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Post by Warmonger on Dec 29, 2015 20:51:33 GMT -5
FYI I finished Len Wein's run on Incredible Hulk today (#176-220) and reviewed it here. Nice Will read tomorrow One of my favorite runs of the 70's
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 4, 2016 23:08:10 GMT -5
I ordered Hulk #160 this weekend and I'm thinking of getting the other two issues of Steve Englehart's run that I never read (#163 and #166), so I thought I would write some summaries of the four-issue sequence (#167 to #170) from the end of Englehart's stint. I love these issues. It's all in there! Comedy, tragedy, nudity. A giant head, big monsters, a floating city, and an island that should be known as TOTALLY BONKERS ATOLL in the native tongue. Also, some dingdong called the Bi-Beast! (And for complete accuracy, I should note that #170 was actually written by Chris Claremont.) I'm going to start here, with Hulk #167. Look at that! MODOK has built a giant robot body and he's going to step on the Hulk and SQUOOSH him! It doesn't really start here. This story is just one more chapter of the aftermath of a disastrous mission to Russia (in Hulk #163) where General Ross was held captive for a time and Maj. Glenn Talbot was killed. This was very hard on long-suffering cast member Betty because the general is her father and Talbot is her husband. (I don't know the details about the mission because #163 is one of the few Hulk issues from this era that I've never read.) Poor Betty! Re-reading this story makes me think that Betty Ross Talbot Banner probably led the most stress-filled existence of any super-hero's girlfriend of the era. It was issue after issue of this stuff! Bruce was the Hulk, her father was trying to kill him aided and abetted by Major Talbot (who she was married to for a while), and she never knew when any one of them was going to be killed or return from the dead. The story starts with Ross returning to the states after being rescued from the Russians and Betty meets him at the airport, where she learns that Glenn is dead. She had married him just before being called off to duty for the mission to Russia. She moans that she never even cooked a meal for him and she yells at her father and says she hates him. Then she collapses and is taken to a hospital to recover. One of the airport workers is an AIM agent and he reports the incident to MODOK, who thinks he can use Betty against the Hulk. He also has a gigantic battle-suit that he wants to try out, so he tries on his spiffy new duds and flies off to harass Betty at the hospital. The Hulk is wandering in the New Jersey swampland and he meets up with his buddy Jim Wilson, who has borrowed his girlfriend's father's truck and he takes Hulk to his girlfriend's house to hide him in the basement. Jim's girlfriend yells at Jim because this is a dumb idea and Hulk gets the idea that he's not wanted. (This scene is actually HILARIOUS! But then, Jim Wilson is an amusing character. I love it when Jim shows up to keep things real and to help Hulk fight against THE MAN.) Everybody converges on Betty's hospital. Hulk tears the arm off MODOK's gigantic suit, and crushes the hand, but MODOK has already completed this part of the plan (more on that next issue) and flies away. You should see the scene where Banner shows up at the hospital, wanting to help Betty in her nervous state. When she recognizes him, she starts hitting him on the chest and yelling: I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! And when she's done, she's HITTING THE HULK!
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Post by berkley on Jan 4, 2016 23:26:32 GMT -5
I thought the Ang Lee Hulk got bogged down in pseudo-techno-babble in places but it was interesting in the way it drew a parallel between the rage-driven Hulk and male rage in general - the scene where Betty Ross is frightened by her father's anger, for example.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2016 13:26:58 GMT -5
Hulk #168 starts with the Hulk in front of the hospital, waving a police car around and yelling at the cops. He takes a break to pick some flowers to take to his friend Betty. He calmly walks through the hospital lobby and up the stairs, followed by a bunch of cops and the hospital staff. But when he gets to Betty's room, she’s not there. There's just her night gown, wadded up on the floor. So he storms out and quickly finds Jim Wilson, who hides the Hulk under a tarp in a pickup to get his big green friend past the police. And he takes the Hulk to his girlfriend's house in Newark, N.J., where he plans on hiding him in the basement. Talia, Jim's girlfriend, isn't too keen on the idea. It's her father's house and she soon displays a disapproving tone regarding the Hulk. GOOD LORD IN HEAVEN ABOVE! she says. HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR SKULL, JIM WILSON? HOW DARE YOU BRING THAT – THAT MONSTER HERE?
The Hulk gets the idea that Talia doesn't like him, so he leaves with a rather curt “Goodbye!” While he’s wandering the streets of Newark, the discussion between Jim and Talia continues. Jim says: LISTEN HERE, GIRL! I'M ONLY DATIN' YOU! NOBODY MADE YOU MY MOTHER! I think this was Talia's last appearance and I suspect it was her choice. Her loss! So what happened to Betty? It seems that when MODOK was at the hospital, he hypnotized her, saying something like, "You hate Bruce Banner, don't you? I can change you into a green, vaguely bird-shaped creature that shoots gamma bolts out of her hands. Are you interested? You don't need to bring anything, not even your clothes." So when MODOK came calling, Betty went running naked in the woods until she found MODOK's rocketship, which flew to MODOK's lab where he turned her into this: As the Harpy, Betty is lucid and angry and ready to kill the Hulk. She flies off and soon finds him in Manhattan, where they engage in a really cool fight for a few pages. Those gamma bolts are pretty potent, and the Hulk finds himself feeling weaker every time he gets hit. But you know the Hulk, he is very persistent and he never gives up. So he gets in a few good punches. The Hulk knocks the Harpy down and is just about to smash her pretty darn good when she yells "WAIT!" and gets his attention. "Don't you know me, Hulk? It's me, it's Betty,” the Harpy says. He recognizes her but is confused as to why she is hurting him. She says she'll explain as soon as he helps her up. She raises her arms … and blasts him right in the stomach! She takes out the Hulk and declares victory! One of the things I like about this story is how plausible the Harpy's win is. First, gamma radiation in the Marvel Universe continually produces powerful beings like the Abomination and Doc Samson. So the Harpy is pretty powerful! Second, the Hulk was deprived of his greatest ability, his tendency to get stronger as he gets madder! He didn't have much of a chance to get mad enough. When he learned he was fighting Betty, he wasn't mad, he was confused. And the Harpy took advantage of that confusion to deal out the winning blow! Stay tuned! It gets crazier and then crazier yet!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2016 11:00:13 GMT -5
The Harpy, for some reason, starts #169 by waiting around long enough for General Ross to see her on TV and recognize her as Betty. And then she waits some more so Ross can get to the site and she can yell at him too because she's not too happy with him either. Finally the Harpy grabs the Hulk in her talons and flies away, but her journey is interrupted by a magic tornado that sucks her and her cargo into the funnel and deposits them on a super-scientific cloud island where she comes face to face with this guy: The Bi-Beast! Yes, the Bi-Beast, one of the greatest silly characters of the Bronze Age. The two faces have different personalities and they call each other "skull-brother." One of them took a fancy to the Harpy ("Golly gee, skull-brother! Isn't she pretty?") and so that's why they abducted her. The Hulk is now awake and he joins the Harpy in an attack on the Bi-Beast and the Harpy is quickly knocked unconscious and the Hulk turns into Bruce Banner because the atmosphere is too thin and there's not enough oxygen to keep the Hulk going. I guess. I can't remember another time where a lack of oxygen caused the Hulk to turn to Bruce Banner. The Bi-Beast tells the story of the cloud city. It was once inhabited by bird people but they all died off, leaving only the Bi-Beast as a relic of their existence. (One head has all the knowledge of warfare and the other has all the cultural stuff.) (And I should point out that the cloud city has appeared in Marvel comics before, notably in X-Men #24 and Sub-Mariner #26. And also in the Golden Age, in Red Raven #1. I think.) The Bi-Beast is glad that Banner is a scientist because he needs somebody to help with the upkeep of the cloud city's engines (or something), so while the Harpy is imprisoned, Banner putters around the cloud city, trying to come up with an escape plan that doesn't involve turning to the Hulk on a delicate floating platform eight miles above the surface of the Earth. And then MODOK arrives with a bunch of AIM agents. He's been tracking the gamma radiation of the Hulk and the Harpy. And they eventually start tearing up the place. The Bi-Beast is killed (part of me thinks this is a great tragedy because HE's SUCH A GOOF, but it's probably a good thing he never became a frequently occurring character; but I do like the story with the Bi-Beast clone in Hulk #215 and #216) but he doesn't die before he pulls the switch to self-destruct the cloud city. As the city is crumbling, the Harpy turns back to Betty Ross Talbot and when the cloud city explodes, Bruce and Betty fall through a crack and escape the explosion. But they are eight miles above the surface of the Earth! The caption tells us that the next issue will be DYNAMITE!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2016 15:37:57 GMT -5
I just got to get Hulk #167, Hulk #168, and #169!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2016 16:07:53 GMT -5
I just got to get Hulk #167, Hulk #168, and #169! I'll be tackling Hulk #170 this weekend. You got to get that one too. For me, the run extends to #171 because it's got the Rhino and the Abomination going after the Hulk together. But it's not quite so cliffhanger-y. (And I don't have a copy of #171 so I wasn't going to review it. I was just going to show the cover.)
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 9, 2016 10:22:17 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #170 opens like this: Geez Louise! Bruce and Betty are miles above the surface of the Earth and falling to their deaths after the destruction of the cloud city! Fortunately. one major problem has been solved between issues as there was apparently a potato bag floating around in the troposphere directly under the cloud city and Bruce or Betty managed to get it and wrapped it around her nude body. Whew! I'm sure we were all worried about that! But Bruce concentrates and manages to turn himself into the Hulk before they hit the ground and (somehow) that prevents Betty from being killed by the impact. They are on an island inhabited by giant monsters! Because Betty's been a little bit out of it for a while, she's wakes up in a cave with the Hulk and she's pretty scared. Partly because she's dressed in a potato sack. So she tries to get away when he's not looking. And she runs into giant monsters. So that's pretty much the issue. Hulk fights big monsters. Betty has to chose between living in a cave with the Hulk or confronting weird giant monsters. And the Hulk has to provide for Betty's needs. He gets fire when lightning strikes a nearby tree. He gathers fruit so she has food. (And there's a very touching scene where Hulk raises a rock to kill a deer for Betty but he just crumbles the rock to dust and lets the deer go on its way.) And there's also a scene where Hulk crushes some berries and smears them on Betty's face so she can have some make-up. (Hint hint, Betty Ross Talbot! The Hulk thinks you have let yourself go!) The weird giant aliens all fall into a volcano during the major fight scene. Eventually, a military search-and-rescue mission shows up and rescues Betty. And she says she was on the island by herself. She's protecting the Hulk! (Or maybe she just wanted to get away from any more questions before somebody asked where the potato bag came from.) As the flying transport floats up and soars away, we see the Hulk has grabbed a ride on the craft's underbelly, promising more Hulk hijinks in the near future.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 9, 2016 15:56:40 GMT -5
I love this one too, but I don't have a copy of it. (I read it in an Essential Hulk volume from the library last year.) In the 1970s, it was on a record! And I had it! You can see it on YouTube. Part One Part Two
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2016 19:16:28 GMT -5
Hoosier X
I contacted the Comic Book Store that I go to and told them that I'm very interested in getting Hulk #167, Hulk #168, Hulk #169, Hulk #170, and Hulk #171 and they informed me that they have back copies of all five issues for $19.00 plus $3.00 shipping to my home address and I should be getting them in 5-7 days from now. With most of the copies are in the grade of 7.0 FN/VF Fine/Very Fine category. I work this issue right away after my computer was fixed. I had a broken modem.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 10, 2016 22:50:35 GMT -5
Hoosier XI contacted the Comic Book Store that I go to and told them that I'm very interested in getting Hulk #167, Hulk #168, Hulk #169, Hulk #170, and Hulk #171 and they informed me that they have back copies of all five issues for $19.00 plus $3.00 shipping to my home address and I should be getting them in 5-7 days from now. With most of the copies are in the grade of 7.0 FN/VF Fine/Very Fine category. I work this issue right away after my computer was fixed. I had a broken modem. This will let you know whether or not I am good at picking good comics or whether or not I am just BONKERS! I hope you like them! I love early Bronze Age Hulk!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 10, 2016 23:02:47 GMT -5
I got this over the weekend. It reprints Hulk #114, which is one of the last remaining issues of The Incredible Hulk from the Trimpe era that I haven't read. I'm not going to say too much about it. It's your standard "two super-villains with different personalities share an apartment while plotting revenge against their common enemy" plot. You've seen it before. On the "Odd Couple." The Mandarin is Felix. The Sandman is Oscar. But there's a couple of funny panels where the Sandman is being rude to his new ally. When the Mandarin is about to kill him if he won't join up with him, the Sandman says: COOL IT, FU MANCHU! I'M SOLD! He also calls him "Mandy" in one panel. And then there's this comment: KNOW SOMETHIN', CHARLIE CHAN? YOU'RE BEGINNING TO REACH ME! THIS PARTNERSHIP IS GONNA BE A-OKAY! I kept hoping that the Mandarin would call the Sandman "Lone Ranger" or "Bluto."
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 28, 2016 15:59:15 GMT -5
I first encountered the Hulk in the British 1973 Marvel annual, which reprinted Terror of the Toad Men from Incredible Hulk #2 with great Kirby/Ditko artwork and the Tyrannus story Beuty and the Beast from #5, alongside Spider-Man versus the Tinkerer and the Scorpion, Fantastic Four versus Kurrgo Master of Planet X, and a lightly censored version of Zukala's Daughter from Conan the Barbarian #5. Could anyone tell me who the annual's cover was by? My favourite Hulk stories include the original 6 issue run, Heaven is a Very Small Place, Steve Englehart's run, the best parts of Len Wein's run, the black and white Rampaging Hulk series, the first two thirds of Peter David's run and James Kochalka's strip from Coober Skeber #2.
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 28, 2016 16:42:15 GMT -5
Could anyone tell me who the annual's cover was by? I haven't been able to find any credits, but I think it's a painting based on a Jack Kirby panel from an early Hulk story.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 28, 2016 17:03:54 GMT -5
I think it would have been 1979 0r 1980 actually. It was in full color, smaller than a regular sized comic and I never recalled the comics from before #85 until I read the Essentials volume. I also got one for Spider-Man at the same time that had early Ditko Era Spidey. Was it the second Hulk paperback collection published in 1979 by Pocket Books, which reprinted the Hulk stories from TTA #85-99 behind a Kirby cover (itself an edited reprint from Marvel Super-Heroes #54)? I have their first paperback, which reprints Incredible Hulk v1 #1-6, but only heard about the second one recently.
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