Hulk #129 July 1970

 

Where do I start with the Hulk?

The character is as much a part of popular culture consciousness as Wonder Woman, Superman and Spiderman, all of whom I have a knowledge of almost entirely based on having seen various TV series and film versions of the characters. The picture of Lou Ferrigno below is pretty much how I see The Hulk in my mind's eye.

As related in an earlier blog entry, the only traditional superhero character whose adventures I previously had any experience of reading with any kind of regularity was Batman. And the only Marvel comic (apart from a brief dalliance with THE ULTIMATES when it started) I can remember reading is the UK Marvel DOCTOR WHO WEEKLY, featuring cool SF characters like Abslom Daak (below) as drawn by Steve Dillon.

So where do I start with the Hulk?

So what I already know is that Dr Bruce Banner (although the name still sounds odd to me having grown up with Dr David Banner) turns big and green and mean when he gets angry ("You wouldn't like me when I'm angry"). Although sometimes he's grey. Which I understand is partly down to a printing error in the original comics but which I believe in more recent times is an idea that's been returned to. I'm not sure whether in the comics he talks, because I'm pretty certain the Lou Ferrigno version didn't but I think he does in the movies. I also think that there are several incarnations of the character in the comics these days and that one of the writers involved is Al Ewing who is an old pal from my ZARJAZ days.

So where do I start with the HULK comic?

Having jumped into the Bronze Age somewhere roughly around its start, with the DC Horror Anthologies from Spring/Summer 1970, I have chosen the issue HULK #129 as my jumping on point. The cover shows the Hulk battling a brown creature several hundred feet above the ground on some kind of gantry. "The GLOB writhes again!" the caption reads, as the creature smacks Hulk in the kisser and he exclaims, "Can't-- hold on! Going to fall--!!"

So the story opens with a nice splash image of Banner bare-chested and in torn trousers making his way through a wood. Its writer is Roy Thomas and art is by Herb Trimpe. Neither name is familiar to me. A caption box reminds readers that the Hulk has had an 'epic battle' with The Avengers in the previous issue. Here he is anxious to return to civilization and Betty, who for some reason I do know is his lady-love. Unknown to him he is being followed by what appears to be a space craft like something out of the movie WAR OF THE WORLDS.

Banner turns out to be one of these characters in comics who utters his innermost thoughts aloud. Whereas in modern comics the custom is more usually to reserve inner monolgues to caption boxes, the effect here is more of a character speaking incessantly to himself. Which I'm fine with and which is very much part of the charm of comics from this period and earlier.

On the third story page comes one of my favourite images from this whole issue. It's an odd one, but it's the aerial shot of the intersection. It's simple but beautiful and inexplicably I'm a little obsessed by it. Since reading this issue I've been reminded of this single panel every time I've been out driving. It's quite comforting I find to study it and imagine you're driving along and working out which road you need to take to lead in each different direction. But because I'm in the UK and we drive on the left I also do it from the UK perspective even though I'm doing it completely the wrong way.

So as I read on I'm getting a lot of clues about previous events in the Hulk's story -- there's the fight with The Avengers mentioned at the start, then there's Banner's references to his and Betty's aborted wedding and the comment, "keep seeing her face fill with HORROR as I turned into... The HULK!" Wow! I'm not so bothered to read about the fight with The Avengers but I'd be keen to go back to the wedding story.

Then there's the recalling of a previous story in which the Hulk came close to have a friend, a robot called Mogol who he actually destroyed. And a flashback to a story from #121 in which he is fighting a creature called The Glob -- clearly the thing he is also fighting on this issue's cover.

Then there's the curious detail, for me, in which the driver who gives Banner a ride in his truck recognises him and says, "You're the guy I read about that turns into The Hulk!" One of the things I'm sure I remember about David Banner in the TV series is that his identity as The Hulk was not known by others. So the fact that his identity is known, unlike that of just about every other superhero character is intriguing to me.

A few pages on come perhaps the most interesting revelation for me. The inhabitant of the craft seen at the start is announced a The Leader, another green-skinned character, but one with a prominent elongated head. I count myself obviously as one of the 'perplexed readership' mentioned who will benefit from the detailed explanation given of this character's identity. Just as Gamma Rays have affected Banner so that he transforms into a raging monster, The Leader was a lowly guy to whom gamma rays have endowed "a brain as matchless as The Hulk's brawn". And of course he's evil and wants to kill The Hulk. It's a great concept, and at this stage I have no idea whether or not The Leader becomes a regular character in The Hulk's story. I for one hope he does. Oh yes, and he looks great in those super-short purple trunks.

The Leader reanimates the creature known as The Glob, a sort of proto-type Swamp Thing, and a battle ensues between it and The Hulk that lasts a full nine pages. 

I've got to admit this is where my interest in a comic like this wanes... I'd be more interested in further investigation into something the character of The Leader hints at which is that he and The Glob are entities whose polar opposites bring them closer together, that they are potentially two sides of the same coin.

The Hulk also feels a potential kinship with The Glob and I liked the way his loneliness cause him to make the mistake of reaching out to the other creature only for it to immediately backfire.

And I liked the troubling conclusion in which the particles of The Glob are depicted still 'alive', with the suggestion to the readership that one day it will return. Does it? I don't know, even though more than fifty years worth of Hulk stories have been published since this one. Maybe I'll find out soon.

Tweets by top_notch_tosh