"You're smooth, Doctor Banner! A little too smooth!" - Glenn Talbot

(You'll note that the Major is so taken aback that his hair turns white.)

As usual, I quite enjoyed the Ditko Hulk feature. In addition to the nostalgia (I read these in Fireside's Incredible Hulk more than thirty years ago), there was a substantial amount to think about here. Most especially, I was completely stunned by the two bookend panels at the beginning and end of the tale, which resemble Ditko's similar "mysterious Goblin" bookend panels in ASM 14. In the hopes that we have some lurkers following along with the Marathon and reading these stories for the first time (I myself recommended this site to a 13-year-old guy just last week - he was holding three Essentials including one Hulk), I want to mention at this point that anyone who's never read these Hulk stories before should skip this review and read it next month, in order to avoid major spoilers!

Okay, I warned ya! Here's why I was stunned -

_____________The Leader's hands are flesh-colored!!!
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I have several surmises. One is that neither Ditko nor Lee knew who they were going to make the Leader into yet at this juncture! It's possible that Ditko hadn't yet devised the visual design of the Leader, and maybe he and Lee hadn't even come up with the idea of a gamma-archenemy yet. If this was the case, it's fascinating that they presented a helmeted Leader in this issue without knowing anything pertinent about him! Or maybe they had one idea for him at this point and then scratched that when the better idea came. Of course, if Ditko didn't design the Leader, I'm hoping someone here will tell me. My alternate surmise is that Lee and Ditko did already know at this point who and what the Leader was, and they didn't want to show his green skin yet because it could be a giveaway. But in that case, I would think they should've and would've just given him a pair of red gloves or something. The third conclusion to be drawn is that the original colorist simply goofed at the coloring stage. (It's possible that the hands are green in the original floppy and just wrong in the Masterwork and Omnibus, which has been known to happen.)

Anyway, I think those non-green hands are fascinating. Readers had no idea at this point that this villian would turn out to be the Hulk archvillian of all time, the first gamma foe and indeed the first gamma being other than Hulk. What a great idea and I'd like to know if it was Stan's or Steve's, or, if both of them, who contributed what parts of the final concept, i.e. the gamma aspect, the brain aspect, the big head, and one other wonderful touch which we'll see next month...

I feel that the introduction of this character changed the series forever (kind of like when the Daleks debuted in Doctor Who). Suddenly "The Incredible Hulk" had a new concept that could fuel the protagonist/antagonist dynamic for years and years, like the X-Men vs. the Brotherhood. This is after all the first real archenemy of any sort for the Hulk. Previously he had to make do with the likes of the Gargoyle, the Toad Men, the Ringmaster, Tyrannus, and the Metal Master. The Leader is so obvious when you think about it but it took Stan (and/or Steve) almost three years to come up with it. I wonder if The Incredible Hulk Volume 1 would still have been cancelled if the Leader had debuted in #3 or #4. By the time of Tales to Astonish, Stan knew that Hulk needed a defining foe just like every other superhero did.

I've heard this stretch of stories called "The Original Leader Saga", and I wonder if the Saga is thought to have begun in TtA 62 or in TtA 60. We learn this month that the unnamed spy from the previous two issues was sent by the Leader to steal the plans for Banner's "robot". This is cool because it makes it seem as though the Leader has been manipulating events since the very first solo Hulk story in this magazine. The question is how much Stan and/or Steve knew at the time of publication of TtA 60. Were they planning even then to eventually reveal the unnamed spy as being sent by a more weighty adversary? Did they know the name "Leader" when TtA 60 was published? Or is that spy's connection to the Leader something they only came up with as they worked on TtA 62 (as seems easier and thus more likely)? Either way, this plot device serves to place the beginning of "The Original Leader Saga" at TtA 60 since it involved the Leader working behind the scenes.

Although readers couldn't know at the time that the Leader was to be virtually a regular character for the next year, the fact is that the regular cast has nearly doubled! Even if Rick is not back for good at this point, we're still up to five characters from three, with the addition of Talbot and the Leader in the past two months. (Or six characters if you count Bruce and Hulk separately.)

Ah yes, Rick. After taking last month off from the Marvel Universe (he was barely even seen in the single-panel Teen Brigade cameo in Avengers), he's featured prominently in three stories this month! This is like the guy who worries about his job security after going on vacation. We already talked about Rick at length earlier in the thread, so I won't say much more about him here that wasn't already said (although we'll be seeing him again in this month's Avengers).

I had thought Rick was returning to New Mexico for good. His dialogue with Cap carries an undercurrent that could be read as Rick feeling threatened by and fed up with Cap's constant "Bucky" thing. "You still can't forget your dead partner, Bucky, can you, Cap?? Well, I've got to rush now..." It sounds like he feels overshadowed by Bucky and wants to go back to Bruce who gave him more attention and gave him the feeling of actually being needed.

"Did you think I could ever forget how you once saved my life, Doc?" Well, uh, yeah, now that you mention it, you seemed to have "gone blue" as of late. It comes down to a case of "What have you done for me lately?" Also, "I felt so guilty, leaving you and joining Captain America! I felt like a deserter!" Even his choice of words belies the military terminology rubbing off on him from Cap. Rick is like some alternate version of Peter Parker, trapped in denial because of his guilt and using the Avengers as escape rather than accepting his responsibility to Bruce.

How does Rick know that extreme anxiety is what counteracts the "gamma-state inertia"? (I hope I've coined a term with that.) Last he knew, Bruce was still taking gamma pills to change, as in FF 26.

Rick meets Major Talbot for the first time.

Before moving on to more important matters, a couple of questions about that ever-present villian, the Chameleon. How did he escape the authorities after ToS 58, and why was he not affected by the gamma blast in this issue?? And speaking of the Chameleon, here's an illustration that my brain recognized from seeing it thirty years ago, probably because it's such a dynamic action illo of "Bruce".

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Okay, now for what seems to me to be the meat of the story.

WHAT THE #$%@#& WAS BANNER THINKING????!!!!

You create a humongous gamma bomb, and then that bomb turns you into a monster, and so what do you do? Why, you keep a written formula and a working prototype of a gamma-bomb grenade, of course!! A grenade which can...blow up the entire military post, killing everyone, including the woman you love!! Makes perfect sense. And not only that, you keep both the grenade and the formula in your unlocked laboratory?? (Okay maybe the Chameleon picked the lock, what's the difference? And we can only hope that Banner kept the actual drawer locked and Chamelon had to get the key from Banner's pocket.)

It occurred to me that this handy, easy-access gamma-grenade bomb might be Bruce's last-resort suicide plan in the event that the dangerous Hulk needs to be killed. But who is going to use it on him in that event?? Note to Betty? "Do Not Open Unless in Danger from Hulk."

Anyway, Banner appears criminally negligent, which is good characterization. He's never been the wisest of brilliant scientists. And it's good to see Stan and Steve reintroducing the "gamma" concept in preparation for the Leader next month. The Hulk does save the base again (he first did this in Incredible Hulk #2) and this is the second time that he's borne the brunt of a gamma bomb. This time it turns him back to Banner. (He's been involuntarily subjected to gamma rays in other forms, such as the radiation belt in space in IH #3).

We learn that the Hulk's "bestial brain is unable to retain one thought for too long".
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If his mental capacity is suffering, at least he's getting a few good illos:
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In this one, he looks like he's wearing a mask. "Hulk, the Boy Wonder"?
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Some miscellaneous questions:

Why is Betty's hair gray? It's unattractive and makes her look old.

Is the "test sled" the same model as the one seen in FF #12?

When consecutive Marvel stories are connected by cliffhangers, such as TtA 61/62 or ASM 18/19, how does this affect their temporal placement in the overall meta-narrative? Should we assume that TtA 62 and ASM 19 took place roughly a month prior to the supposedly "concurrent" Marvel stories this month, and then these heroes got to rest for a whole month while everyone else shouldered the load for the Marvel U? If so, we're reading "past events" in TtA 62, i.e. things that happened previously to "current" stories such as the same week's X-Men 8. Alternately, it could imply that the customary inferred month has not in fact elapsed for the other Marvel titles, whenever any one title features a cliffhanger.

I have no doubt that Martin Goodman would have pulled the plug again on this second attempt at a Hulk series if sales were poor. So my assumption is that the Hulk was better received in this first half-year of TtA stories compared to his own magazine. I'd be interested to know how much of that is due to Ditko, to the Leader, and to the Hulk's increased cache after Avengers 1-3 and FF 25/26.

In the letters page, Breck Clark sent in contrasting Hulk illos from IH 6 and FF 25/26, saying he wants the ugly Hulk back. Stan replies that they're trying.

The very amusing pinup shows the Hulk apprehending a gang of gun-toting thugs. LOL! I want to read that story. "The Incredible Hulk Vs. ....the Hoods!!"



"Now we're getting off focus." - the Elder Son of Storytime