BOOK REVIEW – STAN LEE - THE ESSENTIAL HULK #1. 2006. Marvel Comics. Compilation of some of the earliest Incredible Hulk stories including the very first Hulk story, and many more classic early adventures of the not so jolly green giant.
The basic premise of The Incredible Hulk is well known. Bruce Banner, caught up in the gamma radiation blast from a nuclear weapon he invented, becomes a Jeckyll & Hyde figure, Banner when calm, but the monstrous brute strength Hulk when angered. At least hat is how he would develop in the fullness of time. In the earliest stories he is Banner by day and Hulk after dark, with a werewolf type dread of what he will become at nightfall.
There are sadly some gaps in the collection, which leaps half way through the book to later adventures where rage is the key to Banner’s transformations.
Another early factor that will surprise latecomers to the series is how articulate and intelligent The Hulk is early on. He often retains Banner’s mental acumen. Also, Banner often forces the transformation by forcing himself to tackle on more gamma rays from his various machines.
The stories are often simplistic, and he drawings are sometimes quite primitive too. The Hulk is quite a lummox. The enemies, such as The Gargoyle, are Russian Reds Under The Beds die-hard communists, or caricature villains from outer space or the Earth’s core, who just want a fight for the sheer Hell of it.
Hulk rarely wins by sheer brute strength alone. When the Metal Master (a prototype to the X-Men’s Magneto) proves able to make anything metal serve his will, Hulk beats him by painting a bit of wood to look like metal so he thinks he has lost his powers over it and then kicks ass.
There are some fun moments, such as Hulk’s uneasy alliance with Rick, the boy he saved and thus became the Hulk. Rick will eventually become a new sidekick for Captain America. . There is also a superb battle with Giant man, a member of the avengers, who the Hulk had served before beginning his slow loss of mind and descent into brute force and paranoia (he is convinced everyone is out to kill him). Giant man, aided by the Wasp, is able to grow to forty foot tall or shrink tot e size of an ant, (he was originally just known as Ant-Man), making it near impossible for the Hulk to fight him.
There is squeamishness in The Hulk about having anyone actually die. The Hulk pounds his enemies and leaves them to fate. He leaves one warlord in a foreign country where his capture and execution by his enemies seems certain. He pushes an invincible robot into a convenient bottomless pit, (from which it might one day crawl back for a new fight.
The Hulk has great potential, and it is easy to see how it inspired the repetitive TV series which focussed on (renamed David Banner’s) efforts to stay calm and Buddhist like in redneck country where everyone wants to pick a fight) and the dull boring film Hulk, which fails to even get started for over half of its length and then looks like a computer game scenario. Primitive as they are, the early comics have tremendous entertainment value.
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
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