I've never bought Incredible Hulk regularly. When I was kid, I came by them as part of the 5-pack bags I would buy at the grocery store, alongside far too many copies of Brigade, or else in the 20-packs of comics I always requested from the Christmas catalog. Those issues were usually from the, I guess, middle third of Peter David's extensive run on the book, when either Dale Keown or Gary Frank were artist. The point at which Banner and all the Hulks combined into the biggest, greenest, smartest version, the "Professor" Hulk. The Hulk joining the Pantheon and getting involved in larger geo-political events, although those events often still required a healthy dose of smashing.
I've owned a few from Paul Jenkins or John Byrne's stints at different times, and I still have a couple from Bill Mantlo's lengthy run as writer (although one of those is because it was included in the Rocket Raccoon and Groot collection I bought.) The Hulk seems to work better for me as part of an ensemble, or even a guest-star. Maybe because it feels like he always just wins by being stronger than his opponent in his own book. If he isn't stronger at the start of the issue, he will be by the end.
An oversimplification, but it's telling the one multiple-issue story I own is "Countdown", which includes the issue above. Where Hulk's poisoned, growing weaker and more emaciated all the time. Of course, this is also Joe Fixit Hulk, so watching that jerk get smacked around because he's too weak is pretty enjoyable.
4 comments:
What a coincidence, I was just thinking about the Hulk yesterday. It occurred to me that a Hulk fan probably gets off quite lightly in terms of Marvel's excessive output.
There's just the one ongoing comic, with maybe a second every five years or so that soon folds, so you don't have hundreds of monthly titles to keep up with, like the Spidey or Wolverine fans.
There will probably never be a film, so you don't have to worry about the ongoing getting a "bold new direction" to match whatever happens in the film, only to again go back to normal in a few issues.
And he doesn't last long on team books, so there aren't many extra titles to follow.
It's probably quite cheap being a Hulk collector!
(This is where you tell me he currently has about five ongoing monthly comics...)
This is a good point. Maybe both Hulk and She-Hulk have ongoing series simultaneously, assuming the person in question is a fan of both. There might be some mini-series (Peter David had been writing some set in the Future Imperfect timeline, about Maestro Hulk either taking control of fending off challenges, I forget which), but that's still pretty easy.
I don't actually remember the last time Banner was on a team book outside a guest appearance. Red Hulk's been on 2 different Avengers teams, and She-Hulk's on there pretty regularly, but nobody wants to hang out with Original Recipe Hulk anymore.
I seem to remember an armoured Hulk being on one of the Bendis-era Avengers teams, or at least the cover; I'd given up by then so it must have been post-Mighty Avengers. I'd be surprised if he wasn't brought into Hickman's sprawling Avengersverse, but I didn't read that post #1 either.
I'd also be surprised if he hasn't been included in one of the many Defenders reboots I haven't been reading.
Al Ewing did a loose Defenders story a few years ago as a bunch of interconnected one-shots. Defenders: The First Line? Maybe it was the Best Line or Last Line, I forget. It was strictly the Big Four line-up, but it definitely had the Hulk (albeit I think it was Ewing's Immortal Hulk rather than "Hulk Smash!" Hulk)
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