10:18 AM
Brad
Cover Date: January 1963
Plot Overview: The first story starts with Thunderbolt Ross showing footage of the Hulk to Bruce Banner and Rick Jones. It's up to Banner to rid the world of the Hulk menace. Betty secretly pines for Bruce after he leaves. The scene shifts to the underworld where Tryannus is plotting his revenge on the surface world. He was banished by Merlin but has stayed alive by using the Fountain of Youth that Ponce De Leon was searching for. He's also using the technology of an underground race of creatures that he's enslaved.
Bruce and Rick return to the Ross house to find that Betty is with Tyrannus. Tyrannus is claiming to be an archaeologist and has asked Betty to show him some nearby caves. Betty hopes this will make Bruce jealous. Tyrannus eventually takes Betty hostage and Bruce returns as the Hulk.
Tyrannus uses gas to capture the Hulk and Rick. Tyrannus then has the Hulk fight a giant robot in a gladiator style fight. Bruce loses control and goes on a rampage. He destroys the robot and goes after Tyrannus. Tyrannus uses Betty to delay the Hulk and then stuns him with a ray gun. Tyrannus makes the Hulk do many tasks in his service but grows bored with it. He decides to have the Hulk killed. Just then, Rick manages to rescue Betty and together they free the Hulk. The Hulk smashes the main pillars to Tyrannus's kingdom just like Sampson and Tyrannus is trapped in the underworld. The story ends with the Hulk thinking that humans should be scared of him.
The second story starts off with Thunderbolt Ross using a special missile to freeze the Hulk. The Hulk's body heat quickly melts the ice and he escapes. The Hulk becomes Banner again and he realizes that it's becoming harder to become Banner again. The scene shifts to Asia where General Fang is conquering many towns.
The news reaches Banner and Rick and Banner decides to intervene as the Hulk. They arrive after some issues on a plane and the Hulk disguises himself as the Abominable Snowman to scare the soldiers. He reeks havoc on the army of General Fang and news returns to Fang. He uses the 3D image of a dragon to lure Hulk into a cage. With the Hulk captured Fang decides to move on to the next town. Rick releases the Hulk from the prison and the Hulk makes short work of Fang's army. Fang tries to flee but the Hulk easily captures him. The Hulk drops Fang in enemy territory and then heads back to America. The Hulk mentions that he has no intention of going anywhere.
My Take: This is the first issue in awhile where they didn't try to shake things up and I think this issue was better for it. I like how Banner is slowly losing control of the Hulk in that form. It makes sense and you wonder every time he changes if this is the time where the Hulk takes over. The art has also gotten really good. The Hulk really stands out among the other characters for Marvel right now. Mostly because he's green but the art just feels different for this book.
I really liked the first story. It was a quick read and I thought Tyrannus was your typical Silver Age super villain. He had a fairly original history and he was a good foil for the Hulk. The second story I wasn't as fond of. They've gone the hero taking out a Communist army 3 or 4 times already and I get bored by it everytime. I would rather the hero struggle more like he did in the first story. I don't like the stories where they just roll over regular human beings as much.
As I mentioned earlier, the book seems to have a defined direction and it really helped the stories. It seemed like up until this point that I was getting a different direction every issue. It was really dragging down the quality of the stories.
I'm not a big Hulk fan. I've read some issues here and there but I've never really gone out of my way to read Hulk titles. With that said, the Hulk has the most well defined and developed cast of supporting characters and it's really made the book more enjoyable. He has a lot of regular people to play off of and I think that's really developed Bruce Banner as a character compared to Donald Blake or Henry Pym. I'll be kind of sad to see the book go after issue #6.
I'd give this **3/4 out of *****
Notes: This issue is the first appearance of Tryannus. He'll pop up here and there over the years to bother the Hulk or the Avengers. He never becomes a major villain or anything though. This is the second to last issue of the Hulk. The series is going to be cancelled with issue #6 in March.
Next Issue: Strange Tales #104
Posted in: Betty Ross,Hulk,Incredible Hulk,Rick Jones,Thunderbolt Ross,Tyrannus
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