The Incredible Hulk in 1964

It feels like every hero got their turn battling Hulk in the 1960s. First he tears into the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, and then has a skirmish with Spider-Man in a cave. Hulk and Giant-Man/Ant-Man got into a scrape just before Hulk joined and shared Tales to Astonish a couple months later. I’ve promised myself not to try to look for logical issues or plot holes, as that’s a well-trodden path in comic fandom. There are also a number of creators playing with the same characters, making it hard to keep things logical.

BUT. Hulk just attacked just about every major hero in Marvel comics during the first half of 1964, including Giant-Man. Not three months (real time) after getting bruised by Hulk, Giant-Man decides he’s a good candidate to rejoin the Avengers. Not “let me find him and get him the help he needs;” he actually wants Hulk to join the world’s premier team of heroes once again. That’s not something I would consider a very coherent goal for one of the Marvel universe’s premier minds.

Otherwise? More Gen. Ross bemoaning that his daughter has a crush on the “weakling,” Bruce Banner. More Betsy Ross with that clueless crush. More Bruce Banner and Hulk trying to take control of Banner’s body. Yawn. Unlike his roommate in Tales to Astonish, Ant-Man, just about all of Hulk’s cast are profoundly unlikeable at this point.

The one key differentiating factor in Hulk is that I have yet to read another series where the instances between people discovering the connection between hero and secret identity are so perilously close. Does that point make sense? Hulk and Banner are wound together more tightly than anything else I’ve read this decade, which adds a lot of tension. The closest analogue I see Spider-Man, when Green Goblin picked up Spider-Man’s identity and presented an omnipresent threat to Parker’s life.

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