The Rampaging Hulk #9 - Marvel

June 1978 - The Hulk vs. The Avengers, continued!

This cover by Earl Norem is one of my all-time favorites. I'm not exactly sure how the (relatively) puny Ant-Man and Wasp are possibly holding up their end--literally--but who cares? This cover is awesome!

Speaking of awesome, this inside cover isn't too snazzy either, recalling a truly Great Moment in Hulk History:

This is referencing Incredible Hulk #150, when the Hulk faced off against the X-Men Havok. Drawn by the perfect team of Herb Trimpe and John Severin, the Hulk does nothing less than rip an entire chunk of a cliff right off, done in extreme long shot to convey just how powerful Ol' Jade Jaws is. It remains probably my all-time favorite Hulk moment, so it was cool to see it mentioned here.

Anyway, last issue of The Rampaging Hulk ended with the Hulk, Rick Jones, and the alien woman Bereet smack-dab in the middle of an alien invasion. One of the aliens shape-shifts into looking like IronMan, and starts causing damage on Earth.

This of course gets the nascent Avengers (remember, these stories take place somewhere around Hulk #'s 1-6) involved, and that's where this issue picks up:

Never having seen this issue before, I was soooo looking forward to it--I loved The Rampaging Hulk's art team of Walt Simonson and Alfredo Alcala, who excelled at pulse-pounding, jumping-off-the-page action. The previous issue swapped out Simonson for Herb Trimpe, and while I wasn't as thrilled with that, the book still looked distinctive from the Hulk color comic, one of the things I love(d) about the b/w magazine format.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I opened this issue and saw the art team was Sal Buscema and Rudy Mesina. Not at all meant as a slight to Mr. Buscema--who was and is a fine comic book artist--but one look at these pages and you can see they look a lot like the Hulk color comic, just without the color. One of the things I liked the most about the magazine, the thing that made it the most distinct, is gone, right at the moment that the biggest, most knock-down, drag-out fight was about to occur. *Sigh*

Okay, anyway, this issue is pretty much one big fight:

You gotta admire The Wasp and Ant-Man for even daring to get near the Hulk! I guess that's what makes them heroes.

There are some moments here that feel a little more brutal than what you saw in regular Marvel comics, like when Thor tosses his hammer right into the Hulk's chin:

...ouch! My teeth hurt when I look at that.

Eventually, the Avengers and Hulk realize they're on the same side, and turn on the alien invaders:

The End...for now!

With this issue, the "Bloodstone" co-feature (which I never warmed to) is gone, replaced by Shanna the She-Devil(!) drawn by Tony DeZuniga. But before we get to that, there's a really nifty Shanna pin-up gallery by DeZuniga:

The strip, written by Steve Gerber, is to me a real improvement over Bloodstone, and provides a nice balance to the testosterone-fueled lead feature. Also, Tony DeZuniga really does some fantastic work here: his draftsmanship, layouts, and use of darks and lights make this Shanna strip a real joy to look at:

I'm already a big fan of The Rampaging Hulk, and now I like it even more! Can't wait to get to the next issue!

The Rampaging Hulk #8 - Marvel

April 1978 - The Hulk vs. The Avengers!

Before get into what happens in this issue of The Rampaging Hulk, let's take a moment to appreciate the nifty cover by Ken Barr (I love how massive the Hulk looks). In addition, let's take agander at the nifty inside cover pin-up by Terry Austin:

When last we left the Hulk (story-wise, I mean), the Green Goliath, Rick Jones, and the alien woman known as Bereet had just defeated an alien colossus, and woke up in a quiet, wooded field. For a moment, there was peace.

But of course that can't last, and this issue opens with our disparate trio witnessing some alien ships overhead:

Following the aliens' trail, they find a hidden fortress deep inside a mountain where the aliens are planning some sort of invasion. The Hulk, of course, only knows the most direct manner possible when dealing with them:

As the story rolls on, the aliens use a duplicating ray to mimic the appearance of IronMan, whose mission is to create some sort of diversion--that's a can do!

The fake IronMan starts blasting a bridge, which leads to a fight with the Hulk. That, in turn, leads to the entire Avengers getting involved:

...to be continued!


These Rampaging Hulks are a blast to read, and while I miss the art team of Walt Simonson and Alfredo Alcala, you can't complain having Herb Trimpe drawing the Hulk again.

On top of the main Hulk story, there's a way-cool pin-up section; kind of an Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe-type thing before that existed:

...all pin-ups drawn by George Perez! Can't beat it!

There's also the regular Bloodstone back-up feature (although, at eighteen pages, you'd have a hard time calling it that), as well, rounding out another slam-bang issue of The Rampaging Hulk!

The Rampaging Hulk #2 - Marvel

April 1977 - The Hulk vs. The X-Men!

Writer Doug Moench always did a good job on these Rampaging Hulk stories--he managed to capture the goofiness of early 60s Marvel while simultaneously delivering a slightly modern "comment" on those self-same stories, as well as working in classic Marvel pulse-pounding action.

That said, the real star of these early Rampaging Hulk issues is the art, by the fantastic team of Walt Simonson and Alfredo Alcala. So other than mentioning that Hulk fights a giant robot, with the original X-Men getting involved--I'm going to get out of the way and let the artwork speak for itself:

There's also the regular back-up feature, Bloodstone, which never did much for me but still looks pretty spiffy as well, thanks to artists Bob Brown and Rudy Nebres:

These Rampaging Hulks are enormous fun, and I look forward to presenting more of these on the blog ASAP!

The Hulk! #16 - Marvel

Aug. 1979 - The Hulk in "Masks!"

Behind an awesome, kinda-scary cover by Earl Norem, comes an even scarier pin-up by, of all people, Steve Bissette!:

Seeing this pin-up makes me think what the team of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben could have done with the Hulk. Would been pretty terrifying, I;m sure.

Anyway, this issue's story is called "Masks" and is by Doug Moench and Mike Zeck, an artist perfectly suited to the Hulk:

Bruce gets caught up with some mysterious folks who seem to know he's the Hulk. One of them, a beautiful woman named Valerie, makes vague references to having enough money for Banner to "buy his freedom" if he comes along on a trip to the Florida Keys with them.

Banner does, and it doesn't take long before trouble hits: the plane has to make a crash landing, which of course brings out the Green Goliath:

While the Hulk fights off a crocodile, we learn that this crash landing was a ruse; a test to make sure this Banner guy is the Hulk.

He is brought to a huge mountaintop home, and introduced to a man named Drago, who wants to hire the Hulk ("Bah, puny humans ask for Hulk's social security number! Hulk not know!") to retrieve a huge cache of gold, lost at the bottom of the sea.

Banner goes along with this, and while scuba diving turns into the Hulk, who is attacked by a genetically-modified octopus, one of Drago's little pets:

It turns out that Drago is a would-be scientist, working on a serum that genetically modifies people and animals. This whole treasure hunt was a ruse to get a sample of Banner's blood, which Drago needs for his experiments.

Anyway, the Hulk fights off the octopus, which was not part of Drago's plan! The Hulk hurls a motorboat into Drago's house, which causes an explosion. Drago tries to run inside and save his work, but dies in the fire. Hulk, disgusted he was being used just to get the gold, flings it at Valerie in disgust, and takes off. The end.


A pretty good story, and its interesting to see the Hulk presented as he is here, a bit more intelligent than usual. Banner had started to like Valerie, and his betrayal shows up even when he's the Hulk. Cool!

Mike Zeck does his usual excellent job, but it would have been a real kick to see him draw a more action-centric story, since he excels at that. This story is more thoughtful, more of a human drama--nevertheless, the artwork here is just great.

The main story is followed by an article on Marvel TV productions, like Hulk, Captain America, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man:

The issue rounds out with a Hulk portfolio by Rudy Nebres, which has half a dozen very spiffy pin-ups:

All in all, a solid issue of Hulk-tastic art and action!