THE HULK: EARLY 1970s

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at several consecutive issues of The Incredible Hulk. Previously I examined his first twenty stories in the 1960s.

HULK Vol 1 #150 (April 1972)

Title: Cry Hulk, Cry Havok

Villains: Havok and Polaris

Synopsis: Hulk once again escapes from Hulkbuster Base despite the efforts of General “Thunderbolt” Ross and his troops to prevent it. Ross gets summoned to Washington D.C. to face a Senate committee regarding continued funding of his base.

In Ross’s absence, Major Glenn Talbot is left in charge. Betty Ross, Bruce Banner’s previous romantic interest, convinces Glenn to continue the base’s search for the Hulk in the American desert southwest. Hulk encounters X-Men member Polaris (Lorna Dane). Her green hair confuses Hulk into mistaking her for his love interest Jarella, who recently returned to the Microverse/ Quantum Realm. 

NOTE: Thanks to sorcerers on Jarella’s home planet in the Microverse, Hulk was able to retain Bruce Banner’s mind there even when he was the Hulk, so she technically loved both his personae.

Polaris has come westward to convince her teammate Havok (Alex Summers) to return to the X-Men. He had stormed out after injuring Iceman in a fight over Lorna’s affections. Hulk wants her to come with him because he still thinks she is Jarella.

Havok dons his costume and follows after them. Polaris uses her magnetic powers to free herself from the Hulk’s clutches and Havok manages to blast the Hulk with such intense power blasts that the monster is knocked out.

Glenn and Betty arrive, saying the army will take the Hulk into custody. Polaris convinces Havok to return with her to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters due to the current crisis – the Secret Empire has begun abducting mutants.

They leave and as Glenn and Betty approach the fallen Hulk he turns back into Bruce Banner. Barely conscious now, Bruce mutters “Jarella, my love” thus shocking Betty.

HULK Vol 1 #151 (May 1972)

Title: When Monsters Meet

Villain: The Crawling Unknown

Synopsis: Betty confronts the freshly conscious Bruce about who Jarella is. Bruce admits that he really loves her and can retain his mind as the Hulk on her planet. A saddened Betty runs off in tears. Glenn runs after her and by the time Bruce comes within sight of them, Glenn and Betty are kissing passionately. (Sheesh! What a Soap Opera.)

Bruce takes the opportunity to slip away and, over the next few days, covertly makes his way to Washington DC. Banner read that Hank Pym PhD (Ant Man) is delivering a series of lectures at Georgetown University. Bruce wants to ask Hank if he can use his Pym Particles to shrink him down so he can return to the Microverse/ Quantum Realm. 

He arrives in Washington only to get hassled and angered, triggering a transformation into the Hulk. Meanwhile, in a comic book coincidence, one of the Senators participating in the ongoing hearings grilling General Ross about funding, uses a blood sample taken from the Hulk during his recent captivity at Hulkbuster Base.

The politician hoped it would cure his cancer, but instead it turns him into the gamma-spawned monster called the Crawling Unknown, a yellowish-green mass of blobbish tissue. Amid a thunder storm the monster runs amok in DC, digesting everyone in its path and naturally clashes with the Hulk.

Hulk is unable to hurt the Crawling Unknown no matter how hard he tries, while the monster’s acidic substance causes Hulk intense pain from the slightest touch. Eventually, Hulk impales the C.U. on a flagpole and that pole is struck by lightning (what are the odds), thus incinerating the Crawling Unknown. 

Satisfied, the Hulk leaps off into the distance. The Senate, unnerved by the rampage of the Hulk and the Crawling Unknown, approve continued financing for General Ross.

HULK Vol 1 #152 (June 1972) 

Title: But Who Will Judge the Hulk?  

Villain: General “Thunderbolt” Ross

Synopsis: This story picks up an unknown amount of time after the previous issue. General Ross and his Hulkbuster units have used their renewed funding to upgrade their equipment and are fighting it out with the Hulk in the Nevada desert.   

Captain America and Nick Fury are on hand observing the undertaking. After being taken down Hulk eventually relaxes enough to turn back into Bruce Banner. Ross has Banner placed on round the clock tranquilizers to prevent him from turning back into the Hulk.

More time goes by as the nation readies for Banner’s trial. Matt Murdock has been retained to represent Bruce. Months later, on the jet transporting Banner, Murdock, General Ross and others to New York, Bruce gets so worked up that he turns into the Hulk. As he bursts out of the aircraft, he is face to face with the Fantastic Four.

HULK Vol 1 #153 (July 1972)

Title: The World My Jury

Villain: General “Thunderbolt” Ross

Synopsis: While the Fantastic Four battle the Hulk, Matt Murdock slips away to become Daredevil and Peter Parker, taking photos for the Daily Bugle, slips away to become Spider-Man. They join the fight against the Hulk.

At length, Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) gets an opening to use his new Nega-Gamma Gun on the Hulk, causing him to pass out. He does not turn back into Bruce Banner this time, however. Later, in court, the judge throws out Matt Murdock’s motion to dismiss all charges due to the Hulk’s challenged mental state.

Mr. Fantastic testifies that Bruce Banner is not responsible for his actions as the Hulk. The Avengers (current roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision) also testify.

Presently, Mr. Fantastic is permitted by the judge to try using his Nega-Gamma Gun to transform the Hulk back into Bruce Banner. Instead, it sends the Hulk into such a frenzy that he is able to break free of the high-tech restraints that had held him up to this point.

The assembled superheroes are unable to stop the Hulk from escaping and he leaps out of the city.

HULK Vol 1 #154 (August 1972)

Title: Hell is a Very Small Hulk

Villains: The Chameleon and Hydra

Synopsis: Shortly after escaping the courtroom, the Hulk is on Long Island, driven by vague memories of Bruce Banner’s determination to reach Ant-Man’s (Hank Pym PhD’s) lab from a few issues back. Hulk breaks into that lab but Ant-Man is not there.

While rummaging through the chemicals and supplies in Pym’s safe, Hulk, by sheer comic book chance, grabs and drinks the serum which Ant-Man used to shrink the Fantastic Four down into the Microverse in the 1960s.

By a big coincidence, Hydra agents led by the Hulk and Spider-Man’s old foe the Chameleon have broken into the lab and see the Hulk and the destruction he caused. They fight and soon Pym’s serum causes the Hulk to shrink down to ant size.

The real Ant-Man arrives, summoned by the alarm that went off when Hulk broke into the lab. Ant-Man defeats the Hydra agents and the Chameleon, but the small Hulk turns back into a small Bruce Banner and the Chameleon tries to crush him as he is taken down. Ant-Man cannot tell if Bruce was killed or if the serum kicked back in and shrank him down into the Microverse.

HULK Vol 1 #155 (September 1972)

Title: Blitzkrieg 1972

Villains: Captain Axis and the Shaper of Worlds

Synopsis: Bruce Banner is shrinking down through the Microverse/ Quantum Realm. Presently he comes to rest on a planet on which World War Two seems to still be going on. He is in this world’s version of New York City but it is war-torn and under aerial attack by Nazi planes.

Bruce’s alarm causes him to turn into the Hulk, who throws wreckage at the planes, destroying some and causing the rest to fly off in retreat. After smashing a Panzer tank, Hulk vaguely recalls trying to return to Jarella’s planet and begins wandering around the city. 

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Ant-Man goes public with the fact that Bruce Banner/ the Hulk is either dead or missing. The world reacts, including Betty Ross, who feels guilt over not being with Bruce at the end. She again turns to Major Glenn Talbot for comfort. (Hey, if you can’t be with the one you love …)

Back with the Hulk, he falls in with some U.S. soldiers trying to hold firm against the Nazi forces. He fights alongside the U.S. soldiers for days and this eventually draws him into conflict with a powerful supervillain calling himself Captain Axis.

It turns out this villain is really Otto Kronsteig, a former scientific assistant to Dr. Victor Von Doom, the king of Latveria. Doom banished him to the Microverse following his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four and Ant-Man during his own travels in the Microverse in the 1960s.

Kronsteig eventually fell into the hands of the Shaper of Worlds, a subatomic cosmic entity who was like a living Cosmic Cube/ Tesseract. The Shaper of Worlds linked with the minds of lesser beings that he encountered and lived vicariously through their memories and fantasies.

In Kronsteig’s case, he had served with the Nazis during World War Two (in 1972 it was plausible for WW2 survivors to still be alive) and through him the Shaper of Worlds (at left) had transformed this planet into his dream setting – as a superpowered Nazi leading a conquest of the United States during World War Two.

The Hulk gets angrier and angrier during his battle with the super strong Captain Axis, thus making him stronger and stronger. Eventually, Hulk defeats the villain and when the Shaper of Worlds tries letting the Hulk live his fantasies of being on Jarella’s world with her, the brute’s stubborn refusal to accept a mere illusion causes the Shaper to give up and let our hero resume shrinking down through the Microverse.

HULK Vol 1 #156 (October 1972)

Title: Holocaust at the Heart of the Atom

Villain: Lord Visis

Synopsis: This story opens with Hulk at last getting his wish to return to Jarella’s world of K’ai. Hulk has Bruce Banner’s intelligence like last time he was here because the spell cast by Jarella’s Triad of Sorcerers is still in effect.   

Our green protagonist returns to Jarella’s realm only to find that she has been abducted by rival monarch Visis, who is trying to force her to marry him. Hulk resolves to get her back, and overcomes an army of Visis’ troops riding gigantic bird-creatures in an aerial attack. He then sets out for the realm of Visis. 

Back on Earth, enough time has passed (you know how weird time works regarding the Microverse/ Quantum Realm) for Glenn Talbot and Betty Ross to be a steady couple again. Glenn proposes and Betty accepts.

Returning to the planet K’ai, Visis has captured some of Jarella’s subjects and threatens to subject them to slow torture unless she agrees to marry him. At last, Jarella gives in and agrees.

Visis orders up a hasty wedding ceremony while Hulk draws nearer to the kingdom. Bruce’s intellect lets him enact a smart tactic – he herds together a large number of the kaiju-sized warthogs on K’ai and causes them to stampede through Visis’ gates and into his castle.

The wedding ceremony has begun, but not finished. Hulk rescues Jarella and returns with her to her domain. Over the next several days or weeks, Jarella leads the Hulk and her armies against Visis’ forces.

At length, Visis and his troops are occupying nothing but the Isle of Assassins. From the technology found among the ruins, Visis uses a device to create a Hulk of his own. He challenges Jarella to pit a champion of hers against one of his for the outcome of the war.

Foolishly, Jarella agrees and brings forth the Hulk as her champion. Visis reveals that he, too has a Hulk, to Jarella and Hulk’s surprise. The two Hulks battle for hours, and at length Jarella orders her Triad of Sorcerers to undo the spell that lets Hulk retain Bruce’s intellect, hoping that the usual savage Hulk will be able to subdue Visis’ Hulk.

The unleashed Hulk causes the other Hulk to disappear, and Visis dies amid the chaos. The serum with Pym Particles happens to wear off, abruptly returning Hulk to normal size back on Earth, once again separating him and Jarella, who sheds a tear over losing her true love for the third time.

HULK Vol 1 #157 (November 1972)

Title: The Rage of the Rhino

Villains: The Leader and Rhino

Synopsis: Back on Earth, the Hulk wanders the forests of New Jersey, trying to understand what has happened. His archenemy the Leader, circling the Earth in his Univac space vessel, sees that the Hulk has resurfaced and makes plans to kill him.   

NOTE: The Leader was believed dead after his defeat at the hands of the Hulk and Doc Samson in his last appearance. Readers learn now that he survived but is paralyzed. He retains his mental powers, however, and is able to run Univac though he himself is motionless in an upright glass tube.

At Hulkbuster Base, Betty and Glenn and others are rehearsing for their upcoming wedding. Hulk’s young black friend Jim Wilson is there, but eventually feels like a traitor to the Hulk by taking part in the proceedings. He is allowed to board a military flight headed for his home state of New Jersey.

Returning to the Leader, he has located his former pawn the Rhino, in comatose condition on the west coast.

NOTE: The Rhino started out in the 1960s as a recurring foe of Spider-Man, but eventually the Leader hired the Rhino and upgraded his rhino armor/ exoskeleton to make him as strong as the Hulk. Since then, the former Soviet agent had been part of the Hulk’s Rogues Gallery. 

The Leader teleports the villain to the Univac vessel, animates his comatose body via his own mind and has him don a new Rhino outfit. Meanwhile, by the next day Hulk has turned back into Bruce Banner.

In a comic book coincidence, Bruce runs into Jim Wilson and the pair catch each other up on their lives. Reluctantly, Jim tells Bruce about Glenn and Betty after Bruce tells him about Jarella. Banner is furious over the way that becoming the Hulk has ruined his life. 

The Leader-animated Rhino now appears and taunts Bruce about Glenn and Betty’s upcoming wedding and reminds banner about how he (the Leader) crashed and ruined his own attempt to marry Betty several issues ago. Bruce refuses to get angry enough to turn into the Hulk, but when the Leader/ Rhino smacks Jimmy Wilson, that angers Banner enough and he transforms.

While the Hulk battles his attacker, Jimmy slips away to call General Ross at Hulkbuster Base about the current situation with the Hulk. Ross acknowledges it but refuses to let anything ruin Betty’s wedding day. He says nothing to her and the wedding guests about the Hulk being alive and in New Jersey.

HULK Vol 1 #158 (December 1972)

Title: Frenzy on Counter-Earth

Villains: The Leader, the Rhino and the Man-Beast’s minions

Synopsis: The fighting between the Hulk and the Rhino carries over into the Leader’s Univac vessel. To concentrate on piloting his now out of control spacecraft amid the chaos, the Leader is forced to release his mental control over the Rhino’s body.

This causes the Rhino to come out of his coma and, though confused, he fights back against the attacking Hulk. The Leader maneuvers both of them into one of Univac’s shuttlecrafts, and he launches them away, hoping to kill them both.

The army scientists at Hulkbuster Base have been monitoring the battle via satellite and inform General Ross that a ship with Hulk and Rhino aboard seems to be hurtling toward the sun. Ross acknowledges the message but still refuses to ruin Betty’s post-ceremony wedding reception with such news. 

Hours later, the Univac shuttlecraft misses the sun but keeps on going until it crash-lands in the New York City equivalent on Counter-Earth.

NOTE: Counter-Earth was the alternate Earth created by the High Evolutionary, a sometime hero and sometime villain in Marvel stories. He created this planet as an experiment to observe the development of an Earth-like world to see if its people would repeat the mistakes of the original Earth. 

Hulk defeats Rhino but finds himself caught in the middle of a battle between the High Evolutionary’s “good” animal-men led by Adam Warlock and his “bad” animal-men led by the Man-Beast. (This ongoing war on Counter-Earth had been the storyline in Adam Warlock’s own series at the time.)

The Good Animal-Men (New Men) lead the Hulk to their hideout and their leader Adam Warlock. Meanwhile, Counter-Earth’s General Ross, its Betty Ross-Banner and her husband Bruce Banner arrive to study the downed shuttle.

NOTE: On Counter-Earth during the Adam Warlock series, the High Evolutionary had prevented the origins of super-powered beings outside of his New Men. Since Bruce Banner never became the Hulk on Counter-Earth, he and Betty married years ago. This issue was an attempt to stimulate the sales of Warlock via this guest-appearance in the more popular Hulk series.

Ultimately, Counter-Earth’s Bruce Banner repairs the shuttlecraft, following which the good New Men and the Hulk fight over it with the bad New Men allied with the Rhino. Hulk wins and takes the Rhino aboard. The Leader, psychically monitoring the situation from millions of miles away, has the shuttlecraft take off and start its return journey to him on Univac.

NOTE: When Adam Warlock’s first series got canceled, Marvel finished his storyline in future issues of the Hulk.  

HULK Vol 1 #159 (January 1973)

Title: Two Years Before the Abomination

Villain: The Abomination

Synopsis: The Univac’s shuttlecraft crash-lands back on Earth in America’s desert southwest before it can reach the Univac. Hulk and Rhino are back on Earth, but Rhino is unconscious.

Hulk leaves the area and Hulk sightings let the world know he is still alive.

When the Hulk’s old foe the Abomination – another gamma-spawned monster – emerges from his own long coma, General “Thunderbolt” Ross strikes a deal with him. In exchange for legal clemency, the Abomination must capture the Hulk for him.

The next time the Hulk is sighted, Abomination is unleashed against him. After the destructive battle goes on and on, the Abomination taunts the Hulk about Betty Ross having married Major Glenn Talbot recently. The enraged Hulk knocks out his foe and leaps off to search for Betty and Glenn.

HULK Vol 1 #160 (February 1973)

Title: Nightmare in Niagara Falls

Villain: Tiger-Shark

Synopsis: Hulk, while heading for Niagara Falls, where the Abomination told him Betty and Glenn were honeymooning, lingers by a lake and calms down enough to turn back into Bruce Banner. (Yes, it’s always comic book convenience how much Hulk’s memory can retain.)

Bruce wakes up the next day and uses the traveler’s cheques sown into his pants to buy clothing and a ticket to Niagara Falls, driven by a barely conscious compulsion. He arrives in Niagara Falls and when his pilot mentions honeymooning there, it raises the memory of Glenn and Betty from his subconscious.

He turns into the Hulk and begins rampaging around the area. Tiger-Shark, a recurring villain of the Sub-Mariner, has been hiding out in the waters around Niagara Falls since his most recent battle with the Sub-Mariner. He assumes that Subby has sent the Hulk after him based on the recent reports of Hulk, Sub-Mariner and Dr. Strange being spotted together around the world in recent years.

NOTE: That’s because those three plus the Silver Surfer, Clea and the Valkyrie were members of the Defenders, who at the time kept their existence as a superteam a secret.

Hulk and Tiger-Shark fight it out, both in the water and out. Tiger-Shark is winning while they are underwater, but the fight carries over on to the land, giving Hulk the advantage. He defeats Tiger-Shark and tosses his unconscious body under the falls, then leaps into Canada.

HULK Vol 1 #161 (March 1973)

Title: For the Life of a Mutant

Villain: The Mimic

Synopsis: Hulk clashes with a detachment of Royal Canadian Mounted Police and easily defeats them before bounding even further northward into the country. Meanwhile, the X-Men member the Beast and his long-ago girlfriend Vera Cantor are on an urgent visit to Canada and hear the news about Hulk’s presence there.

Hoping they don’t run into the Hulk the pair continue their journey to the deep woods and their destination – a cabin co-owned by Vera and her new love interest – the Mimic (Calvin Rankin). The Mimic was a former villain turned member of the X-Men but his ego and brashness made relations with his teammates tempestuous at best.

Calvin had quit the team years ago and had since begun dating Vera Cantor. Though the clash between the X-Men and the recurring Avengers foe the Super-Adaptoid seemed to leave the Mimic bereft of his mutant powers, they had been returning in recent months.

Unfortunately those powers had come back in a deadly form. Usually the Mimic’s body could emulate the superpowers or exceptional abilities of other people at will, but this time around his body was instead draining the life from others at random moments.

He and Vera had moved to this isolated cabin to keep far away from populated areas but neither of their scientific skills had been able to cure him so far. (Meaning they should have sought out Charles Xavier aka Professor X for help, but you know comic book writing.)

Mimic and Vera hoped that Beast’s aka Hank McCoy’s genius could cure him. Hank set about trying it in the following days, putting aside his old feelings for Vera from long ago. Meanwhile, the Mimic’s malfunctioning powers were draining power from the nearest other superpowered being – the Hulk.

The Hulk was miles away but started feeling weaker and weaker. Wanting to “smash” whoever was causing it, he started leaping in the direction of where the weakness seemed the worst. Eventually that led him to the cabin of Vera and Calvin.

By now the Hulk had been drained of so much strength that he was down to Beast levels, so when the two fought it was an even match. The watching Mimic didn’t want to see his old teammate injured or worse, so he took over the fight with the Hulk. He intentionally put his malfunctioning powers in high gear, draining so much gamma radiation from the Hulk that it caused him to die.

The Hulk weakly wanders away while Vera and Hank mourn the Mimic’s death.

FOR MY LOOK AT THE FIRST TWENTY HULK STORIES FROM THE 1960s CLICK HERE.

FOR MY LOOK AT THE HULK’S FIRST TWENTY STORIES AS A MEMBER OF THE DEFENDERS CLICK HERE.