Essential Incredible Hulk, Vol. 4

Essential Incredible Hulk #4

by Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Gerry Conway

It's the original trial of the Incredible Hulk, but not even Doc Samson and Matt Murdock can get the Hulk free of charges... from the Rhino, the Abomination and the Bi-Beast! Foes from the sewers, the seas, the stars and a shrunken realm gone mad! And Betty Ross gives a new twist to becoming a Harpy after the wedding! Monsters, mindswaps and Niagara Falls! Plus: For the X-Fans, the birth of the Wendigo and the death of the Mimic! Collects Incredible Hulk #143-170.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes

608 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2006

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

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the 1970s was a real nadir for Marvel Comics. I’ve been working my through all the ‘Essential’ collections for this period and they all have the same faults. The first of which is writers only hanging around for a handful of issues before being replaced, leading to an almost complete lack of direction.

Illustrative inconsistency is almost as big a problem. This book manages to hang on to the same pencilled for all but two of the twenty eight issues collected here, but the art is still inconsistent because they keep changing inkers every couple of issues.

Some of the stories collected here are pretty goofy, too, which isn’t without a certain charm but I did find myself wondering what the creators were smoking while dreaming them up.

Still, despite all this, I was still entertained.

[Harriet · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are good stories and bad in this collection. Sometimes, like in the court issues, the writers try something new. Sometimes there are touching moments like the flowers the Hulk picked for Betty getting trampled by the soldiers chasing him away. The Wendigo story had a surprisingly (and delightfully) effective horror element. But there are also long stretches of repetitive, boring stories, where the Hulk wants to be alone, but ends up fighting a large monster, and being hounded by the army. Herb Trimpe is a really good artist whose work I enjoy, but he's frequently inked very heavily and all his fine detail is lost.

This was an uneven, but at times enjoyable read, but I'm glad it's the last of the four Essential volumes that I had in my TBR pile and I don't think I'll be chasing the rest.

[Robert Noll · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars - This book is hilarious! Every issue: Hulk smash!! That's pretty much it, aside from a few side plots of Betty Ross, Gen. "Thunderbolt" Ross, Maj. Talbot and Bruce Banner. In this volume, seemingly half of the Hulkiverse rotates through, including cameos by Dr. Doom, Hawkeye, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. The real bonus: Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew!

All kidding aside, it's unclear how these stories merge into the greater Marvel Universe. The book appears to be linear, as opposed to being a larger merging of characters. However, the art is fantastic and the writing is fun to read. Go buy a copy today. Excelsior!

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely some rough spots in here but Hulk has left the Silver Age and there is some good character development for him and his supporting cast.
Steve Englehart stuff was particularly impressive and one could literally watch Herb Trimpe's style develop in this run.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

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. Clearly this is not representative of my favorite Hulk era. Absolutely not.

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[Jason Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This definitely has its ups and downs, with a lot of storylines that weren't great. The Hulk is a transient character, angry with a short term memory and being chased by the law. So a new villain, most of them completely unrecognizable in a large scale context, every issue makes sense. But some are worse than others.

Also, I have a honed knowledge of each of the writers in this book, and I can honestly say who's good or bad.

Roy Thomas = mostly solid, tepid
Len Wein = fairly talented, but a bit streaky, hit or miss
Archie Goodwin = GENERALLY NOT VERY GOOD (ALSO WROTE A HUGE CHUNK OF THIS)
Steve Gerber = Possibly my favorite comics writer of all time, but he only has one (really good) issue here
Steve Englehart = Generally a very talented writer, not quite as adept at Greenskin, but some moments here
Chris Claremont = Only two issues he's involved with, but he is a great writer

Bad Storylines = The resolution of this one really good issue that Harlan Ellison wrote a long time ago...it was good, then it was bad, (also not written at all by Ellison here)
A few of these big monsters that Hulk ends up smashing, overcoming an inherent advantage from his baddie (there are several, some less repetitive and dumb than others)
The Death Of The Mimic (should've been great, especially with the X-Men cameo between Stan Lee/Chris Claremont eras)

GREAT (and why I like this book) stories = The Trial Of The Hulk (very good use of cameos from the FF and Daredevil)
The Wendigo
This fascist dictator guy at the bottom of the ocean
The use of Counter Earth
Havok's cameo issue

It's like a lot of serialized Marvel/DC, there are enough things that are like "Whoah that was cool" to cover up the lazy one-shot storylines.