Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk, Nos. 1-6

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The Marvel Masterworks volume, "The Incredible Hulk, Volume 1" (2nd Edition) brings together the six issues from the original comic book of "The Incredible Hulk," which were published before Ol' Greenskin became one of the co-tenants of "Tales to Astonish" (first with Giant-Man and then Namor, the Sub-Mariner"). Unfortunately the Hulk always seemed to be particularly ill-suited to the 10-page story format since in pretty much every story Bruce Banner changes into the Hulk (or the Hulk changes into Bruce Banner). For that reason, the original six issues of "The Incredible Hulk" stand out in such marked contrast.

In issue #1 we meet Dr. Bruce Banner, the brilliant scientist who has invented the gamma bomb. Right before the big test a teenager, Rick Jones, drives out on the site. Banner goes off to get the boy out of there but his assistant Igor does not tell anybody, thinking this will be a way to get rid of Banner, who pushes Rick into a ravine right before the gamma bomb explodes. In the hospital Banner changes into the Hulk for the first time, in front of Rick Jones, who feels he should look out for the man-monster seeing as how Banner saved his life, which would tend to create a sense of obligation even in a teenager. Of course, Rick Jones would go on to the side-kick for not only the Hulk but also Captain America and Captain Marvel.

Ultimately I think the idea of the Hulk is better than the stories, especially the ones being told in these first six issues. The combination of the Dr. Jekyll & Hyde transformation with the Frankenstein monster is inherently interesting. Those classic references also explain why the better stories seem to be those in which the army is going after the Hulk rather than the less than stellar super villains who pop up. Sure, the Leader would be rather ironic from the viewpoint of Dr. Banner, but the best conflicts with the Hulk involve not brains versus brawn but the one against the many. When "Thunderbolt" Ross has the U.S. Army go after the Hulk, then we are cooking with gas. Very few bad guys can go toe-to-toe with ol' green skin. Issue #2 comes up with the lame Toad Men, #3 has the Ringmaster and the Circus of Crime, #4 offers Mongu the Gladiator from Space, #5 has Tyrannus, and #6 provides the Metal Master. But not one of them slugs it out with the Hulk, who still finds ways to cause lots of damage to the landscape, buildings and furniture.

The lack of mano-e-mano fisticuffs probably explains why the soap opera element of the Hulk coming between Bruce Banner and Betty Ross are more appealing. That is actually what provides the continuity over the course of these stories. The end result is okay, but certainly not the best Marvel was putting out in the early Sixties. The origin story is far and away the best of the six stories, and really the only reason to get this one unless you are a really big fan of the Hulk. Stan Lee writes all of the stories and Jack Kirby does most of the art, except for #6, which is done by Steve Ditko. The stories are reprinted in color, but the idea of comic books being printed in a hardcover edition always strike me as being quite strange.

"Marvel Masterworks, Volume 8" brings together the six issue-run of the original run of "The Incredible Hulk," before ol' Greenskin was sent off to "Tales to Astonish" to share with first Giant-Man and Wasp before the Sub-Mariner took over the other half. This explains why this is a relatively slim volume in the Marvel Masterworks series, which usually covers ten issues in the run of one of Marvel's comic book titles from the Sixties.

The Hulk was what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up with after the success of "The Fantastic Four" gave birth to the Marvel Universe. Trying to build on the success of the F.F. Lee wanted to come up with a character with superhuman strength, which was not exactly an original idea (i.e., see Superman), but Lee wanted to take the cliché concept and make it exciting and relevant. Lee knew that the Thing was the most popular member of the F.F. and had always had a soft spot in his heart for the Frankenstein monster, who never wanted to hurt anybody and was just trying to come to terms with those who wanted to destroy him. Borrowing from the story of Jekyll and Hyde as well, Lee and Kirby came up with a scientist who was accidentally transformed into by a nuclear accident into a raging gray behemoth. That is right: originally the Hulk was gray, but the coloring was inconsistent in that first issue and so Lee decided to go with green because (drum role) no one green characters were running around in comic books.

With the six issues of "The Incredible Hulk" reprinted in color in this volume you get the following: #1 "The Hulk," in which scientist Bruce Banner is hit by mysterious gamma rays when he saves the life of young Rick Jones, who was trespassing on the test site. We are also introduced to General Thunderbolt Ross and his daughter, Betty, who is just getting on a first name basis with the Doc, and the fact that only Rick Jones knows the secret of the Hulk. The villain is the Gargoyle, a mutated monster created by the evil Soviets (remember, the Cold War? It was in the newspapers back them); #2 "The Terror of the Toad Men" is another one of the early Marvel stories that Lee and Kirby did that has weird monsters, just like the stories they were doing for Timely. This is also the issue where the Frankenstein monster resemblance is the strongest.

Issue #3 has three stories, with "Banished to Outer Space" having the army tricking the Hulk to going into a spaceship that is shot into space, a short recap of "The Origin of the Hulk," and an encounter between the Hulk and "The Ringmaster"; #4 has "The Monster and the Machine," where Rick tries to help cure the Hulk, and "The Gladiator From Outer Space," which has a strong guy from outer space showing up to battle the Hulk, only to be exposed as another commie plot; #5 offers "Beauty and the Beast," where the Bruce and Betty romance is interrupted by Tyrannus; and "The Hordes of General Fang," where the Hulk tangles with Chinese communists; and #6 "The Metal Master" has Steve Ditko taking over as artist as the Hulk battles a real alien menace.

The Cold War aspects are a big part of these early Hulk stories and you can see that even before the move to "Tales to Astonish" the Hulk stories were already getting to be the length of half an issue. These stories are of more interest from a historical perspective, as the stories have to come up with new ways for Banner to change into the Hulk and visa-versa without anybody ever notices issue after issue. Through this limited run the only decent Hulk villain that Lee and Kirby came up with was Thunderbolt Ross and it was not until Marvel paid as much attention to the villains as they did to creating the tortured hero that the Hulk stories started to get a lot better.

This is not the same book as that reviewed below - there is some mistake here.As far as I know it was never released in paperback and was written when Len Wein was a child!

The book is a hardback collection from 1989 featuring the first six issues (the comic was cancelled after that)of the Incredible Hulk in his own magazine from 1962 & 1963. The quality of the reproduction & colors are superb.

The first issue he is grey, but as this did not work well with the printing capabilities of the time, from issue 2 he was depicted as the familiar "jolly green giant!"

With writing by Stan Lee and illustrations by Jack (King) Kirby (Steve - Spider-man - Ditko) took over with the 6th. issue's art), this is essential for anyone collecting the Hulk who can not afford the thousands of $$$ for the original comics (and who of us can!)Great stuff and brings back many memories!

Marvel released so many new comics in the early 1960s that several of their super heroes were launched without the character having been fully worked out. The Incredible Hulk is clearly one of these. Within the space of the six issues reprinted here, they changed his color, his powers -- he figures out how to fly by taking reaaallly long jumps -- his personality, and how he can be controlled. You would think they would have thought through these things before they started publishing. It might not be surprising that sales were apparently not high enough to sustain the book and it was killed after just six issues. In addition, they kicked the Hulk out of the Avengers. In that sense the Hulk was the one true flop among the early Marvel books. Still, I find these stories very appealing. The idea of the Hulk was a great one and early Lee and Kirby (and Ditko in issue 6!) is always worth reading. So, I would recommend this volume to anyone interested in the early Marvel Silver Age. It ain't Spiderman or Fantastic Four, but it ain't bad.

Here we have all six issues of the Incredible Hulk's first series. It's a fun series. It holds up pretty well, other than the commie smashing. You can see how they were struggling with how to present the Hulk in the early days. They change his color, his means of transformation, his powers and his personality all within these six issues. The hardcover format with glossy pages is an excellent presentation of this material. If you can afford it, it's a good deal. It's still cheaper than buying the original issues.

This paperback version of "Marvel masterworks: Teh incredible Hulk" contains reprints of the six issues of the short-run of the origianl 'The Incredible Hulk" comic book series by Marvel Comics in the early 1960's written by Stan Lee and art originally done by Jack Kirby and later done by Steve Ditko. You can't go wrong with this book.

Teh stories take place in the early 1960's in the middle of the Cold War, where you will read your fill of Cold War drama and Cold War rethoric. Thus, this book can also be looked upon as a historical time capsule. A product of its times.

The first issue begins with the original origin of The Incredible Hulk in which Dr. Robert Bruce Banner in saving the life of a teenager named Rick Jones who on a dare by friends had driven in the middle of the test site where Banner and the Army are preparing to test Banner Gamma Bomb. Banner rushes off to get JOnes out of there and to safety, but is unable to get himself into the safety of teh bomb shelter, himslef, in time being bombarded by a large doese of Gamma radiation responsible for changing him into the Incredible Hulk.

Rick Jones remains to be a sort of sidekick for Dr. Banner and the Hulk.

You get to see the many changes that the character goes through in these original six issues reprinted in this book.

At first Banner becomes the Hulk at night when the sun goes down and reverts back to his human self in the morning when the sun comes up.

IN an fissue to follow, things change when the Hulk is trappe by the army in a space capsule and sent to space with Rick coming to the rescue to press teh abort mission button on the control panel at the Army base. When reurnign to earth in bright day, it is the hulk who emerges from the capsule and not Banner. Rick soon also finds taht the Hulk has turned into a mindless Hulk who only responds to commands given him by Rick Jones.

Rick takes teh hulk back to Banner's secret underground lab in teh southwest desert to ponder what to do next.

In the following story, we are lead to believe the the Hulk has gained the ability of flight, however, it is explained that the hulk doe snot fly, but rather uses his powerful leg muscles to propel him high into the air.

Rick then figures out how to work one of Banenr's Gamma Ray machines and attempts to try to see if he can use it to change the mindless Hulk back to Banner, which he succeeds.

Banner now rebulds teh Gamma Ray machine and now this is what he uses to change into the Hulk and then uses it to change back to Banner. The Hulk's rags are replaced by reddish-purple shorts and also retaining more of the intelligence of Banner. This leads teh Hulk more towards the venue of becoming more like a superhero. This Hulk even goes on to become an original founding members of the Avengers.

This is whre the hulk is left off in the reprint of these six issus in this great book.

Hopefullyu, that will go on to put out another paperback of the collection of Hulk stories taht followed later on in the pages of Marvel Comics "Tales to Astonish" in which the series resumes and we find that the Hulk has once agin become more brutish and less intelligent. We also find that now the transformations truning Banner into the Hulk are triggered off when Dr. Banner becomes excited or angry; and the hulk reverts to Banner when he becomes calm and relaxed and is not angry. "The madder teh Hulk gets, teh stronger he gets."

But anyway, this is a great book; adn as I said, you can't go wrong by getting it taht is if you don't have the orginal hardcover version of the yet already.