Featuring: Hulk
Release: August 2, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: John Tartaglione
Lettering: Ray Holloway
Hulk’s pants-pressing: Irving Forbush
10 pages
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Banner! He’s a weakling! He’s helpless! The Hulk is strong– can do anything!
We reach the 600th story in our read-through of the Marvel Universe. It’s cool when that happens to be a significant story.
Which this, for the most part, isn’t.
But there is one very significant thing about it. And I’ll take that.
John Buscema is joining the Marvel artists with this issue. He’s also doing this month’s Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD story, which we’ll get to later.
John Buscema is one of my very favorite comic artists. Right up there with the great Spider-Man artists I’ve already heaped plenty of praise on, Steve Ditko and John Romita.
Jack Kirby is the most famous artist for his ability to depict action, to depict the dynamic. But for my money, there is nobody better at that than John Buscema. That may not be obvious in this comic or any comic for a few years. But wait until we get to comics like Avengers #57 or Silver Surfer #4. We’ll see why Buscema is a master.
I remember when he passed away in 2002, and it was announced in an issue of Avengers. Probably no death of any person I didn’t know had hit me as hard at that point of my life. I was genuinely saddened, in a way only equaled by the more recent passings of Steve Ditko, John Romita, or George Pérez.
John Buscema is not new to Marvel. He just hadn’t worked there in a long while. He got his start with Marvel back in 1948, on crime, romance, and western comics, including Two-Gun Kid and Tex Morgan.
Around 1954, he moved to Dell, becoming a regular on Roy Rogers, and working on some of their movie adaptations.
His first superhero work was Nature Boy for Charlton in 1956, working alongside Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.
He returned to Marvel after a 5-year gap for science fiction and romance stories.
At the same time turning in similar genres for ACG.
Around 1960, Buscema left comics and got a real job. But he seems to be back.
His best work is still ahead of him.
Here’s the list of Buscema works spotlighted above.
- Lawbreakers Always Lose #3, Marvel, 1948
- Law Breakers Always Lose #6, Marvel, 1949
- Wild Western #5, Marvel, 1949
- Tex Morgan #5, Marvel, 1949
- Girl Comics #1, Marvel, 1949
- Man Comics #1, Marvel, 1949
- Roy Rogers Comics #75, Dell, 1954
- Four Color #944 – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Dell, 1958
- Nature Boy #3, Charlton, 1956
- Tales of Suspense #1, Marvel, 1959
- My Own Romance #67, Marvel, 1959
- Tales of Suspense #3, Marvel, 1959
- Forbidden Worlds #75, ACG, 1959
- My Romantic Adventures #103, ACG, 1959
Also of note is lettering by Ray Holloway. This is the fourth time we’ve seen his work. Over 99% of the stories we’ve read have been lettered by Artie Simek or Sam Rosen. I guess they occasionally get a day off.
We are done with the bloody Secret Empire, but have a bunch of loose threads. Hulk is still rampaging in New York. Boomerang is still up to stuff. And there’s still that Orion missile. Oh, and Rick was hired to drive a car to New York and not look in the trunk. Not suspicious at all.
Talbot lists all the people that tried to stop the launch of the Orion missile: Boomerang, Secret Empire, Hulk. That was really a single event. And Hulk was just trying to save Betty. I think Talbot is being dramatic.
Why is Betty always invited to top secret military meetings?
Rick and Hulk meet up again for the first time in a while. Hulk doesn’t seem to remember Rick. And Hulk seems unclear that he is Banner. He just knows Banner is puny. And that Hulk is the strongest one there is.
You can maybe see some hints of that dynamism in Buscema’s art I am talking about.
That shifty dude whose car Rick was driving used what’s in the trunk to aim the Orion Missile toward New York. The part of Hulk that is Banner knows he must stop it.
But for some reason, Hulk calmed down while riding the missile, and changed into Banner.
If people are seeking new meditation techniques, have you tried riding a missile?
Mails to Astonish!
Welcome back to the team, John Buscema!
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 53/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
Buscema’s Marvel debut (return) earns this that coveted extra star in significance.
Characters:
- Hulk
- Rick Jones
- Gorki
- Betty Ross
- General Thunderbolt Ross
- Major Talbot
Story notes:
- Rick driving from Cape Kennedy to New York to help Hulk, couriering a car that needed driving.
- Man who lent car to Rick has secret lab in house at Cape Kennedy. He declares H-Hour the moment Ross will launch the Orion missile. Ultra-Wave scanner in car monitors Rick’s every movement.
- Orion missile is anti-missile proof and powerful enough to level a city.
- Plane fires rocket volley at Hulk.
- Pedestrian notes Hulk isn’t killer, as he intentionally picked two empty cars to smash together.
- Hulk barely remembers Rick.
- Rick notes Hulk doesn’t know he and Banner are the same. Hulk thinks Banner is a weakling.
- Army intelligence tracks down Gorki.
- Gorki presses button and robot unfolds from car trunk.
- Robot fires at Hulk, so Hulk destroys it, but not before it sends a signal to Orion to change direction toward Manhattan.
- Hulk recognizes the Orion Missile. Banner had designed it.
- As rage subsides, pulse rate slows, blood pressure returns to normal, and he becomes Bruce Banner, riding a missile.
| Previous | #600 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #85 | Reading order | Tales to Astonish #86 |
| Tales to Astonish #85 | Tales to Astonish | Tales to Astonish #86 |
