Customer Reviews

Essential Rampaging Hulk, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)

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This collection of stories from the Marvel magazine-size blaxk & white format title The Rampaging Hulk is a real find. The Hulk is more ornery than the now happily defunct Comics Code Authority would allow, and the art is fascinating, reminiscent of original pencil art but less sketchy. The effect is quite different from mere black and white reprints of color comics, the usual fare in the Marvel Essentials series. The stories are great fun, especially the prequel to Avengers # 1, in which Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Thor team up against the Hulk, finally enlisting his aid against alien invaders. Why didn't the others recall this when they (re)gathered in Avengers # 1 and its various retellings over the years? Simply because the last story in Rampaging Hulk retcons the adventures contained in this collection to the limbo of a set of CGI movies fabricated by one of the aliens for their equivalent of cable TV. So they never happened in official continuity. Well, to hell with that! This story, at least, ought to have been included on the "40 Years of Avengers" CD! But since it wasn't, it is certainly one's duty as an Avengers fan to add a copy of Essential Rampaging Hulk to one's library. Or, I suspect, Hulk will smash.

Marvel Essential: The Rampaging Hulk Vol. 1 contains stories from his late 1970s magazine, including the Hulk tales from The Rampaging Hulk 1 through 9. The magazine was then renamed Hulk, and this volume also contains the stories about the comic-book character that appeared in issues 10 through 15. I point out that this collection contains the Hulk stories because the magazine had backup tales featuring other characters and those are not included in this volume. The first nine issues had stories that were supposed to take place in the early 1960s, while the later tales were similar to the ones from the 1970s The Incredible Hulk television show. Very different tone, very different action. Still both series of stories are enjoyable and I would recommend that every Hulk fan should buy this book. For an expanded review, check out my Squidoo lens by searching goldenrulecomics on that website.

Although both were written by the usually capable Doug Moench, this series actually split into two separate magazines, "Rampaging Hulk" and "The Hulk!" Both are absolutely dreadful, but I'll review them separately because they're bad for different reasons.

I'm not sure if I should give away how Part One ends, except to say that the regular comicbook "Incredible Hulk" basically disavows these stories. (Despite the book description saying, "Not an imaginary story!", it's the Marvel equivalent.) Yes, these stories were so bad, they had to be disowned by the same company that produced them. At first, I was attracted to the quirkiness of the stories, which were written almost at a slapstick quality. Unfortunately, making the villains comic foils--for aliens that mastered intergalactic travel, we're supposed to believe that they're kind of stupid--drains out any sense of menace from them. Also, by issue #2, it's clear that Moench has no focus and the tone is all over the place, the stories are a mess, and even the portrayal of The Hulk seems confusing--sometimes he's like the "Hulk smash!" that we all know, while occasionally sounding more like The Thing from the Fantastic Four. As for the claim that this series pushes the envelope beyond what was then allowed under the comics code... I have NO idea what they're talking about. The code was pretty liberalized by that point, anyway. There's nothing here that's going to overwhelm you.

The second part of the series, "The Hulk!", is even worse. This was clearly written more in the vein of the Hulk TV series of the time, which means it's more of a schmaltzy melodrama than a Hulk story, with no supervillains to speak of (at most, just some robots and augmented strongmen), and heavy on abused children, sainted old ladies with cancer, etc. It has virtually no connection to the Marvel comicbook series at the time, other than that the Hulk can still talk--and, thank Heavens, he's still named "Bruce" rather than "David."

A word should be said about the art: Yes, there's some really nice art occasionally, esp. in the first few issues. But a lot of it is also sketchy and rough. Most of the best artwork are the covers, and they don't reproduce well in black and white.

As a kid, I couldn't afford these magazines in their original form and am still glad they made them available again for history's sake. But it's a shameful, hideous past, to be viewed only by those completists with a LOT of spare time on their hands.

I bought this since I've enjoyed the other Hulk Essential books, but this is a different take on the Hulk. You start with stories which take place right after the original six issues of the Hulk as he and Rick Jones battle aliens trying to take over the earth. It's mildly entertaining, even if it's explained away as imaginary stories later.

The last stories are more Hulkish as he wanders around finding trouble. I think Marvel found it too difficult to run two different Hulk series without becoming redundant.