Featuring: Hulk
Release: July 2, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Written by: Incredible Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Incredible Steve Ditko
Inked by: Incredible Geo. Bell
Lettered by: Inedibile S. Rosen
10 pages
Hulk was the first character to ignomiously get his title cancelled; he’s also the first character to get his own title back.
Well, sort of. Originally, he starred in a series called The Incredible Hulk, dedicated entirely to him. That’s a lot of pages to fill for a character whose creators seemed to have no idea what to do with him.
Now he gets 10 pages in the back of Tales to Astonish, a title he will be sharing with Giant-Man and Wasp, taking the place of Wasp’s solo features.
See, for as long as we’ve been reading, Marvel has had distribution issues which have artificially limited the number of titles they can produce in a month. They are ready to start featuring more of their characters, but that will require characters to share titles.
Hulk went about 18 months without his own series, but he never really disappeared. He’s been a frequent guest star and antagonist in many a title. He’s remained a fixture of the Marvel Universe, even without his own comic.
Last issue was a feature-length story featuring both Giant-Man and Hulk. That was the subtle lead-in to the new title-sharing status. Soon we’ll see a feature-length Iron Man story which co-stars Captain America. We’ll see where that will lead.
That issue also helped set the new status quo for Hulk.
The great Steve Ditko will be handling the art duties, paired with George Roussos (under his usual pseudonym George Bell). I’ve recently complained about this very pairing in Strange Tales, and I will always take pure Ditko over anybody else finishing his pencils. Yet, the combo works well enough here. Actually, I barely recognize Roussos in the final work.
While Lee and Kirby created Hulk, Ditko gets a lot of credit for establishing the Hulk we know. However, this issue doesn’t really showcase changes to the status quo, but the status quo is spelled out and clarified in this issue, and the status quo we see here mostly endures. The previous stories had been slowly converging on this.
We reviewed Hulk’s history in the last issue and it may be worth looking at for context.
Hulk has a distinct personality, and some of Banner’s memories, but they are hazy.
The one piece that hadn’t quite been clear is what causes Hulk to change back to Banner. This issue suggests a certain symmetry, that stress triggers the transformation in both directions. In this issue, Hulk changes back into Banner because he got too excited during a battle. That seems like an enormous vulnerability.
Ditko draws lots of images of Bruce in Hulk’s shadow, somewhat similar to an effect he often uses to show both Peter and Spider-Man. I think Hulk is meant to be haunting Banner but he seems to be giving him a massage.
Bruce Banner wears glasses. Twice we see Hulk transform back into Banner and happen to find his glasses lying around nearby without much explanation for why they are there and not smashed.
Reading order considerations
The tale doesn’t really end here. The robot is still at large and we never learned who stole it. Often, in such circumstances, I would just read the next comic immediately. But here that opens up quite a rabbit hole. For the next issue definitely ends with a cliffhanger; as does the next one; and…
Lee and Ditko will be writing Hulk differently from how all the other titles have gone. It will be far less episodic and play out more like one extended story, with different arcs merging into each other.
The question is, how best to read that. Hulk shares this comic with Giant-Man and Wasp, and their adventures are very episodic and need to be weaved around their appearances in Avengers. I don’t like to separate issues, but am willing to if it helps story flow. We haven’t had to yet.
I definitely wanted to read the first Hulk story now to establish that this series exists. I’m comfortable delaying learning the answers to who stole the robot.
CMRO recommends not even reading this story yet, rather waiting around 8 months and then reading 15 issues of Hulk stories together, fitting in Avengers #17, which ties into Tales to Astonish #69.
I was tempted to do something similar, but I’m concerned about the story of Rick Jones. Rick is still showing up in almost every issue of Avengers for reasons I can’t fathom. He also will occasionally pop his head in to check on Hulk. The question is how these appearances should tie together. CMRO places all his Tales to Astonish appearances after his Avengers appearances (at least in their suggested reading order). The MCP suggests they should be chronologically interweaved to approximately match publication date. The Official Marvel Index to the Avengers agrees, though weaves them slightly differently. Further, the text makes it clear that Rick is still with the Avengers in his appearances in this title, so it would seem weird to read them all after his association with the Avengers seems done.
Unfortunately, if these Hulk issues are too connected to the Avengers stories, that intertwines them with all the other solo Avenger stories. In particular, Journey Into Mystery #114-119 is closely tied to Avengers #15-16 as well as Fantastic Four #38 and Daredevil #7. And etcetera.
It doesn’t help that Thor will also be getting into this “extended saga” stuff or that everybody will get invited to a wedding.
There’s good cause to want to read all these Hulk stories together, but that just doesn’t quite fit Rick Jones’ complicated story. So I think we’ll pause where we can. This robot story isn’t resolved, but nothing will resolve soon. This spy will turn out to be working for someone, and that “big bad” isn’t going anywhere.
There is a gap in time before Hulk and the robot fight again, so we’ll take that gap to look around the Marvel Universe before rejoining Hulk next month. Just keep it in your mind that we are in the middle of one big Hulk saga for the foreseeable future.
Rating: ★★★½, 62/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I read this story in The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection vol. 2: The Hulk Must Die.
You can also find the story in Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk vol. 2. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Hulk/Bruce Banner
- General Ross
- Betty Ross
Story notes:
- Banner built a robot, though it needs a human to pilot it from the inside.
- Banner’s frequent disappearances are noticed by the base.
- Strain and pressure cause transformation in each direction.
- A spy causes Banner tension and triggers the change.
- Hulk has some of Banner’s memories, but hazy; he thinks Banner as a separate person.
- Hulk got too excited in battle and changed back to Banner.
- Robot story remains unresolved, though there is a time gap before the next issue.
#242 story in reading order
Next: X-Men #7
Previous: Tales to Astonish #60
