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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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