Featuring: Hulk
Release: October 5, 1965
Cover: January 1966
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Layouts: Jack Kirby
Illustrations: M. Demeo
Lettering: S. Rosen
Enjoying: That’s your job, pussycat!
10 pages
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| Tales of Suspense #76, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #76, Story B |
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At last I got somethin’ to smash out against… somethin’ to fight… a chance to do the thing I can do better than anything that lives!
This picks up right where the last issue left off, though we paused for a bit since reading the last issue and since reading the earlier half of this comic.
Hulk had just acquired the Ultimate Machine for the Leader from the Watcher’s world. Leader’s attempt to use the machine resulted in his death.
The Leader had been the background villain for the prior 15 issues, and I think of his death last issue as the end of the saga. But really Hulk’s title is just an endless story without real endings. Plenty of loose plot threads left.
Hulk has Banner’s brain but is struggling to think, as though “the limitless power of my body is overshadowing my mind”.
Let’s talk about military intelligence. As far as the military knows, Banner is dead. His last invention was the T-Gun. The military didn’t know what it was for, but decided to build one based on his designs anyway. Note, Banner may have been a traitor. So building this may be a trap. They don’t know. Not a single person can figure out what it’s supposed to do. May as well build it!
Rick Jones remains in custody. Is Cap not tracking this? Can he not step in to speak on behalf of his sidekick. What about the president, who Rick reminds us knows the truth about Banner. Presumably he’s referring to President Johnson.
Speaking of intelligence, Hulk doesn’t know what this Ultimate Machine does. All he knows is Leader tried to use it and died. So Hulk tries to use it now.
Hulk just discards the Ultimate Machine to go to Washington to help Rick. Not sure why Ross and Talbot are in DC and not New Mexico.
Turns out Watcher allowed Hulk to hear of Rick’s trouble, and will now take his machine back. This being selective about when to take the machine back sure sounds like interfering to me, Mr. Oath.
Stan says UFO means “Unidentified Foreign Object”. I think the F is for “Flying”, Stan. Now, they are called UAPs, as UFO became too loaded a term. UFOs are of course a common phenomenon. The US government has an interest in identifying everything in the sky, but can’t always identify everything right away. That which is not immediately identified is a UFO (now UAP). This has created confusion amongst people who mistake the word “Unidentified” for meaning “Identified as extraterrestrial”.
Remember that thing that Ross built even though he doesn’t know what it does? He still doesn’t know what it does, but decides to fire it against the Hulk anyway.
Banner hadn’t meant for them to build the T-Gun. It was a thought experiment, to see if it would be possible to build something that would send someone traveling through time. Well, it worked.
All the best brains couldn’t figure out the “T” stood for “Time”.
And so it is that Hulk finds himself in the distant future. We’ll pick up here tomorrow.
Rating: ★★½, 48/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection vol. 2: The Hulk Must Die.
Characters:
- Hulk
- Leader (corpse)
- General “Thunderbolt” Ross
- Major Talbot
- Betty Ross
- The Watcher
- Leader of future people
Story notes:
- Ross orders building ringed by Nike missiles, and operating under maximum security conditions.
- Ross and Talbot think Banner was a traitor, but Betty won’t believe it.
- Rick Jones is in custody.
- Rick reminds us that only the “man in the White House” knows Hulk’s secret.
- Hulk tries Ultimate Machine even though it killed the Leader.
- Hulk sees Rick Jones needs help… he feels like he was meant to hear the message.
- Watcher retakes Ultimate Machine as man is not ready for it.
- Ross decides to use T-Gun on Hulk despite having no idea what it will do.
- Chief Executive, Congress, and High Command quartered in protective shelters.
- Hulk realizes he’s been hit with his own T-Gun.
- Banner never meant for T-Gun to be used operationally. It was an experiment to see if a sudden blast which altered the light waves around a person could send him into a different time… it worked.
- Hulk is in the distant future, the ruins of DC; only Lincoln’s statue still stands.
- Men of future recognize Hulk from ancient legends.
| Previous | #484 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #76, Story B | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #76, Story B |
| Tales to Astonish #75 | Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #76 |
