks to her about how he's so sad she's dead that he has to conquer the 20th century. Creepy!
Hulk #135 is one of the weaker issues of the run, but it just gets so many points for the art, for Kang and his crazy plan, for the Phantom Eagle and for the WWI France setting that you hardly notice how silly it all is until much later.
(I've never read this issue before, but I used to have the issue where #135 was discussed in the letters page and I think that might be the first time I ever heard of a time paradox!)
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Post by the4thpip on May 30, 2014 1:34:50 GMT -5
I am really loving your reviews. Kangsplaining. Brilliant!
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Post by Rob Allen on May 30, 2014 12:47:05 GMT -5
Issue #134 is the one I got Roy Thomas to sign back in 1976 or so.
The Phantom Eagle's debut in Marvel Super-Heroes was also Herb Trimpe's pencilling debut, according to an interview quoted in Wikipedia - "I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think." Herb also said that the character was primarily Gary Friedrich's idea. Gary seemed to be into transportation - he created two motorcycle heroes, Hell-Rider and Ghost Rider, and an aviation hero, Phantom Eagle. Anyway, Herb had been in the Air Force so he must have seemed like a natural choice for Phantom Eagle.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 30, 2014 13:43:14 GMT -5
Hi, Rob Allen,
I read the Phantom Eagle story last night and it's pretty good for Trimpe's penciling debut. I would never have guessed that it was somebody's debut. It's a fun story, with the dirty boche attacking upstate New York with a metal-sheathed dirigible that launched Fokker triplanes out of a hole in the bottom. Pretty advanced for 1917. More than a little steampunk.
(And OMG! the reprints! You should see the crazy monster that the Human Torch and Toro fight! (Art by Dick Ayers!) 1950s Captain America and Bucky with John Romita art! The Black Knight by Joe Maneely! Sub-Mariner fights a critter derived from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, art by Bill Everett! The only dud is The Patriot, with some very crude Golden Age art to bring us back to the reality that it wasn't all Jack Kirby, Lou Fine and Fletcher Hanks.)
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 30, 2014 14:06:30 GMT -5
Issue #134 is the one I got Roy Thomas to sign back in 1976 or so. The Phantom Eagle's debut in Marvel Super-Heroes was also Herb Trimpe's pencilling debut, according to an interview quoted in Wikipedia - "I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think." Herb also said that the character was primarily Gary Friedrich's idea. Gary seemed to be into transportation - he created two motorcycle heroes, Hell-Rider and Ghost Rider, and an aviation hero, Phantom Eagle. Anyway, Herb had been in the Air Force so he must have seemed like a natural choice for Phantom Eagle. Herb is an accomplished pilot, isn't he? There was a story in the Bullpen Bulletins about how he had to make an emergency landing near a country house, and upon asking to use the owners to use their phone learned that their family name was Marvel. Herb also started a dystopian future story in the second volume of Savage Tales, full of vintage airplanes that had to be rebuilt from spare pieces and chicken wire. It showed how enthusiastic he was about planes. I really like the guy! And he's of course my favourite Hulk artist, ever!
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Post by Hoosier X on May 30, 2014 23:54:06 GMT -5
I read Hulk #136 and #137 last night (in The Essential Hulk, Volume Three) and I wanted to say a few words about them. But first, a few words about the main villain of the piece, the Abomination, who first appeared late in the Silver Age then bounced around the Marvel Universe (literally!) fighting the Silver Surfer and Thor before getting a return bout with the Hulk in this cosmic two-parter in #136 and #137.
I don't remember the first time I saw the Hulk. But I do remember the first time I saw the Abomination.
It was in an ad for Hostess Fruit Pies! You remember those awesome ads for Hostess snack products! Batman and Robin or Spider-Man would be fighting a real villain or some super-lame one-shot character, and the solution to ending the conflict would revolve around cupcakes or Twinkies.
In the ad I'm remembering, the Abomination and Wendigo attack the Hulk and beat him up and run off laughing. Then some hiking kids show up and nurse the Hulk back to health with Hostess Fruit Pies. The Hulk thanks the kids and takes off into the forest to get his revenge. IIRC, there's no resolution. It ends right there.
The thing is, the caption says the characters' names but there is no way to tell which is which. So I assumed the big, white furry guy was the Abomination because it sounded like the Abominable Snowman and why wouldn't the Abominable Snowman be big and white and furry?
Here's a link to the ad. I discovered my error pretty quickly because the Abomination appeared in Hulk #195, my third issue of the Hulk. So he was really the first major Hulk villain I encountered in my journey through the Hulk's adventures. (And that two-parter in Hulk #195 and #196 is pretty cool anyway. It's so easy for me to see why I became such a big fan of the Hulk so fast!)
Yeah, the Abomination is pretty cool. He's so much like the Hulk! A really strong, big, green dude. Except he wears blue diapers instead of tattered purple pants. And he's smart and mean instead of dumb and misunderstood.
But you gotta love the Abomination for the weird scrapes he gets into! Has any other villain ever been summoned from space by occultists and then sent to fight the Silver Surfer?
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Post by benday-dot on May 31, 2014 17:55:47 GMT -5
I discovered my error pretty quickly because the Abomination appeared in Hulk #195, my third issue of the Hulk. So he was really the first major Hulk villain I encountered in my journey through the Hulk's adventures. (And that two-parter in Hulk #195 and #196 is pretty cool anyway. It's so easy for me to see why I became such a big fan of the Hulk so fast!) Yeah, the Abomination is pretty cool. He's so much like the Hulk! A really strong, big, green dude. Except he wears blue diapers instead of tattered purple pants. And he's smart and mean instead of dumb and misunderstood. But you gotta love the Abomination for the weird scrapes he gets into! Has any other villain ever been summoned from space by occultists and then sent to fight the Silver Surfer? Ah, Incredible Hulk 195 and 196... now there are a couple issues that go deep, deep into my ever lovin' comic book soul. I devoured and literally read those issues to death as a kid. Another great issue featuring the Abomination (and the Rhino to make a helluva great villain combination) was issue #171. That one was also made into a Power Record, ensuring it too become seared into my psyche. I think if I was to ever dump my comic collection it would be hardest of all to give up my issues of Incredible Hulk.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 31, 2014 18:32:23 GMT -5
I had the Hulk record but it was so long ago that I don't remember that adventure very well at all. But fortunately, the local library system has Essential Hulk, Volume Five (but not Volume Four!) so I will be able to read Hulk #171 in a few days.
I went on the Marvel Wiki to check out what happened in Thor #178 where The Abomination meets Thor and it sounds seriously coo-coo! Silver Age and early Bronze Age Thor is one of the comic book runs that I've most seriously neglected (I've probably read only 12 to 15 issues between #135 and #240) and it's summaries like this that make me realize I've missed out!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 1, 2014 0:13:53 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #136 - February 1971
Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema
After a bunch of stories that I had never read before, we now enter an era where I've read all but one of the next 12 issues or so. So we're getting into some stories that I love but I've read them over and over again so I'm not quite so excited like I was when I felt like I was discovering a great unknown country of excellent Hulk stories.
Banner and General Ross and Major Talbot are on an airplane flying to god-knows-where and Banner is sitting at a table drinking a soda and not wearing a shirt. Get Dr. Banner a shirt! Geez Louise!
Then they reminisce and we get a whole page of exciting panels where Banner explains that he found himself wandering around Europe so he gave himself up to the first NATO soldiers he ran into and then he was sedated and eventually he ended up on a plane with Ross and Banner and nobody gave him a shirt through the whole process. Then they fly over Manhattan for some reason and Banner senses something is wrong with the Empire State Building and he gets all excited and turns into the Hulk and busts out of the side of the helicopter and lands on a street and catches the helicopter and saves Ross and Talbot.
And then Xeron the Star Slayer shows up with a weird little spaceship and a space-harpoon and it turns into Moby Dick in space when a gigantic energy monster named Klaatu reveals himself as he materializes from the Empire State Building and they all get into a big fight.
(Note: Moby Dick in space should not be confused with the Super-Moby Dick of Space from the Legion of Super-Heroes. It wasn't just a dick, it was a Super-Moby Dick that ate Lightning Lad's arm.)
Klaatu gets away but Xeron the Star Slayer manages to shanghai the Hulk, so he doesn't go back to the main ship empty-handed. (And you gotta love the way Xeron just tosses the Hulk over his shoulder as he carries him to the "whaling boat" that was used to hunt Klaatu.
Hulk wakes up and finds out that the first mate on the main ship is an old friend ... The Abomination!
TO BE HULKINUED!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 1, 2014 0:25:31 GMT -5
I was still reading the Hulk at this point but I got no memory of this story.Does Klaatu look anything like the robot from The Day The Earth Stood Still?
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 1, 2014 0:32:50 GMT -5
I was still reading the Hulk at this point but I got no memory of this story.Does Klaatu look anything like the robot from The Day The Earth Stood Still? The robot was Gort. Michael Rennie was Klaatu. Klaatu in Hulk #136 and #137 doesn't look like either one. He looks like a pile of leaves with a brown sharkfin on the top of his head and a bulldog-like face.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 1, 2014 0:52:53 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #137 - February 1971
Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Mike Esposito
The Hulk and the Abomination fight for a few pages, much to the amusement of the diverse crew. (These guys are from all over the galaxy. It looks kind of like the Mos Eisley cantina, though not quite such a wretched hive of scum and villainy.) Xeron stops the fight, blasting them apart with his space-harpoon and tells them to watch it or they'll have to answer to the mysterious Captain Cybor, who is known to brood alone in his cabin for days.
So the Hulk settles into the routine of the ship, and it seems to agree with him. He's just another freak on this crew.
But the Abomination is one to hold a grudge, so he uses one of those space-harpoon to knock the Hulk into space. Xeron manages to rescue the Hulk and he's sure the Abomination was responsible. They all get called to meet Captain Cybor, who turns out to be a bald guy who wears shorts who is a robot on one side of his body. He had an accident when pursuing Klaatu and one of his body was burnt by a star as he floated in space waiting to be rescued. (So totally different from Captain Ahab in Moby Dick.)
The captain tells them al to cool it because getting Klaatu is more important than their petty squabbles.
Then the Hulk turns back to Banner just as Klaatu is sighted! So they all swarm onto the whaling vessels and go after Klaatu, who upsets Cybor's boat sending the captain flying into space as the Abomination attacks Banner, who turns into the Hulk and they start beating each other despite the fact that they are floating in space! It's so awesome! The space-whalers have hit Klaatuu enough times that he drifts into the sun to die. Meanwhile Xeron and his little crew are stuck in orbit around the Earth and unable to get back to the main ship.
And the Hulk and the Abomination keep fighting even as they float into the upper atmosphere and then turn into falling stars as they plummet to Earth.
I love this just as much today as I did when I paid $1 for each part back in the late 1970s. Hulk rules!
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 1, 2014 6:32:09 GMT -5
All this Hulk love is nice. I have a hugh Hulk run from 111 to the end (474?) , although there are gaps before issue 200. I recently put some of the earlier issues on ebay for about .99 each and no one bit. The conditions vary from fair to good. I could use some change but I refuse to give it away. I enjoyed the Trimpe issues more from an nostalgic view.
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Post by the4thpip on Jun 1, 2014 6:38:14 GMT -5
Speaking of the Legion of Superheroes: Could Captain Cybor be the other half of Tharok?
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