The Rampaging Hulk #5 - Marvel

This might be my all-time favorite individual issue of a comic b/w magazine. I bought it during vacation in the Poconos when I was just a wee lad of six years old. That look on the Hulk's face (courtesy Jim Starlin) terrified me, though I bought it anyway. Has the Hulk ever looked more menacing, more angry? I remember having nightmares--actual nightmares--about this Hulk cover. Good job, Mr. Starlin!

Anyway, the Rampaging Hulk magazine was fairly innovative for its day--these were stories of the Hulk that fit inbetween his adventures in the very early 60s. Nowadays the concept of "Untold Stories of..." is commonplace, but back then it was a pretty novel idea. Hulk was also the first real superstar of the Marvel superhero line to get his own black and white, and to have it thrive. Maybe it was due to stories like this--"Lo, the Sub-Mariner Strikes!"

Written by the ever-reliable Doug Moench and drawn by Keith Pollard and Alfredo Alcala, the story picks up where the previous issue left off, where Hulk, Rick Jones, and an alien named Bereet run afoul of Namor, who is of course pissed off about something. An angry mob throws a brick at Bereet, which knocks her out. Namor is offended at this, and starts tearing through the crowd like a hot knife through butter. Bruce Banner starts stressing out, and of course transforms into the Hulk. The Hulk, though, wants to stop the fighting, and he does this by starting to fight with Namor. More fighting will lead to less fighting. When did Hulk join the Republican Party?

Anyway, Hulk and Namor have at it for a few pages, and the fight is really a marvel (sorry) of storytelling construction and flow. Maybe because this was in the b/w magazine and therefore aimed at a slightly older audience, Marvel felt it was ok to ramp up the savagery a little. You really get the sense these two are pounding the No-Prizes out of each other, which leads to this great page:

For years, between the time when I first got this magazine and when I found it again via ebay, I was sure that Namor had punched Hulk right in the No-Prize (too much?). I was sure of it. Now, of course, I can tell he hit Hulk a little north of that. Nevertheless, it makes quite an impact--you really get the sense just how strong Namor is. The only problem at all I see is...the lettering lets us down. Wump? That's it? This page was way too bombastic for such a puny sound effect, and Hulk hate puny sound effects! I think it should been more like this:

...there, that's better.

They fight some more, the Army joins in (of course--the Army never met a Hulk battle they didn't like. Hulk must get christmas cards from Lockheed Martin), and Namor kidnaps Bereet and flies off. To be continued!

After all this, you'd think Marvel could let you relax with some Bullpen Bulletins or maybe a Hostess ad or something. But no! You jump right into the back-up feature starring a mercenary-adventure guy named Bloodstone, in a story called "Suite Fear!" (cute), written by John Warner (?), and drawn by Val Mayerik and Bob Wiacek. Bloodstone gets caught in a deathtrap (several, actually) and there's some weird robot-skeleton guy named the Modular Man. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this feature, but after the rip-roaring, pulse-pounding lead, nearly anything would be a letdown.

There's a two-page letter column, and then a full-page ad for issue #6 depicting Namor and Hulk fighting it out, again--underwater! Hoo hah, this is gonna be good!