The Incredible Hulk #4/1

The Monster and the Machine

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers

Villains: none

Guest Appearances: Rick Jones

So, What Happens?

As the army test a missile designed to freeze the Hulk Betty Ross harangues her father about the missing Banner. He isn’t really that interested until she suggests that Banner, Rick and the Hulk are all somehow mixed up together. Hearing this he scrambles the army to find Rick Jones.

The military soon finds Rick, although the Hulk is able to leap to safety while Rick gets arrested. As General Ross rages at Rick the Hulk manages to save a bus full of children from crashing into a train and causes havoc on a film set.

Eventually he responds to Rick’s mental commands and comes to rescue his friend and take him back to their underwater cave.

Once there Rick hits the Hulk with a burst of gamma radiation that finally restores him to Banner. However Banner seems frailer than ever and is soon trying to figure out if there is a way of combining his own brain with the Hulk’s power.

By fiddling with the gamma ray projector Banner manages to achieve this and seems very happy to be in control of the Hulk’s form.

Rick soon notices that the Hulk seems far crueller than Banner and when they venture outside they are met with gunfire from frightened locals despite saving a family from a burning house. The Hulk seems angrier than ever at his treatment and Rick is relieved when they return to the cave and Hulk changes back into Banner.

So is it any good?:

It seems to be struggling what to do with the Hulk setup almost page by page.

I guess by this point they had seen some sales figures and realised that the book wasn’t quite working. We seem to have a situation where Gamma Radiation triggers the change, and different amounts trigger different changes but despite the Hulk retaining Banner’s intelligence (or at least some intelligence, he hardly comes across as a genius) and being free of Rick’s bizarre telepathic control of the previous issue we also have a noticeably mean Hulk who displays a lot of anger at anyone who reacts badly to him.

Later writers would go to town on what that said about Banner’s personality but here it seems more that Banner must fight for control and that the right level of gamma radiation could be found to keep Banner properly in control.

With Banner almost seeming an invalid whenever he returns to his own form it makes his relationship with the Hulk almost a battle for his survival. Something about the transformation and constant exposure to Gamma radiation seems to have damaged him but he still can’t allow the mindless Hulk loose so he needs to find some safe middle ground.

Which is all a bit more interesting than the issue itself actually manages to be.

While you can look at it through the lens of what the title eventually became the truth is that this issue is just a desperate creative team in a failing book making it up as it goes along.

The one thing of interest away from Banner is that this issue uses Betty much more than previous ones and dwells on the conflict between her concern for Bruce and her father that would be done to death over the years. She comes across as compassionate and likeable here perhaps because her input to the stories hasn’t really become a cliché yet.

Artistically it is well done and there are points of interest in the different setups for the title character but it’s not really a good comic.

Are there any goofy moments?

The Hulk crosses the line between leaping and flying a few times in this issue, regularly changing direction and even soaring back in the air at times.

Similarly the Army’s flying Hulk decoy is bizarre.

A lot of the Hulk’s rampage is deliberately played for laughs but is still pretty corny.

Is it a landmark?:

Not really.