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Essential Incredible Hulk #1
Essential Incredible Hulk, Volume 1
Caught in the heart of a nuclear explosion, victim of gamma radiation gone wild Dr. Robert Bruce Banner now finds himself transformed during the times of stress into the dark personification of his repressed rage and the Incredible Hulk, the most powerful man-like creature ever to walk the face of the earth! Relive his earliest adventures here! Collects HULK #1-6 and TALES TO ASTONISH #60-91.
528 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 1967
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242 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,567 books2,336 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 23, 2015
Hulk Smash!: The Musical!!
Suggested titles for musical numbers:
Super Soldier Serum Serenade
Gamma Irradiated Blues
Blame it on Daddy (Duet between Bruce and Betty) (Take that Ang Lee!)
Purple Pants Polka
Strongest One There Is
Lost Teen Brigade
Gonna Pound You into a Puddle of Jelly
Hulk Buster Bossa Nova
The Man Inside Me (Hulk) (Featuring the Hulkettes)
The Monster Inside Me (Bruce) (Feature the Hulkettes)
Banner, Puny Banner
Little Men With Guns Hurt Hulk (Upbeat, dance number)
Puppies, Kitties and Bunnehs (These Things Hulk Likes Best)
(Leave Hulk) Alone – Hulk sheds a (gamma-irradiated) tear at the end of this curtain closer
When Bruce transforms into the Hulk, it will be done as an interpretive dance using big long purple ribbons.
And for the trolls, who think my reviews are schizo (not that I’m denying it), here’s a real review.
This is prehistoric Hulk written by Stan Lee. The Hulk character was a tough one to draw a bead on and make compelling and most importantly, marketable, which is why the number of different versions of the Hulk in this volume alone will make your head spin. From brute to toddler brain to communicative lummox – does he sound like he grew up in Brooklyn or Iowa - is he gray or green? The only thing consistent is his pants – always purple. He even sports a pair of ugly-assed shorts for awhile. It’s no surprise that the original Hulk run lasted only six issues.
A workable concept that Marvel hit upon was have Hulk interact with other heroes in the Marvel universe – Spider-Man, Ben Grimm, Hercules, Daredevil. These crossover issues are some of the few that jump out from this collection. There’s a two-part issue (sadly not included here) that saw the combined might of the Fantastic Four and The Avengers try to take the renegade Hulk down. I believe it was the first battle between The Thing and the Hulk. It’s worth looking for.
I understand that putting these compilations together in black and white makes them affordable, but I still dislike them. The crossover from color to newspaper strip look rarely works and just makes the art work flat and unreadable.
For Hulk archivists and completists only.
Suggested titles for musical numbers:
Super Soldier Serum Serenade
Gamma Irradiated Blues
Blame it on Daddy (Duet between Bruce and Betty) (Take that Ang Lee!)
Purple Pants Polka
Strongest One There Is
Lost Teen Brigade
Gonna Pound You into a Puddle of Jelly
Hulk Buster Bossa Nova
The Man Inside Me (Hulk) (Featuring the Hulkettes)
The Monster Inside Me (Bruce) (Feature the Hulkettes)
Banner, Puny Banner
Little Men With Guns Hurt Hulk (Upbeat, dance number)
Puppies, Kitties and Bunnehs (These Things Hulk Likes Best)
(Leave Hulk) Alone – Hulk sheds a (gamma-irradiated) tear at the end of this curtain closer
When Bruce transforms into the Hulk, it will be done as an interpretive dance using big long purple ribbons.
And for the trolls, who think my reviews are schizo (not that I’m denying it), here’s a real review.
This is prehistoric Hulk written by Stan Lee. The Hulk character was a tough one to draw a bead on and make compelling and most importantly, marketable, which is why the number of different versions of the Hulk in this volume alone will make your head spin. From brute to toddler brain to communicative lummox – does he sound like he grew up in Brooklyn or Iowa - is he gray or green? The only thing consistent is his pants – always purple. He even sports a pair of ugly-assed shorts for awhile. It’s no surprise that the original Hulk run lasted only six issues.
A workable concept that Marvel hit upon was have Hulk interact with other heroes in the Marvel universe – Spider-Man, Ben Grimm, Hercules, Daredevil. These crossover issues are some of the few that jump out from this collection. There’s a two-part issue (sadly not included here) that saw the combined might of the Fantastic Four and The Avengers try to take the renegade Hulk down. I believe it was the first battle between The Thing and the Hulk. It’s worth looking for.
I understand that putting these compilations together in black and white makes them affordable, but I still dislike them. The crossover from color to newspaper strip look rarely works and just makes the art work flat and unreadable.
For Hulk archivists and completists only.
August 12, 2011
Like all of the "essential" collections that cover the first decade or so of Marvel comics I thoroughly enjoyed not so much because it was a good read, but because it was good "history". It was very interesting seeing how the Hulk evolved through this volume: how his intelligence slowly dropped over time, how the "mechanics" of how/when/why he changes from and into Bruce Banner changed and evolved. It was incredibly interesting to see how in the first few issues he was banner at day and Hulk at night, it seemed to have very clearly stat as a modern retelling of Dr. Jeckal and Mr. Hyde. I also enjoyed seeing the early incarnations of "The Leader" and "The Abomination," bith characters I knew of but had never really read in comics.
May 24, 2017
The earlier comics were great, but, when it got to the Tales to Astonish series, it wasn't quite as enjoyable. Then again, I'm not a comic connoisseur, so, what do I know?
EDIT: My opinion improved the second time around; the later comics were just as good as the early ones.
EDIT: My opinion improved the second time around; the later comics were just as good as the early ones.
October 20, 2018
Mild-mannered nuclear scientist Bruce Banner worked in America’s weapons program, and developed their latest improvement on the atomic bomb, the gamma bomb. As it was about to be tested, Dr. Banner spotted a teenager named Rick Jones, who’d wandered into the blast zone on a dare. Banner saved Rick from the bomb, but was directly exposed to a massive dose of gamma rays. That evening, as the sun set, Dr. Banner transformed into the rampaging monster soon to be known as–the Hulk!
Created in 1962 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, old Jade-Jaws had a short run in The Incredible Hulk, only lasting six issues. Sales were not good, but the character was too awesome not to use, so he was in the first few issues of The Avengers, and was later brought back for solo stories in Tales to Astonish, first sharing that book with Giant-Man and then with Namor the Sub-Mariner. This omnibus volume collects the Hulk issues, and TtA #59-91.
In the first issue, we are introduced to Bruce Banner, a mild-mannered scientist who abhors physical violence, yet has no ethical qualms with creating enormously destructive weapons for the American military. (Communism was an existential threat to all that was good and American.) He’s developed the most powerful nuclear weapon yet, the gamma bomb, and it’s about to be tested at an Army base somewhere in the American Southwest.
He clashes with the military officer in charge of the base and weapons testing program, General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. General Ross is a blustering bully who despises Dr. Banner for being a physical weakling, but is covetous of the neat weapons the scientist has produced. He drags along his daughter Betty, who naturally has the hots for Bruce and vice versa. In this first installment, Betty is very much the damsel in distress type, whose positive qualities are beauty and compassion.
And then there’s Dr. Banner’s colleague Igor. Igor is worried that some important details of the gamma bomb’s construction have never been shared with the rest of the research team. If anything were to…happen…to Bruce, how would they carry on? Dr. Banner assures Igor that the plans are safely tucked away in his quarters.
As everyone hunkers down for the bomb test, Dr. Banner suddenly sees a young man in a jalopy who has somehow gotten past the security perimeter and into the blast zone. Bruce tells Igor to stop the countdown while he removes the teenager personally, not trusting the military police not to just shoot the kid. Igor decides not to stop the countdown in the hope that Dr. Banner will die.
Bruce manages to reach the boy, Rick Jones, in time to throw the lad into a protective trench, but is himself directly in the path of a massive dose of gamma rays. He’s surprised to wake up a few hours later, not only not dead, but not dying or even sick from radiation poisoning. Rick, an orphan, expresses his gratitude to the scientist. But all is not ending happily, as the sun sets and Dr. Bruce Banner transforms into a monster.
The monster rampages across Gamma Base, and is swiftly nicknamed “the Hulk” by the hapless soldiers it encounters. Rick Jones attempts to reason with the Hulk, or at least mitigate the damage it’s causing. General Ross develops a personal enmity towards the Hulk that will drive his characterization for decades. Near dawn, the Hulk realizes it needs to get to Dr. Banner’s cabin, arriving just in time to find Igor ransacking the place to find the gamma bomb formula.
Igor is knocked out, and the sun rises, turning the Hulk into Bruce Banner. Now the soldiers arrive, and arrest Igor as they found out off-panel that he was a Communist spy. Rick Jones points out that the Hulk looks nothing like Bruce, and the soldiers don’t press the matter. Betty shows up to be nice to Bruce, but is pushed out the door so that Dr. Banner can rest. Bruce moodily reflects that he doesn’t know it’s over. Nightfall may again bring forth–the Hulk!
That was an awesome first issue–wait, there’s more? Turns out that the imprisoned Igor has a secret communicator hidden in his thumbnail, and alerts his Soviet masters to the existence of the Hulk. This message comes to the attention of the Gargoyle, a hideously deformed Communist scientist.
The brilliant mind of the Gargoyle puts together a plan to capture the Hulk, which works. The monster and Rick Jones are then rocketed back to the Gargoyle’s lair behind the Iron Curtain. Except that by the time they land, the sun has come up and Dr. Banner returned.
The Gargoyle, who is very smart, figures out the truth, and has a bit of a breakdown. Why would Dr. Banner do that to himself? Why would anyone want to turn into a twisted monster? A hideously deformed thing like the Gargoyle? Bruce explains that it was an accident, but more importantly, he knows how to cure the Gargoyle. It seems that the Gargoyle was once relatively normal, but working on the inferior Communist atomic bombs exposed him to deforming radiation. Bruce can’t fix himself, but he can fix this!
Sure enough, Dr. Banner is able to rig a device that erases the Gargoyle’s deformities (at the cost of his genius.) The former Gargoyle rails against a picture of Nikita Khrushchev, rockets Bruce and Rick back to America, and blows up his lair with all the evil Communists still in it. Now that’s an ending!
In this first issue, the Hulk was supposed to have gray skin, but the printing process of the time couldn’t quite make that shade of gray work, so his skin tone was all over the place, including a panel where it’s outright green. Stan Lee liked that color best, so it stayed green from then on.
Stan kept tinkering with the concept in these first six issues. How smart is the Hulk? What triggers the transformation? What’s the relationship between the Hulk and Rick Jones? Is the Hulk just Dr. Banner with his rage issues on the outside, or a completely separate personality? It all changed issue to issue. One important plot thread that did start here is suspicion that Dr. Banner is a traitor to the United States as he keeps disappearing at odd moments and turning up behind the Iron Curtain.
Tales to Astonish #59 picks up after the Hulk’s brief time with the Avengers, as Hank Pym, aka Giant-Man, decides to go in search of the green giant. This is a showcase issue for both characters, as they’re tricked into battle by the Human Top (later known as the Whirlwind), a mutant with the power of super-spinning. It’s established here that the Human Top is so nondescript out of costume that even people who have seen him unmasked before don’t recognize him. (This became a long-running plot point.)
#60 starts the new solo series for the Hulk. It’s now settled that the trigger for Bruce Banner to transform is over-excitement–any stressful or anger-inducing situation may cause him to Hulk out. Also, the Hulk is now not very bright and believes Banner to be a separate person. The latest thing Dr. Banner is working on for the military is a robotic war suit (really more in Tony Stark’s line) which is promptly stolen by a spy. The Hulk fights it in a two-parter.
#61 introduces Major Glen(n) Talbot, the new head of security for Gamma Base. He quickly develops the hots for Betty Ross (which her father encourages) and a deep suspicion of Bruce Banner.
#62 has the first glimpse of the Hulk’s first truly iconic enemy, the Leader. At this point, he’s a mysterious figure who sends the Chameleon to infiltrate Gamma Base and find out what happened to the spy who was supposed to steal the robot war suit. (The Chameleon never does complete that mission, but is otherwise a huge hassle.)
#63 reveals the origin of the Leader. He used to be an ordinary laborer disposing of chemical waste when exposed to gamma radiation. The rays turned him green and gave him super-intelligence. Unlike the Gargoyle, the Leader likes his new look, and wants to recruit the Hulk, the only other gamma being on Earth (at that time) to work for him. The Leader is working for the Communists so he can have resources to build his army of humanoids, but plans to betray them when convenient.
The Leader plotline ends in #74 when he is undone by his own quest for ultimate knowledge, and #75 sends the Hulk to the future for a few issues. While the Hulk’s away and presumed dead, Rick Jones finally reveals that Bruce Banner and the Hulk are the same person.
In #81, the Secret Empire storyline begins, with a mysterious group planning to take over the world, and wanting to use the Hulk as a weapon. They enlist former star baseball pitcher Boomerang (suspended from the league for “accidentally” killing a hitter with a baseball) as their agent. Infighting collapses the Empire before they get much of anywhere (they’d return ) but Boomerang is a recurring problem for several issues.
In #90, a Communist spy named Emil Blonsky uses a gamma ray device Bruce Banner had invented to try to control his transformations to give himself gamma powers. The Abomination was stronger than the Hulk, in full possession of his senses, and permanently transformed, which made him a good prize for the Stranger, a powerful alien who’d intended to enslave the Hulk. Naturally, the Abomination would eventually escape to become a recurring Hulk foe.
This is classic early Marvel; Jack Kirby, John Buscema and Gil Kane create dynamic art, and Stan clearly loved writing ol’ Jade-Jaws. There’s not a lot of subtlety or character development here, with Hulk’s personality ebbing and flowing as the plot demands. Betty is barely there as Bruce’s love interest and a target for Major Talbot’s courtship.
Overall, this omnibus volume is excellent value for money if you are a Hulk fanatic, and well worth reading at the library for other Marvel fans.
Created in 1962 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, old Jade-Jaws had a short run in The Incredible Hulk, only lasting six issues. Sales were not good, but the character was too awesome not to use, so he was in the first few issues of The Avengers, and was later brought back for solo stories in Tales to Astonish, first sharing that book with Giant-Man and then with Namor the Sub-Mariner. This omnibus volume collects the Hulk issues, and TtA #59-91.
In the first issue, we are introduced to Bruce Banner, a mild-mannered scientist who abhors physical violence, yet has no ethical qualms with creating enormously destructive weapons for the American military. (Communism was an existential threat to all that was good and American.) He’s developed the most powerful nuclear weapon yet, the gamma bomb, and it’s about to be tested at an Army base somewhere in the American Southwest.
He clashes with the military officer in charge of the base and weapons testing program, General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. General Ross is a blustering bully who despises Dr. Banner for being a physical weakling, but is covetous of the neat weapons the scientist has produced. He drags along his daughter Betty, who naturally has the hots for Bruce and vice versa. In this first installment, Betty is very much the damsel in distress type, whose positive qualities are beauty and compassion.
And then there’s Dr. Banner’s colleague Igor. Igor is worried that some important details of the gamma bomb’s construction have never been shared with the rest of the research team. If anything were to…happen…to Bruce, how would they carry on? Dr. Banner assures Igor that the plans are safely tucked away in his quarters.
As everyone hunkers down for the bomb test, Dr. Banner suddenly sees a young man in a jalopy who has somehow gotten past the security perimeter and into the blast zone. Bruce tells Igor to stop the countdown while he removes the teenager personally, not trusting the military police not to just shoot the kid. Igor decides not to stop the countdown in the hope that Dr. Banner will die.
Bruce manages to reach the boy, Rick Jones, in time to throw the lad into a protective trench, but is himself directly in the path of a massive dose of gamma rays. He’s surprised to wake up a few hours later, not only not dead, but not dying or even sick from radiation poisoning. Rick, an orphan, expresses his gratitude to the scientist. But all is not ending happily, as the sun sets and Dr. Bruce Banner transforms into a monster.
The monster rampages across Gamma Base, and is swiftly nicknamed “the Hulk” by the hapless soldiers it encounters. Rick Jones attempts to reason with the Hulk, or at least mitigate the damage it’s causing. General Ross develops a personal enmity towards the Hulk that will drive his characterization for decades. Near dawn, the Hulk realizes it needs to get to Dr. Banner’s cabin, arriving just in time to find Igor ransacking the place to find the gamma bomb formula.
Igor is knocked out, and the sun rises, turning the Hulk into Bruce Banner. Now the soldiers arrive, and arrest Igor as they found out off-panel that he was a Communist spy. Rick Jones points out that the Hulk looks nothing like Bruce, and the soldiers don’t press the matter. Betty shows up to be nice to Bruce, but is pushed out the door so that Dr. Banner can rest. Bruce moodily reflects that he doesn’t know it’s over. Nightfall may again bring forth–the Hulk!
That was an awesome first issue–wait, there’s more? Turns out that the imprisoned Igor has a secret communicator hidden in his thumbnail, and alerts his Soviet masters to the existence of the Hulk. This message comes to the attention of the Gargoyle, a hideously deformed Communist scientist.
The brilliant mind of the Gargoyle puts together a plan to capture the Hulk, which works. The monster and Rick Jones are then rocketed back to the Gargoyle’s lair behind the Iron Curtain. Except that by the time they land, the sun has come up and Dr. Banner returned.
The Gargoyle, who is very smart, figures out the truth, and has a bit of a breakdown. Why would Dr. Banner do that to himself? Why would anyone want to turn into a twisted monster? A hideously deformed thing like the Gargoyle? Bruce explains that it was an accident, but more importantly, he knows how to cure the Gargoyle. It seems that the Gargoyle was once relatively normal, but working on the inferior Communist atomic bombs exposed him to deforming radiation. Bruce can’t fix himself, but he can fix this!
Sure enough, Dr. Banner is able to rig a device that erases the Gargoyle’s deformities (at the cost of his genius.) The former Gargoyle rails against a picture of Nikita Khrushchev, rockets Bruce and Rick back to America, and blows up his lair with all the evil Communists still in it. Now that’s an ending!
In this first issue, the Hulk was supposed to have gray skin, but the printing process of the time couldn’t quite make that shade of gray work, so his skin tone was all over the place, including a panel where it’s outright green. Stan Lee liked that color best, so it stayed green from then on.
Stan kept tinkering with the concept in these first six issues. How smart is the Hulk? What triggers the transformation? What’s the relationship between the Hulk and Rick Jones? Is the Hulk just Dr. Banner with his rage issues on the outside, or a completely separate personality? It all changed issue to issue. One important plot thread that did start here is suspicion that Dr. Banner is a traitor to the United States as he keeps disappearing at odd moments and turning up behind the Iron Curtain.
Tales to Astonish #59 picks up after the Hulk’s brief time with the Avengers, as Hank Pym, aka Giant-Man, decides to go in search of the green giant. This is a showcase issue for both characters, as they’re tricked into battle by the Human Top (later known as the Whirlwind), a mutant with the power of super-spinning. It’s established here that the Human Top is so nondescript out of costume that even people who have seen him unmasked before don’t recognize him. (This became a long-running plot point.)
#60 starts the new solo series for the Hulk. It’s now settled that the trigger for Bruce Banner to transform is over-excitement–any stressful or anger-inducing situation may cause him to Hulk out. Also, the Hulk is now not very bright and believes Banner to be a separate person. The latest thing Dr. Banner is working on for the military is a robotic war suit (really more in Tony Stark’s line) which is promptly stolen by a spy. The Hulk fights it in a two-parter.
#61 introduces Major Glen(n) Talbot, the new head of security for Gamma Base. He quickly develops the hots for Betty Ross (which her father encourages) and a deep suspicion of Bruce Banner.
#62 has the first glimpse of the Hulk’s first truly iconic enemy, the Leader. At this point, he’s a mysterious figure who sends the Chameleon to infiltrate Gamma Base and find out what happened to the spy who was supposed to steal the robot war suit. (The Chameleon never does complete that mission, but is otherwise a huge hassle.)
#63 reveals the origin of the Leader. He used to be an ordinary laborer disposing of chemical waste when exposed to gamma radiation. The rays turned him green and gave him super-intelligence. Unlike the Gargoyle, the Leader likes his new look, and wants to recruit the Hulk, the only other gamma being on Earth (at that time) to work for him. The Leader is working for the Communists so he can have resources to build his army of humanoids, but plans to betray them when convenient.
The Leader plotline ends in #74 when he is undone by his own quest for ultimate knowledge, and #75 sends the Hulk to the future for a few issues. While the Hulk’s away and presumed dead, Rick Jones finally reveals that Bruce Banner and the Hulk are the same person.
In #81, the Secret Empire storyline begins, with a mysterious group planning to take over the world, and wanting to use the Hulk as a weapon. They enlist former star baseball pitcher Boomerang (suspended from the league for “accidentally” killing a hitter with a baseball) as their agent. Infighting collapses the Empire before they get much of anywhere (they’d return ) but Boomerang is a recurring problem for several issues.
In #90, a Communist spy named Emil Blonsky uses a gamma ray device Bruce Banner had invented to try to control his transformations to give himself gamma powers. The Abomination was stronger than the Hulk, in full possession of his senses, and permanently transformed, which made him a good prize for the Stranger, a powerful alien who’d intended to enslave the Hulk. Naturally, the Abomination would eventually escape to become a recurring Hulk foe.
This is classic early Marvel; Jack Kirby, John Buscema and Gil Kane create dynamic art, and Stan clearly loved writing ol’ Jade-Jaws. There’s not a lot of subtlety or character development here, with Hulk’s personality ebbing and flowing as the plot demands. Betty is barely there as Bruce’s love interest and a target for Major Talbot’s courtship.
Overall, this omnibus volume is excellent value for money if you are a Hulk fanatic, and well worth reading at the library for other Marvel fans.
October 15, 2023
While Marvel has tried, via relentless promoter Stan Lee, to retroactively claim that the first Hulk series was a mini-series, that’s not actually true. The first series featuring the Hulk was canceled. Exactly why might be open to debate. Poor sales? Lack of interest from fans? Lack of interest from the creators? Creators busy with other projects? No clear way of making the concept work on a monthly basis without it becoming ridiculously cyclic very quickly? In the end, does it even matter why, the series was canceled. Was the Hulk a failure? Clearly not. Remember that The Uncanny X-Men was canceled several times as well, before it got revamped and became the hugely successful juggernaut it is today. The Hulk just needed the right combination of elements to make it viable. What we have in this collection is the appearances of the Hulk from his first series to just before his regular solo appearances in Tales to Astonish came to a close.
Hulk #1-5 - From the creators of the Fantastic Four, Jack Kirby and Lee comes their second success (although this one kind of floundered a bit until it found the right audience): the Incredible Hulk. And these issues illustrate just how difficult it can be to find the right formula to make a successful series. Even if you’re the brilliantly talented, creative powerhouse of Jack Kirby. Each issue among these offers slight tweaks as Kirby & Lee try to find the combination of elements to make the series work. Supporting characters include Rick Jones, boy sidekick, General “Thunderbolt” Ross, an ongoing antagonist for our hero-monster, Betty Ross, love-struck daughter of Gen. Ross, and our star Dr. Bruce Banner, physicist and atomic scientist without peer who becomes the green-skinned monstrosity. Although when the Hulk is first introduced he is gray skinned, but that appears to have been an alleged coloring mistake, still it would provide the basis for some amazing stories in future years. There’s a string of interesting villains here as well. A Soviet agent named The Gargoyle, the Toad-Men from space, the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, a dastardly plot (or two) by Soviets to capture the Hulk, Tyrannus and his Subterranean Army, the warped communist General Fang. There is even some testing being done by the creators to see if it works better to have Rick Jones able to mentally control the Hulk, or if having Banner’s mind in control of the Hulk, or have him be a bestial personality, or a gruff, scheming individual. It seems like every issue has some slight tweaking of the character concept taking place while Kirby and Lee figure out what is going to work best. Instead of the intelligence of a super-man, the Hulk offers a modern twist on the concept of a tragic character of Jekyll & Hyde, nevertheless it’s important to remember that this concept is still basically Marvel’s take on Superman. Instead of having the ultimate Uber-mensch, we a tragic, flawed man who becomes a powerhouse of unlimited strength. Both characters would appear to fly by making incredible leaps into the air, but in the case of Superman, he was just eventually granted the ability to fly. Superman may have had the best attributes of being male, but Hulk, in typical Marvel fashion, is given all the worst. But it makes for a far more interesting character, and for more entertaining stories.
Skipping over the Hulk’s appearance in Fantastic Four #12, we move on to Hulk #6 - With Kirby leaving for other projects, the Hulk needed a new artist. And Steve Ditko takes over. This issue the characters look very different from the Kirby issues, and even the pacing is different. It’s a fun issue, and Ditko does a remarkable job filling in on this last issue of the series. And the Metal Master really is a threat worthy of needing the Hulk. So this one is certainly different, but it was still great to see our characters reimagined by a new artist as talented as Ditko.
What follows at this point is the Hulk founding and then quitting the Avengers, running rampant in NYC and a couple of guest-starring appearances: see Avengers #1-3, Fantastic Four #25-26, Avengers #5, Amazing Spider-Man #14 & Tales to Astonish #59. But this volume doesn’t include those stories, it picks up the Hulk’s saga then with stories from Tales to Astonish #60-91.
Tales to Astonish #60-61 - While Steve Ditko is usually associated with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, he also had a run with the Hulk as well. He first worked on the character in Hulk #6 and then in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (the latter included, along with the aforementioned Tales to Astonish #59, in Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Man or Monster?), but his run on the Hulk officially began here with these stories. This 2-part story starts off with the Hulk confronting a robot built by his alter ego, Bruce Banner. It may not be the most auspicious beginning, but it does have a lot of Ditko touches. We’re also reintroduced to General Thunderbolt Ross and Betty Ross, as well as meeting Major Talbot for the first time.
Tales to Astonish #62 - Pits the Hulk against the Chameleon, introduces the Leader, and offers the return of Rick Jones, but the story itself is all very pedestrian.
Tales to Astonish #63-64 - The Leader is actually revealed while he and his “humanoid” creations take center stage against the Hulk. This begins a deep-dive into anti-communist propaganda.
Tales to Astonish #65-67 - More “Red baiting” as the Hulk is captured by the Soviets and taken to foreign lands. And sadly Ditko ends his run on the series after only eight installments.
Tales to Astonish #68-69 - Jack Kirby is back! And will be until #83, with at least plots and layouts. But what’s even more interesting with this transition is reading the change in emphasis and style. This is a perfect example of how little influence Stan Lee actually had on these early Marvel titles as both Ditko and Kirby had very unique ways of telling a story, but seeing this switch from one creative powerhouse to another, even with Lee still “writing” the book, there is a massive shift and change in the word choices, as well as tonal quality. Had Lee truly been “writing” these comics and not just editing them, this transition would not have been so pronounced. In any case, Kirby wraps up much of the literal cliffhanger Ditko had left the strip in and quickly moves forward with lost story threads and dangling plot lines. Ditko’s subtler magic is replaced with Kirby’s boisterous power.
Tales to Astonish #70-74 - Kirby now embarks on an attempt to recreate the Hulk (and the green guy now shares the title with Namor, as the Giant-Man and Wasp series ended with their story in #69). Experimenting with the basic concept of this reimagined Jekyll/Hyde character. He conceived a way for Banner to be injured so that he must remain the Hulk or he will die (a similar method and complication that is the basis for Iron Man’s initial premise). Thus begins a story arc that leaves the Hulk with Banner’s mind, but his personality is still more brutal than that of Banner, so we’re reading about an altogether different hybrid here (one that Peter David would explore in more detail many years from now). Rick Jones continues to be integral, and the Leader takes center stage as the antagonist to be dealt with, but the Red-baiting has subsided a bit. Instead, Kirby takes things into a more fantastical direction, introducing the Watcher from the pages of the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk begins stepping into a larger cosmic playing field.
Tales to Astonish #75-79 - With the Leader apparently dead, our superhero soap-opera spins in another new direction. You have to admit that Kirby sure doesn’t let things get stagnant, a new beginning with #78 Bill Everett lends his artistic talents to Kirby’s layouts. After using the device that appears to kill the Leader, the Hulk then finds himself the target of a weapon that propels him into a far-future Earth where he fights the Executioner. But the time shift wears off, as does Hulk’s attachment with Banner’s brain and personality, and he begins to revert to his more savage personality. Wrapping up these selections, it is the end of an era as Rick Jones, believing Banner/Hulk has been killed, reveals that Banner and the Hulk are one and the same person to first Major Talbot and then to Betty Ross, and then there’s that titanic fisticuffs between Hulk and Hercules.
Tales to Astonish #80-83 - These 4 stories wrap up Kirby’s second run on the character, and Everett will be departing as well. First of all there’s a subterranean war brewing between Tyrannus and the Mole Man, and the Hulk gets trapped in the middle of it. Then we get a surprise appearance of the Secret Empire and their hired agent Boomerang. Next up, lots of shenanigans between Boomerang, General Ross, Major Talbot, the Army, the Secret Empire, and Rick Jones all before we get … well, you remember that seen in The Incredible Hulk film with Betty and the Hulk in a cave during a rainstorm? Here’s the inspiration. And on that moment, Kirby and Everett take their leave and there’s a lot of dangling plot threads that need tidying up. Is Lee gonna be up to the task?
Tales to Astonish #84-87 - This begins another clear tonal shift and stylistic change in the writing, even though Lee is still taking credit for writing the title. Further, #84 is definitely nothing more than a placeholder to get from the sudden end of Kirby/Everett’s run and waiting to see what direction the title is going to be heading in. But if Lee had been writing the title all along, this transition really shouldn’t have been as jarring and as obvious as this. Still the art by John Buscema for at least three of these installments is very nice.
Tales to Astonish #88-91 - Gil Kane. Four issues from the legendary pencil of Kane and they are a treat. At least visually. The writing is typical of Lee in that it at times seems that he doesn’t remember what happened in the previous issue, or what happened a few issues back. Only the current story thread, or threat, matters. It’s almost like the Hulk wrote the darn thing. Still, we get the defeat of Boomerang, the arrival of the Stranger and the creation of the Abomination in these stories, and nearly a pardon for Bruce Banner.
Hulk #1-5 - From the creators of the Fantastic Four, Jack Kirby and Lee comes their second success (although this one kind of floundered a bit until it found the right audience): the Incredible Hulk. And these issues illustrate just how difficult it can be to find the right formula to make a successful series. Even if you’re the brilliantly talented, creative powerhouse of Jack Kirby. Each issue among these offers slight tweaks as Kirby & Lee try to find the combination of elements to make the series work. Supporting characters include Rick Jones, boy sidekick, General “Thunderbolt” Ross, an ongoing antagonist for our hero-monster, Betty Ross, love-struck daughter of Gen. Ross, and our star Dr. Bruce Banner, physicist and atomic scientist without peer who becomes the green-skinned monstrosity. Although when the Hulk is first introduced he is gray skinned, but that appears to have been an alleged coloring mistake, still it would provide the basis for some amazing stories in future years. There’s a string of interesting villains here as well. A Soviet agent named The Gargoyle, the Toad-Men from space, the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, a dastardly plot (or two) by Soviets to capture the Hulk, Tyrannus and his Subterranean Army, the warped communist General Fang. There is even some testing being done by the creators to see if it works better to have Rick Jones able to mentally control the Hulk, or if having Banner’s mind in control of the Hulk, or have him be a bestial personality, or a gruff, scheming individual. It seems like every issue has some slight tweaking of the character concept taking place while Kirby and Lee figure out what is going to work best. Instead of the intelligence of a super-man, the Hulk offers a modern twist on the concept of a tragic character of Jekyll & Hyde, nevertheless it’s important to remember that this concept is still basically Marvel’s take on Superman. Instead of having the ultimate Uber-mensch, we a tragic, flawed man who becomes a powerhouse of unlimited strength. Both characters would appear to fly by making incredible leaps into the air, but in the case of Superman, he was just eventually granted the ability to fly. Superman may have had the best attributes of being male, but Hulk, in typical Marvel fashion, is given all the worst. But it makes for a far more interesting character, and for more entertaining stories.
Skipping over the Hulk’s appearance in Fantastic Four #12, we move on to Hulk #6 - With Kirby leaving for other projects, the Hulk needed a new artist. And Steve Ditko takes over. This issue the characters look very different from the Kirby issues, and even the pacing is different. It’s a fun issue, and Ditko does a remarkable job filling in on this last issue of the series. And the Metal Master really is a threat worthy of needing the Hulk. So this one is certainly different, but it was still great to see our characters reimagined by a new artist as talented as Ditko.
What follows at this point is the Hulk founding and then quitting the Avengers, running rampant in NYC and a couple of guest-starring appearances: see Avengers #1-3, Fantastic Four #25-26, Avengers #5, Amazing Spider-Man #14 & Tales to Astonish #59. But this volume doesn’t include those stories, it picks up the Hulk’s saga then with stories from Tales to Astonish #60-91.
Tales to Astonish #60-61 - While Steve Ditko is usually associated with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, he also had a run with the Hulk as well. He first worked on the character in Hulk #6 and then in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (the latter included, along with the aforementioned Tales to Astonish #59, in Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Man or Monster?), but his run on the Hulk officially began here with these stories. This 2-part story starts off with the Hulk confronting a robot built by his alter ego, Bruce Banner. It may not be the most auspicious beginning, but it does have a lot of Ditko touches. We’re also reintroduced to General Thunderbolt Ross and Betty Ross, as well as meeting Major Talbot for the first time.
Tales to Astonish #62 - Pits the Hulk against the Chameleon, introduces the Leader, and offers the return of Rick Jones, but the story itself is all very pedestrian.
Tales to Astonish #63-64 - The Leader is actually revealed while he and his “humanoid” creations take center stage against the Hulk. This begins a deep-dive into anti-communist propaganda.
Tales to Astonish #65-67 - More “Red baiting” as the Hulk is captured by the Soviets and taken to foreign lands. And sadly Ditko ends his run on the series after only eight installments.
Tales to Astonish #68-69 - Jack Kirby is back! And will be until #83, with at least plots and layouts. But what’s even more interesting with this transition is reading the change in emphasis and style. This is a perfect example of how little influence Stan Lee actually had on these early Marvel titles as both Ditko and Kirby had very unique ways of telling a story, but seeing this switch from one creative powerhouse to another, even with Lee still “writing” the book, there is a massive shift and change in the word choices, as well as tonal quality. Had Lee truly been “writing” these comics and not just editing them, this transition would not have been so pronounced. In any case, Kirby wraps up much of the literal cliffhanger Ditko had left the strip in and quickly moves forward with lost story threads and dangling plot lines. Ditko’s subtler magic is replaced with Kirby’s boisterous power.
Tales to Astonish #70-74 - Kirby now embarks on an attempt to recreate the Hulk (and the green guy now shares the title with Namor, as the Giant-Man and Wasp series ended with their story in #69). Experimenting with the basic concept of this reimagined Jekyll/Hyde character. He conceived a way for Banner to be injured so that he must remain the Hulk or he will die (a similar method and complication that is the basis for Iron Man’s initial premise). Thus begins a story arc that leaves the Hulk with Banner’s mind, but his personality is still more brutal than that of Banner, so we’re reading about an altogether different hybrid here (one that Peter David would explore in more detail many years from now). Rick Jones continues to be integral, and the Leader takes center stage as the antagonist to be dealt with, but the Red-baiting has subsided a bit. Instead, Kirby takes things into a more fantastical direction, introducing the Watcher from the pages of the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk begins stepping into a larger cosmic playing field.
Tales to Astonish #75-79 - With the Leader apparently dead, our superhero soap-opera spins in another new direction. You have to admit that Kirby sure doesn’t let things get stagnant, a new beginning with #78 Bill Everett lends his artistic talents to Kirby’s layouts. After using the device that appears to kill the Leader, the Hulk then finds himself the target of a weapon that propels him into a far-future Earth where he fights the Executioner. But the time shift wears off, as does Hulk’s attachment with Banner’s brain and personality, and he begins to revert to his more savage personality. Wrapping up these selections, it is the end of an era as Rick Jones, believing Banner/Hulk has been killed, reveals that Banner and the Hulk are one and the same person to first Major Talbot and then to Betty Ross, and then there’s that titanic fisticuffs between Hulk and Hercules.
Tales to Astonish #80-83 - These 4 stories wrap up Kirby’s second run on the character, and Everett will be departing as well. First of all there’s a subterranean war brewing between Tyrannus and the Mole Man, and the Hulk gets trapped in the middle of it. Then we get a surprise appearance of the Secret Empire and their hired agent Boomerang. Next up, lots of shenanigans between Boomerang, General Ross, Major Talbot, the Army, the Secret Empire, and Rick Jones all before we get … well, you remember that seen in The Incredible Hulk film with Betty and the Hulk in a cave during a rainstorm? Here’s the inspiration. And on that moment, Kirby and Everett take their leave and there’s a lot of dangling plot threads that need tidying up. Is Lee gonna be up to the task?
Tales to Astonish #84-87 - This begins another clear tonal shift and stylistic change in the writing, even though Lee is still taking credit for writing the title. Further, #84 is definitely nothing more than a placeholder to get from the sudden end of Kirby/Everett’s run and waiting to see what direction the title is going to be heading in. But if Lee had been writing the title all along, this transition really shouldn’t have been as jarring and as obvious as this. Still the art by John Buscema for at least three of these installments is very nice.
Tales to Astonish #88-91 - Gil Kane. Four issues from the legendary pencil of Kane and they are a treat. At least visually. The writing is typical of Lee in that it at times seems that he doesn’t remember what happened in the previous issue, or what happened a few issues back. Only the current story thread, or threat, matters. It’s almost like the Hulk wrote the darn thing. Still, we get the defeat of Boomerang, the arrival of the Stranger and the creation of the Abomination in these stories, and nearly a pardon for Bruce Banner.
March 7, 2013
Hulk smashes!
Der Hulk ist schon immer einer meiner Lieblings-Marvel-Figuren gewesen. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass man sich in der Kindheit auch oft unverstanden gefühlt hat, wie der Hulk. Oder dass der einfache Charakter des Hulk es einem leicht macht, seine Motivationen zu verstehen. Vielleicht sind es auch die völlig unmenschlich überproportionierten Körpermaße des Hulk, die einen gewissen "WOW!"-Faktor mit sich bringen. Während die Geschichten nicht der Höhepunkt der Comicschreiberkunst sind, die Zeichnungen auch nicht Kirbys größte Leistung (mir gefällt der Hulk einfach besser, wenn er wie in "Hulk: Grey" oder in "House of M: Incredible Hulk" dargestellt wird), so haben diese Geschichten einen gewissen Charme, und sie stellen eben die Geburt eines extrem untypischen Helden des Marvel-Universums dar: Einer, der nicht immer die Selbstaufopferung-für-das-Gute-Masche runterleiert, sondern der eben mal auf den Putz haut, wenn ihm was nicht passt, und der in seinem innersten vielleicht trotzdem moralisch integrer ist als viele der anderen, rausgeputzten, blinkenden und strahlenden Helden.
Was mir allerdings völlig unklar ist, aus was für einem Stoff die berühmte lila Hose des Hulk gemacht ist. Während das Hemd von Banner regelmäßig in Fetzen fliegt bei der Verwandlung, bleibt die Hose immer intakt. Dabei hat der Hulk eine völlig andere Konfektionsgröße als Banner. Naja, vielleicht wird das irgendwann mal erklärt werden...
Der Hulk ist schon immer einer meiner Lieblings-Marvel-Figuren gewesen. Vielleicht liegt es daran, dass man sich in der Kindheit auch oft unverstanden gefühlt hat, wie der Hulk. Oder dass der einfache Charakter des Hulk es einem leicht macht, seine Motivationen zu verstehen. Vielleicht sind es auch die völlig unmenschlich überproportionierten Körpermaße des Hulk, die einen gewissen "WOW!"-Faktor mit sich bringen. Während die Geschichten nicht der Höhepunkt der Comicschreiberkunst sind, die Zeichnungen auch nicht Kirbys größte Leistung (mir gefällt der Hulk einfach besser, wenn er wie in "Hulk: Grey" oder in "House of M: Incredible Hulk" dargestellt wird), so haben diese Geschichten einen gewissen Charme, und sie stellen eben die Geburt eines extrem untypischen Helden des Marvel-Universums dar: Einer, der nicht immer die Selbstaufopferung-für-das-Gute-Masche runterleiert, sondern der eben mal auf den Putz haut, wenn ihm was nicht passt, und der in seinem innersten vielleicht trotzdem moralisch integrer ist als viele der anderen, rausgeputzten, blinkenden und strahlenden Helden.
Was mir allerdings völlig unklar ist, aus was für einem Stoff die berühmte lila Hose des Hulk gemacht ist. Während das Hemd von Banner regelmäßig in Fetzen fliegt bei der Verwandlung, bleibt die Hose immer intakt. Dabei hat der Hulk eine völlig andere Konfektionsgröße als Banner. Naja, vielleicht wird das irgendwann mal erklärt werden...
July 31, 2013
O.k., so it's not Shakespeare. But for on-the-nightstand, end of the day, relaxing reading that brings back the nostalgic, carefree days of boyhood, this is perfect.
April 26, 2022
I didn't really read this entire book. I've got the original first run of The Incredible Hulk, but I can't find that collection on good reads.
Taken on their own The Hulks original stories aren't all that great but as a piece of history they are fascinating.
Taken on their own The Hulks original stories aren't all that great but as a piece of history they are fascinating.
October 2, 2022
It's clear in these stories that Stan Lee hadn't yet decided what or who the Hulk is. His strength levels, intelligence, and triggers to change are all over the place. The tales are very repetitive and the art is often quite ugly - I usually like Gil Kane's work but it really doesn't look good here.
My favourite issues were the first six, the original Hulk series. They had a pleasing end, too, before the Tales to Astonish stories began.
Hulk really improves further down the line, but I wasn't keen on these issues. I'm adding a star just for historical significance.
My favourite issues were the first six, the original Hulk series. They had a pleasing end, too, before the Tales to Astonish stories began.
Hulk really improves further down the line, but I wasn't keen on these issues. I'm adding a star just for historical significance.
February 9, 2017
I have been dipping in and out of this for a while. I read loads of early hulk in UK reprints growing up but at least 50% of this was new to me. I loved seeing the evolution of the character, they clearly did not have a well defined idea of 'Hulk' at the start, and I had forgotten how much I liked Steve Ditko's Hulk Artwork. Huge variety of art styles throughout. Excellent.
November 2, 2022
The original Hulk stories, reprinted here in black and white.
I am not surprised the character failed the first time around as apparently not even his creator really knew what to do with him.
It takes quite a while for the stories to decide on how the Hulk actually works, both in terms of personality and intelligence, as well as the transformation itself. One should also consider that some of the stories are very, very dated!
Still, an interesting read, even if the reproduction quality is at times so poor as to be nearly unintelligible.
Recommended for completists and continuity buffs.
I am not surprised the character failed the first time around as apparently not even his creator really knew what to do with him.
It takes quite a while for the stories to decide on how the Hulk actually works, both in terms of personality and intelligence, as well as the transformation itself. One should also consider that some of the stories are very, very dated!
Still, an interesting read, even if the reproduction quality is at times so poor as to be nearly unintelligible.
Recommended for completists and continuity buffs.
December 18, 2009
Neat stuff. It's pretty interesting to see how the Hulk kept evolving. And not by accident... it seemed like part of the problem for Banner was that he couldn't rely on the conditions that made him turn into the Hulk to stay the same for very long, and once he became the Hulk, his intelligence level changed a lot, too.
Anyway, yet more 1960s classics from Lee/Kirby/etc.
Anyway, yet more 1960s classics from Lee/Kirby/etc.
December 16, 2015
This is a compilation of some of the first Incredible Hulk issues. It was really fun to read and see the mind set of people at that time, and what their view of power was. While Frankenstein deals with a creation made in the electrical revolution, The Hulk is a story of a creation made during the Atomic revolution. People put their trust in the military and in nuclear power. Very interesting.
November 28, 2020
Obožavam Hulka, međutm ovaj strip u idanju Čarobne knjige mi je baš bio naporan i sa mukom sam ga završila. Slike su isuviše male, često nisu čak ni čitke, dok je teksta previše za ovaj format stripa. Bilo je super upoznati se početkom Hulka, grafika, pogotovu crtež Džeka Kirbija je fantastičan, zato i mislim da je zaslužio veći format.
March 4, 2015
This was much more interesting than I thought it'd be. The original Hulk was grey and even used complete sentences. He also changes at night to the Hulk and in they Day back to Bruce Banner. Even in his green incarnation he's not stupid; he's just basic.
September 13, 2016
This is worth reading for any comic book fan. While a lot of the original stories don't exactly hold up nowadays and come across as a little cheesy, it's still fun to see where favorite heroes started.
June 4, 2012
I didn't read the whole thing -- just wanted to get a taste for what the Hulk is all about.
Read
December 4, 2012F LEE eh v.1
January 16, 2013
A whole bunch of major artists put in appearances here—Kirby, Ditko, Buscema, Kane, and others—and provide some lovely pages, but the stories are generally pretty lame.
August 24, 2016
I really enjoyed reading the origin story and the Hulks beginnings. Of course all early superheroes had side kicks, glad The Hulk lost his.
January 26, 2017
They seemed to have really had a struggle trying to figure out how to use The Hulk, but it's pretty fun watching their efforts.
July 26, 2016
Thee were the comics I grew up with. A pleasant trip down memory lane.
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