The Incredible Hulk in 1967

Let’s start with some positives, because I hate bagging on this series. The art isn’t bad. We’ve had a classic run of artists thus far, such as Jack Kirby, John Buscema, John Romita, Steve Ditko and Gil Kane. The word bubbles contain complete sentences with barely any typographical errors.

The narrative has also somewhat branched into something newer. The brighter lights of the Marvel Universe (like Silver Surfer and Namor) pop in and help dazzle with their star power. The military has also muddied their view of Hulk, somewhat, and the revelation of Banner and Hulk being the same has broken open the good:bad dichotomy.

The negatives seem pretty clear to me: the rogues gallery is lacking, most stories appear to be an excuse for HULK SMASH, and I don’t really know what Banner’s drive is, other than a desire to just get out of his situation. It’s really hapless… for severally characters actually. What’s going on with Betty Ross and her endless repetition of the same basic sentence: “I love Bruce Banner and please don’t kill Hulk, daddy (if they’re the same person).”

But overall, it’s improving somewhat. X-Men, Thor, and Captain America had gone through their bad phases, and there was a sudden drastic improvement in each case. Hulk is a different sort of beast that has slowly been finding its voice. It’s still an extremely mediocre series, but it’s finding its footing.

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