Incredible Hulk #5 (story one) “Beauty and the Beast”

Written by Stan Lee
Pencils by Jack Kirby
Inks by Dick Ayers



Cover: (Kirby/Ayers)

This is one of the better covers we've seen in a while. Nice action with the Hulk busting through the wall, while Tyrannus orders his minions to attack. The only problem is that The Hulk seems intent on taking out Betty and Rick.

The Story:

Following a really good cover we get an amazingly boring splash page. Yay! The story itself starts with Thunderbolt Ross briefing Banner, Jones and Betty Ross on attempts to capture The Hulk...including the use of a “Neuron Magnet.” Because...Oh hell...who knows. Banner says he'll try to help and leaves. Ross complains about Banner and Jones, while Betty professes her love for Banner in a thought balloon. One that apparently can be read by Tyrannus, who knows that Betty loves Banner and is going to use that info to conquer the Earth. Tyrannus monologues about his plan and origin, neither of which make a damn nickles worth of sense. He only fears atomic weapons, but Betty is going to protect him. He's been in exile for a thousand years, but he's just now getting around to conquering the Earth after they have nukes. He's a master of magic, but he going to use the underlings science. It's like Stan and Jack have four different stories going at once without agreeing on any of the the four.

Tyrannus' plan brings him to the surface where he poses as an archeologist seeking Betty's help. Banner is suspicious, knowing that Betty is too stupid to help anyone. Tyrannus reverses the polarity of his “machine that can see everything (and read minds)” and uses it to tell Ross that Betty is in his power. Banner turns into the Hulk to follow him (also turning into a jerk) and Hulk and Rick go into the underworld where they are overcome by gas.



Since Betty is in Tyrannus' power The Hulk must do what he says...instead of just beating hell out of everyone. So he does a silly gladiator thing and performs a number of “Herculean” tasks, at which time Tyrannus gets bored and decides to 86 him. Luckily Rick isn't an idiot and arranges to free Betty and The Hulk. There is a nice scene of Hulk playing Samson with pillars before they escape to the surface. Unfortunately Betty faints and gets amnesia so she won't remember that The Hulk saved her and will still hate him. So much for any character growth. We end with the Hulk saying that humans have reason to fear him.



Thoughts…

What the hell is a neuron magnet? And why would it be shaped like a horseshoe magnet?

The Hulk is shown surviving an atomic device. No idea how powerful...but still.

Did men really wear purple suits in the 60s. Because I'm thinking they didn't.

We now have two separate subterranean races that have embraced exiled out-worlders as their leader. It's time for the Mole Man-Tyrannus smackdown.

Apparently The Hulk does not change back into Banner when he passes out at this point. And stays Hulk until he uses the stuff in the lab to change back. Again...the shifting power set and changing circumstances under which Banner becomes the Hulk and changes back.

The Plot: There was almost some character development here...but it was killed by the ending. The plot was utterly nonsensical. Tons of contradictions everywhere. And we can still see that Stan and Jack don't really know what to do with The Hulk as a protagonist.

The Art: The art was okay. Maybe a step down from the last issue. It somehow seemed hurried.

The toll: We see The Hulk take out a building, a “Neuron Magnet” and an atomic weapon in the flashback. Other than that he pretty much just destroys stuff in Tyrannus' underground city.

Grade for historic importance: C- for the first appearance of Tyrannus.

Story – D

Art – C

The gladiatorial gear that the Hulk dresses in in the above images is interesting because that's how he ended up clothed in the Planet Hulk storyline from the 2000s. I had no idea it was a nod to this issue, which it undoubtedly was.

Also, it's really weird to see the Hulk talking like Ben Grimm in these early issues. Stan Lee really hadn't figured out the Hulk's personality yet.

I think this is exactly it.  Someone decided...let's have a big green Franken-monster as our protagonist.  Unfortunately, they had no idea what to do with him after that...and the Comic Code didn't help because they really couldn't make him a true villain and the star of a book.  So we've gotten five issues thus far where The Hulk's powers, method of change, intelligence, belligerence, etc. are in constant flux...looking for something that will actually work.  

The Ben Grimm-speak is something that suddenly cropped up in issue #5.  I was actually going to mention it when I get to the second story (decided to split the two up) because it's even more egregious in the second story of the issue. It was pretty jarring, because I don't recall him talking like Ben before...or not to the extent that he does in this issue.  I can envision one of two scenarios.  The more likely one is that Stan was just super overworked and defaulted to "big tough-guy speech" mode.  The other is that it was a conscious decision to try to make the Hulk more like Ben Grimm since the FF was selling better and The Thing was getting good letters.  Although there is mention in this issue that the longer Banner remains The Hulk, the less Banner-like he acts.  So maybe there was an actual plan here.  

Fantastic Four #10 “The Return of Doctor Doom”

Written by Stan Lee
Pencils by Jack Kirby
Inks by Dick Ayers



Cover:

Kind of a weird cover. There's some action with ¾ of the gang fighting Doom. And Doom/Richards is in the foreground looking menacing. And then there is Stan and Jack in the Corner telling us what's going on. It's weird but it kind of works.

The Story:

The story starts with Reed, Johnny and Sue testing out a way to detect Sue even when she's invisible. They see a 4-Flare that must be from Ben, but they can't get out of the Baxter Building because the “Nuclear Lock Mechanism” is jammed. Johnny can't burn out...for some reason so Reed tries to get to the Fantasticar by stretching his arm, but goes the wrong way...and tires out. But Johnny finds he can concentrate his flame so much that it “burns without heat.” They then proceed to the streets where Johnny nearly burns pedestrians and Sue causes a traffic accident because she “Forgets she's invisible” and becomes visible in front of a car that's going to mow her down. Fantastic Four: Threat or Menace.



Ben is at Alicia's apartment where she has crafted perfect replicas of the FF's foes even though she's blind. And Sue is upset because Sub-Mariner is among the foes and she has the hots for him which upsets Reed because he thought they had “an understanding.” Meanwhile Stan Lee and Jack Kirby get a visit from Doctor Doom who reveals his face to them (it's apparently nasty) and has them call Richards to a meeting. Reed shows up and is gassed by Doom who reveals he was saved by the Ovoids an advanced race



Having captured Reed, Doom switches minds with him. He then beats Reed/Doom up and awaits the rest of the FF. He puts Reed into a prison, saying it's temporary...but there's only a short supply of oxygen (not air). He then goes back with the FF where he tells them that by shrinking them and re-enlarging them their powers will be greater and Ben will be able to change back and forth using a cock & bull story about dinosaurs and stolen zoo animals to convince them. No it doesn't really make any sense and it's very clear that together Sue, Johnny and Ben must have a room temperature IQ to believe it. But for some reason he doesn't do it right away...because then the story would be over and he'd win.

This gives Reed a chance to escape, in a reasonably clever manner...though it depends on Doom leaving him pure oxygen to breathe, not air...which doesn't make a lot of sense. Reed/Doom goes to Alicia's apartment where he's knocked out by Sue and then captured by Ben. But Alicia “senses” goodness in him and Ben can't bring himself to pulverize him for...reasons...sensing something. Back at the Baxter Building Doom now decides to shrink the FF. But Ben and Johnny are suspicious and Johnny uses MAGIC heat powers to trick Doom into revealing himself. He switches minds back with Reed and ultimately triggers the shrink-ray on himself...shrinking himself down to nothing.

Thoughts…

It's probably a bad sign when the first three pages are utterly ridiculous. It's implied that Johnny can't burn through the “Nuclear Lock” because it will explode or something. But that's not how nuclear explosions work. Then the cop out that he can suddenly concentrate his flame so it burns without heat. And why can't Reed just go under the door if his hand can? In issue number two he escaped from a government cell putting his entire body through a rivet hole.

The soap opera angle is starting to heat up a bit with the Reed/Sue/Sub-Mariner triangle even if Subby doesn't appear.

It's kind of cute that Stan and Jack show up.

Doom reveals his face to Stan and Jack (in a really stupid scene) and it's clear that he's revolting. It also shows that he has no hair and there appears to be scarring on the top of his head. Later this will be forgotten.



So Doom was rescued by another advanced alien race who just happened to be driving through our solar system and were nice enough to just let him have access to all their tech. Alrighty. It seems that there's an intergalactic byway that passes right by Earth with the number of aliens we've seen so far.

When all is said and done...everyone in this comic is an idiot.

Johnny's powers continue to be Deus Ex Machina. He can do anything the plot requires.

Doom acts pretty weird in this one. He seems to be happy to just be Reed Richards. Which doesn't jibe with the Doom arrogance.

Doom also knows a lot of stuff he probably shouldn't if he's been in outer space since issue number 6.

Our first three-peat. Doom has now appeared three times.

The plot…Wow! There is soooo much stupid stuff in this issue. Honestly if someone wants to complain about Silver-Age DC they just need to read this issue to see that Marvel could be just as bad.

The art...Again this is the decent Kirby/Ayers as opposed to the actively bad Kirby/Ayers.

The toll: Sue causes the destruction of a car and a fire hydrant. A two-ton barbell.

Grade for historic importance: D. I guess it shows us that villains will definitely recur. The Ovoids show up again in the 80s. It's the first appearance of Stan & Jack. But really a nothing story.

Story – C- I know it seems weird. It really was a pretty horrible story. But at least it wasn't dull.

Art – B-

On the Hulk's speech in those early issues: I was too small to have seen these when they first came out so I've read only a few that I happened to see in reprinted form a few years later. I was still pretty young then so this is just the impression left from those long-ago days, but in some ways I think that early Hulk was stronger as a character than the later, more child-like persona they settled into. It was definitely scarier - I can compare because I was reading those reprints of the early Hulk around the same time as the Trimpe/Severin and later versions. I never thought of his speech pattern as Ben Grimm style, though I can see what you mean - I suppose you could call it Nick Fury speech too, the standard tough-guy dialogue used for villains like the Sandman as well as a few heroes like the Thing and Fury.

I found the early Hulk closer to an American version of Mr Hyde (of course Marvel would go and make their own Mr Hyde just to complicate things). He was scary to me as a kid because he had all that strength and invulnerability and was at the same time surly and evil-tempered. Everybody better not get in his way - and his definition of "getting in his way" could be just about anything he happened to feel like at the time.

Later on they made him a kind of childlike, persecuted, misunderstood creature - more like Frankenstein's monster than Mr Hyde - and that became the standard for a long time. Personally, I think a mental chlid with that kind of power would be even more scary than the evil Mr Hyde, but it wasn't written that way. But in the early, Mr. Hyde style Hulk, it wasn't as sugar-coated. They didn't go all the way with it, but the menacing aspect wasn't completely covered up. As you said, all this was probably just a side effect of them not knowing quite which direction to take this new idea.

Silver Age Marvel for me is like going back in time and seeing maybe Martin Luther King Jr. as a boy, you can tell very early on that they're born into greatness, but still have some time before they become something truly great