Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Vol. 5: Who Will Judge the Hulk?

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection

by Roy Thomas

The Hulk is back and ready to smash his way through more villains than you can throw a tank at! Watch out, Sandman and Leader, you're in the path of the Green Goliath and his journey into the subatomic world of the Psyklop. There he will meet his true love, Jarella, for the first time. Then comes the debut of long-time enemy and ally, Doc Samson. In the aftermath of a battle with another doctor (Doom, that is), the Hulk finds himself in the sights of the military's Project Greenskin. Objective? Destroy the Hulk! Finally, with the help of Ant-Man, Hulk will reunite with Jarella, but not before he's put on trial by the heroes of the Marvel Universe.

Vol. 5: Incredible Hulk (1968) 138-156, Avengers (1963) 88

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Fantasy, Collections

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 2021

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredible Hulk #138-139 - The Sandman is back for another battle, actually he’s trying to fix his glass hand (there’s some slight continuity glitches here, contradicting events from Fantastic Four #94, but nothing too major) and the Hulk just gets in his way. And then the Leader returns with another con-job to get the military to do his dirty work, and it all ends up Betty Ross turned to glass. Also, the last we’ll see of Jim Wilson for awhile? Yes, it’s all as weird and silly as it sounds.

Avengers #88 & Incredible Hulk #140 - Okay, the big draw for this pair of stories is Jarella’s introduction … no, wait … the big draw is Harlan Ellison plotting this 2-parter … or maybe it’s the Avengers, or Reed Richards making an appearance. I give up. I’m going to go with Jarella’s introduction as Ellison’s involvement is overrated, and as much of a cash grab as the presence of the Avengers.

Incredible Hulk #141 - First appearance of Doc Samson.

Incredible Hulk #142 - Second appearance of the Valkyrie, but actually the first appearance of this particular incarnation of the character. It all very confusing.

Incredible Hulk #143-144 - Doctor Doom. You want more? Doom captures the Hulk in NYC and takes him to Latveria as pawn in his mad scheme to conquer Europe. I don’t know, I suppose it makes sense Doom.

Incredible Hulk #145 - In 1971, Marvel had been trying to hold their price for an issue to 15 cents, but the price hike was inevitable. Marvel and DC had this ongoing game of trying to stave off raising the prices of their issues, but it was always going to happen eventually. What isn’t exactly clear is where the notion to expand the page count to nearly double and boost the price to 25 cents came from. It didn’t work. This issue feels more like an annual than another chapter in the ongoing Hulk serial. But the quality of the story has improved in some ways and degraded in others, at least the art is consistent. Other than the inflated page count, there’s not much else to mention. Although there is the troublesome idea that this story beats Jack Kirby’s Eternals by nearly a decade, and that the depiction of the Sphinx contradicts the notion that the statue is the husk of Rama-Tut/Kang’s time machine.

Incredible Hulk #146 - Another pretty much forgettable tale of the Hulk, but we get the return of Jim Wilson (sooner than I’d thought it was going to be).

Incredible Hulk #147 - Two tales, one of which is one of the most reprinted stories of the Hulk.

Incredible Hulk #148 - Jarella comes to earth. Now that was unexpected. Otherwise just more of the same.

Incredible Hulk #149 - Another BEM for the Hulk to fight.

Incredible Hulk #150 - A Hidden Years tale featuring a couple of tangential X-Men: Polaris (whom Hulk mistakes for his lost love Jarella) and Havok.

Incredible Hulk #151 - And yet another weird monster, this one created by the Hulk’s blood being injected into another person. So, we already know what’s gonna happen when Jennifer Walters gets that blood transfusion, right? (See Essential Savage She-Hulk, Vol. 1, if you’re still not sure)

Incredible Hulk #152-153 - The Hulk captured and put on trial. What a farce.

Incredible Hulk #154 - After being teased several issues ago, Ant-Man puts in an appearance. As does the Chameleon and the agents of Hydra. The Hulk drinks something he probably shouldn’t and this sets off a return to the world of Jarella.

Incredible Hulk #155 - But first the Hulk stops on another world, in a sort of sequel to the events of Fantastic Four #10, that is overrun with Nazis and the Shaper of Worlds. Another weird sci-fi tale from the Marvel Madhouse.

Incredible Hulk #156 - For having been building for this tale for quite some time, both directly and indirectly, this is surprisingly anti-climactic and really amount to just another lame Hulk story after a series of lame Hulk stories.

This is clearly not representative of my favorite Hulk era. Absolutely not.

[OMNIBUS GOD · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm about to be the one to judge the Hulk and everyone but Herb Trimpe, because this was a huge let down. In this epic we get another 19 issues in the early years of the Incredible Hulk and a lot seems to happen while also nothin happens at the same time. The most notable points in this collection are the introduction to Doc Samson, Hulk visits a molecular world and falls in love with a queen, and as the title insists the Hulk is put to trial to be judged for his actions.

Roy Thomas stays on writing duties for the first few issues and then we get a few fill in writers all before Archie Goodwin seems to take over as main writing duties. The start of the book was just getting to be a bit ridiculous for me and honestly the whole book was kinda just a bunch of nonsense. Nothing feels consistent as it once was and you get a lot of the same repetitive plot lines. Hulk is back to being hunted and almost every time he is captured, only to turn back into Bruce Banner, and then change back into the Hulk at the last second to escape. Or Bruce being cured from being the Hulk (which has been done WAAAY WAY back in the original first 6 issues) but for some reason he needs to become the Hulk again so they reverse the "curing." The only consistent plot line in this is that of Hulk shrinking into a new world and falling in love with the queen of a Kingdom he finds. It's the first time we see the HULK in love not just Banner. He's also taken away from here several times and all he wants is to return to her. I actually did like that in this part of the run but besides that everything else felt "meh" or straight up bad.

Herb Trimpe continues strong on art duties and the work is still amazing as ever. Biggest highlights are when he is partnered with John Severin on the inks. These two together could do no wrong and in general their work was the highlight of this whole read. With John on inks he polishes Trimpe's work perfectly and it only adds to his already awesome pencil work. It's all great artwork that saves this read from being anything lower than a 2 star.

Overall, besides the artwork in this read I would say this one is skip-able. Even the "better" issues aren't anything must-read like and are a real downgrade to how great this series use to be.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuamos com a saga do Incrível Hulk, o cara verde que só quer ficar sozinho.
A maioria das histórias do Roy Thomas continuam na mesma coisa; o Hulk chega em algum lugar por completo acaso, quer ficar sozinho, não deixam porque aparece algum inimigo aleatório, o Hulk sai na porrada e vai embora porque quer ficar sozinho. Começando com o Homem Areia numa das histórias mais sem noção deste lado do Atlântico, uma história que não faz absolutamente nenhum sentido e termina com a Betty virando uma escultura de cristal.
Depois temos o Líder e o General Ross se unindo para deter o Hulk de uma vez por todas! Como? Com um ataque cardíaco. Sério, o Líder usa toda sua inteligência para chegar à conclusão que a melhor maneira de deter o Hulk é com um ataque cardíaco. Mas como provocar o ataque cardíaco? Bacon, cheddar, batata frita e um refri de pomello geladinho? Não! Com ondas mentais que fazem o Hulk enfrentar ilusões dos últimos inimigos, é claro!
Ridículo, né? O meu plano envolvendo bacon é melhor que essa porcaria.
Bom, depois a estreia do Doutor Samson que usa radiação gama do Hulk para reverter a forma de cristal da Betty Ross e, como ele tava entediado, ele usa a radiação nele mesmo e ganha cabelo gama verde que deixa ele forte como o Sansão biblíco - sério a explicação é essa mesmo; cabelo radioativo.
Sempre que perguntam porque a Marvel criou os mutantes, a resposta é para não precisar escrever uma origem de herói com as palavras "cabelo radioativo".
O Hulk também enfrenta o Doutor Destino - aqui já não é mais a dupla Thomas-Trimpe que tá produzindo as histórias - e depois é julgado pela justiça americana, com a defesa do Matt Murdock, obviamente. E depois tem toda uma função para tentar voltar ao microcosmo da Princesa Jarella.
Por sinal, a cereja do bolo dessa edição são as duas histórias do Harlan Ellisson - uma dos Vingadores e outra do Hulk - sobre o microcosmo, com algumas pitadas lovecraftianas, quanto um tal de Psyklop diminuiu o Hulk até o microverso, e lá, o ruculoso protagonista conhece Jarella.
Até eu me apaixonaria pela pele de abacate da Jarella.
Essas histórias dos anos setenta são meio chatas e repetitivas - Hulk quer ficar sozinho, não deixam ele sozinho, ele sai na porrada e vai ficar sozinho noutro lugar -, mas eu gostei muito das histórias envolvendo a Jarella, é reconfortante ver um personagem tão angustiado, solitário e triste como o Hulk ter um pouquinho de felicidade de vez em quanto.
Talvez o verde seja a cor da esperança mesmo.

[Vaughn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Most stories are okay, with some really good and some really bad.

There's a few stories in here that were just....stupid. For example, there's a story where Bruce gets cured of being the Hulk, and then voluntarily turns himself back into the Hulk because he feels a bit jealous of Doc Samson....it's bizarre since he's spent pretty much his entire comic book existence wanting to be rid of the Hulk.
Another dumb story has Matt Murdock refuse to keep Banner under sedation because its against his rights. You can imagine how that goes.

On the other hand, there are some really good stories too. Notably, Hulk 150 guest stars the X-Men's Havok and Polaris which was a standout for me. There's also a cool story with the Inheritor, which is one of the High Evolutionaries experiments that has gotten loose.

Without a doubt, the highlight of this book, and the stories that have the most lasting consequences, are the stories surrounding one of Hulk's more memorable love interests: Jarella. Hulk encounters Jarella and her people when he gets shrunk down into a microscopic world. After the initial adventure, Hulk spends some further issues seeking out Jarella's world again due to him finally finding a community which accepts him and a woman who loves him. He does manage to come across Jarella another couple times within the book. Aside from that, it's also pretty cool seeing a tiny Hulk smashing away.

[Bruno Poço · Rating 2 out of 5]

#138-156 (vs o homem areia e betty transformada em estátua , vs o líder e seu projector mental , continuação da edição dos Avengers - durante a luta deles com o psyklop máquinas são ativadas e o Hulk vai parar ao mundo microscópico de jarella, primeira aparição e origem dos poderes do dr.samson, enfrenta a valquiria , destino tenta controlar o Hulk é acaba o confrontando , vs o monstro de pedra colossus , novo esquema do líder para aniquilar o Hulk , jarella procur a a ajuda do Hulk mas um assassino é enviado atrás dela , vs o herdeiro -uma experiência Do alto evolucionário, Hulk vs destrutor por lorna, o maior desafio de sempre vem através de um homem transformado numa gosma imparavel que devora tudo até o Hulk , Enfrenta vários heróis e acaba capturado e levado a tribunal para decidir o seu futuro , vs o camaleão e hydra com a ajuda do homem formiga , aventura no microcosmo , nova aventura no mundo de jarella)

Avengers #88 (o Hulk é sequestrado das mãos dos militares que estavam a fazer experiências no Hulk com a ajuda de reed e prof Xavier , por psyklop que é surpreeendido pelos vingadores)

Aqui andam a brincar de tira os poderes ao Hulk , da os poderes ao Hulk, tira os poderes ao Hulk ….

Vai piorando a cada número , archie goodwin muito fraco

[Kris Deters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty fun and very strange. Going to a microverse and meeting the love of his life in a fantasy setting. Almost feels like Goodwin was hoping to write a different book. Still, the art was solid and stories were fun

[Edward Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were mostly new to me, and more than a little bit fun.

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come