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!