Artist Herb Trimpe is joined by writer Steve Englehart for another Hulk-sized Marvel Masterworks edition! But first, a trip to Counter-Earth, where Hulk confronts his most-hated enemy: Bruce Banner! Add in the Rhino and the Abomination, and the action and drama can't be contained! Then, Hulk heads for Canada where the X-Men's Mimic returns, and the Wendigo makes his first appearance! And Hulk's travels will take him both over land and undersea until he returns to the United States to unleash his vengeance on General Thunderbolt Ross! COLLECTING: Incredible Hulk (1968) 157-170
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
I really like Steve Englehart, but again, he just doesn't seem to be able to make this character work for me. Although he does seem to be giving the book a direction, which is something it's desperately needed.
I'm glad Betty Ross Talbot gets some character development in this collection and is given more to do besides cry. Oh, there's crying, but there's also slapping, screeching, clawing, swearing of vengeance and laser bolts.