The Incredible Hulk in 1966
Finally, there’s an attempt to branch the Hulk into something different. Hulk is zapped into the future, where he faces off against the similarly trapped Executioner (a minor Thor villain).
Upon Hulk’s return to the present, he gets to battle Hercules. Sometimes, cross-pollination adds a lot to a series; other times, this sort of thing feels like a cross-promotion. For Hulk, it seems to help. There’s just so little of the Hulk concept at this point (yes, I know the 80s blew the concept out of the water) that anything can help flesh out this narrative.
There is also the Secret Empire storyline which worms its way through multiple Marvel series, and Hulk is not spared. I’m feeling profound apathy at these red-hooded goons (and they’re hired underling, Boomerang) but, at least, this is a change of pace.
I keep going back and thinking, “am I missing something? This franchise has a ton of hardcore fans.” So I googled lists of best Hulk stories, and there were very few mentions of anything before Grey Hulk in the 80s, and 90% of the stories occurred after 2005. There’s also the matter of two high budget movies that were each dull as hell, made in short order. The second of those movies was in the MCU and was a Phase I release, yet is considered the weakling of the era. Maybe classic Hulk really is just bad.
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