Adventures in the Marvelous Zone

Published: September 1962

In this third issue of The Incredible Hulk, our dubious hero meets The Ringmaster, but that’s just about the least interesting thing that happens in this story. The Ringmaster doesn’t even appear until page 15 of 24. He almost seems an afterthought. Because, at least in my estimation, fighting villains is not really what this story is about. I think this story is about Stan trying to figure out what the heck to do with Hulk, now that he’s created him. It’s almost like Stan suddenly realizes “Oh crap! I’ve created this ‘hero’ that has no redeeming social values. How can I bring him under control? How can I make him more hero-like?”

Think about it. In these early issues, the only thing about Hulk that is under control is that he appears at night, and reverts to Bruce Banner with the light of day. However, while he is the Hulk, he is just this raging maniac, mad at the world, out to get anyone and anything that crosses his path. Up to this point he really has no purpose, and there’s no way to predict what he’s going to do.

SMASH!
Well…Hulk, SMASH! That’s about all we can be sure of. But perhaps Stan was beginning to feel that issue after issue of Hulk smashing everything in his path, while all of mankind’s efforts to subdue him are to no avail, was going to wear thin after a while. Monster fight, monster escape, monster live to fight another day.

Hulk needs some direction. He needs purpose. I might be wrong in my interpretation, but that’s what I think is going on here.

When the story begins, Hulk is locked in the underground cell Banner built for him, guarded by the only person who knows the secret, “tense teenager” Rick Jones. Military Police track down Jones and bring him to General “Thunderbolt” Ross, who says they need Hulk to test a new missile rocket, because “there isn’t a man living who could stand the force of its G-pull…except the Hulk!” At first Rick declares “Cool it, Mister! Nothin’ can make me rat on the Hulk!” but after the General describes the situation as a matter of national security, Jones caves and goes to fetch Hulk.

The uncontrollable Hulk chases Jones on to the launch pad, and Jones tricks him into the rocket’s cabin, all the while thinking, “I sure hope I did the right thing, betraying him this way!” I thought that sentiment was a bit off…don’t you think? Is there ever a time when it’s a “right thing” to betray someone?

After the rocket is shot into outer space, we learn that General Ross is more full of trickery and betrayal than even Rick Jones. This is no “test,” and he has no intention of bringing Hulk back. “He’ll never return alive to menace the Earth again!” (Add, if you will, villainous laugh, “Muwahahaha!”)

RADIATION
Meanwhile, in the rocket, Hulk reverts to Banner and is subjected to another radiation bath of “those mysterious, powerful rays about which so little is truly known.”

Back on Earth, Rick Jones overhears General Ross bragging about what REALLY happened, and Jones leaps into action to save Banner/Hulk by fiddling around with the missile control panel. At the same moment he is touching the controls, a shock wave of radiation from the rocket zaps him (“OWW!”) and the capsule plummets back to earth.

Jones runs out to the crash site, fearful that, it being daytime, Banner will be found dead inside the capsule, but instead…

HULK!!

Yes, it’s daytime, and Hulk is still about. And he’s glowing. And he’s pissed. Jones runs away, and Hulk pursues, and seems about to kill the boy, until Jones stumbles upon an amazing new development:

Oh yes, what those radiation rays will do! Turns out Hulk is now the mindless servant of teenager Rick Jones, compelled to obey his every word. He’s like a trained dog!

But only while Jones is awake, apparently. As soon as he falls asleep, Hulk reverts to his usual berserk self. Jones finds him, pursues him, and returns him to the underground prison.

While Jones tries to stay awake and figure out what to do, Stan treats us to a retelling of the Hulk origin story—I guess for any readers who have come late to the party.

Then suddenly, our story now switches to The Ringmaster, the head of a traveling circus who uses the power of hypnosis to immobilize entire towns while his circus cronies rob everyone blind. Hmmm… sound strangely familiar? Remember the Miracle Man from FF#3? Are we running out of ideas for good criminals? Repeating ourselves already? Or was Stan, in fact, making a point that the villain of this piece is not what’s most important? That any old villain would do?

Of course because we are at the circus, we have a lot of interesting visuals involving clowns and elephants, even “The Fat Lady,” who is strong enough to carry away massive amounts of necklaces and bracelets.

So the circus theme works on that level. And of course, since it is a public performance, Rick Jones ends up at the circus, hypnotized by The Ringmaster. But before he is completely immobilized, Jones calls to Hulk in his mind, his thoughts stretching out over the miles to activate the mighty monster.

Hulk arrives on the scene, and…and what’s this??? The Army, the Navy and the Marines cannot subdue the Hulk, but a ragtag bunch of circus performers knock him out with a pressure hose, chain him up, cart him away, and make a mockery of him in their next show. (I guess the Ringmaster has hypnotized Hulk as well?)

Very quickly though, the FBI has follows the track, snapped everyone out of their hypnotic spell, and Rick Jones is along when they arrive at the next circus show, ready to arrest The Ringmaster. Hulk hears Jones’ voice, goes crazy, and “now under the control of a vengeful Rick Jones,” Hulk captures The Ringmaster.

Of course, no matter how much good Hulk ends up doing, as soon as the army arrives on the scene, they point their guns at Hulk. Rick commands Hulk to escape, and together they “fly” away, leaving a wrathful General Ross in their wake, swearing thusly:

So that’s the story. And it’s not a bad story. But not so much because of the villain. As I mentioned earlier, the villain almost seems beside the point. In fact I think the villain, and his hypnosis skills, is only interesting and significant as a mirror to what is the truly significant development in this story: Rick Jones’ sudden ability to control Hulk.

MONSTER MOTIVATION
At best, Hulk is an unthinking toddler (albeit a very strong unthinking toddler). At best, he’s a monster. His only motivation, up to this point, is to “get away from it all.” He just wants everybody to leave him alone. And since people (i.e., General Ross and the military under his command) won’t leave him alone, he feels compelled to destroy the human race. Hulk is extremely volatile and self-centered. He’s all id and no ego. He has no purpose other than self-preservation. What kind of hero is this? I guess this is why I have never understood Hulk, never appreciated him as a “hero.” Some more stuff may happen with him down the road, but what we’ve seen of him up to this point in the comic series is fairly representative of how I perceive Hulk.

Was he like this in the TV series? I don’t know, because I never watched it. Having seen him now in a couple of movies, I haven’t altered my perception of him too much. Though in the Avengers movie, I think, we do see a glimmer of his being able to “play well with others,” be part of a team devoted to some ideal higher than simply “Leave me alone!”

A TEENAGER WITH POWER!
I think Hulk can evolve, and may evolve, but for right now, I am thoroughly enchanted by this idea of Rick Jones serving as his guidance system. Jones may not be the most ethical and heroic character ever, but he has at least shown some basic qualities one would like to see in a hero: loyalty and patriotism spring immediately to mind. Jones does not want to see good people get hurt. As an orphan boy, he really hasn’t had much opportunity to do anything heroic. But now that Hulk is under his control…well, I see all kinds of story possibilities opening up before us!

I don’t know how long Jones is going to maintain this control over Hulk. I’m not really sure what he’s going to do with this incredible power. I’m curious to see if the old adage will hold true: Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Will Rick Jones become overwhelmed by this sudden sense of power, and decide to use the Hulk to achieve his own personal goals? Maybe to knock out some rival who made fun of him in school? To smash the car of a teacher who gave him a D on a term paper? Will he send Hulk after General Ross, in retaliation for Ross’ evil plan to rid the world of Hulk?

From the beginning I’ve said that Hulk has not really interested me, but now in this issue, my interest is piqued. Hulk as an angry monosyllabic monster does not interest me. But a teenager with absolute control over that monster….now THAT’S good stuff!

My curiosity is also piqued as to why Hulk was still around in the daytime. Those gamma rays are messing with the mythology! But then not really, because the canon mythology of Hulk (“Don’t make me angry; you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”) is not yet in place. In fact, when I saw Banner get bombarded with those rays in outer space, my first thought was “Ah! So this is how Stan is going to make that adjustment.” But then that didn’t happen. So it was a bit of a disappointment…but then not a disappointment, because I’m really on board with this idea of Rick Jones being able to control Hulk.

But as I’ve said before, it still doesn’t make sense that people are not able to figure out that when Jones is with Hulk, Banner is nowhere to be found, and Hulk is wearing rags that somewhat resemble the last outfit Banner was seen wearing. It doesn’t make sense that no one questions Jones about this.

Well, maybe in a future issue.

WHA…???
But then again, there were several things in this issue that did not make sense. The military police that pick up Jones do not investigate his whereabouts to find the secret cave where Hulk is being contained. After Jones meets with General Ross, there are apparently no orders given to keep an eye on that kid and follow him and find out where he goes and everything he knows. Because “after convincing himself that the troops have not followed him, and that the secret of the hidden cavern will remain his secret, Rick Jones sets out to free the Hulk.”

Now. Did they really let him get all the way to the cavern without watching what he’s doing? We know that eventually Hulk will chase Jones to the missile site, and there “tight-lipped troops with weapons cocked” follow Hulk’s every move as Rick Jones leads him on to the launchpad. Well…maybe they figured if this plan works, Hulk will be gone, and there’ll be no need to know where he HAD been hidden?

Okay. Maybe that can be explained. But there’s no explaining this: after Jones overhears Ross bragging about how he got rid of Hulk, he is able to sneak in to the missile control panel (“This is my chance! No one’s looking!”) and pull the switch that sends the capsule back to earth. Now surely THAT was not in General Ross’ evil plan! That oversight of having no one at all manning the control panel so that a stray teenager can just sneak in and start pulling switches, that one act is what unravels General Ross’ plan altogether!

And then the capsule crashes, and no one else knows about it, and no one else is there, and Rick Jones is close enough to run right out to the crash site. Huh??? Is this the way the military did business in the 1960’s? Or perhaps only in comic books. Remember, in the first issue of Hulk, Banner’s team included a Soviet spy, and a bunch of minimum wage mall cops who could not keep a kid in his jalopy off the testing grounds. So, the incredibly shoddy way these space flights and scientific tests are being run may not be consistent with reality, but they do at least seem to be consistent within the Marvel comic book world.

VILLAIN VALUATION
When it comes to the Villain Valuation, I am hard pressed to decide who exactly is the villain in this story. Of course, our first thought is the hypnotist in the goofy outfit with the whirly-twirly mind control gadget on his top hat. So I will say a word or two about The Ringmaster. As I’ve already mentioned, I find him disappointingly similar to the Miracle Man. However, Miracle Man used his powers of mass hypnosis in order to carry out his plan for world domination. The Ringmaster just wants your wallet. He’s a petty thief. He’s got a power, but doesn’t appreciate all he could do with it. He’s base, he’s low, he’s actually kind of stupid.

That’s the Ringmaster. But what about our other villain…General “Thunderbolt” Ross? What? You say. Ross is not a villain! Well, probably not. Probably no more than…Hulk is a “hero.” Right? And if Hulk IS a hero, then Ross is a villain, with a plan to “get him” and destroy him.

I think at first Ross was acting in the capacity of General of the armed forces, sworn to protect the American people, but by the bottom of page 24, I would swear it’s now personal. Hulk has evaded his capture at least a couple of times by this point, and this makes the General look like a fool, and weak. Not only is Ross annoyed, he’s been humiliated. How is he going to show his face in the General’s Club if he keeps letting the big green monster and his teenage sidekick outsmart him?

I won’t put Ross on my “Villain Valuation” list (which by the way, I hope you are visiting, at the top of the page, to see how the villains I’ve met so far are stacking up), because other than his animosity towards Hulk, he’s really a decent guy. Well, except for one more flaw: even though Dr. Bruce Banner is this super-intelligent rocket scientist (remember, the Toad Men thought he was the smartest man on the planet), still General Ross doesn’t think Banner is good enough for his daughter Betty. If Banner isn’t good enough for Betty, then who is? Ross is being mighty selective, if you ask me. He probably wants JFK to marry his daughter! (But I think he was already taken.)

ARE WE GOING SOMEWHERE WITH ALL THIS?
Speaking of Betty, we didn’t see her in this one! We didn’t see much of Banner, either. I felt like this story was mostly a set-up for new kinds of Hulk stories that are coming down the pike. It seems that Hulk is slowly being molded into something that is more like the “super-hero” that will someday be part of the Avengers. Now he can “fly” (which is not really flying, by the way, it’s just that he can jump really really high) and it seems that Rick Jones will have a little more to say about what kinds of activities Hulk will undertake. At the very least, in this new arrangement, Hulk won’t be running after his only friend, trying to kill him. That wasn’t really going to work for too long, was it? I think Stan did a nice job turning things around a bit, to get this story going in the right direction. The more I read of Hulk, the more I am looking forward to future issues.

ARGHHH!!

Join me next time for an important first in Marvel’s Silver Age. It’s double the fun–and double the trouble for our heroes–when the odds are four against two!

Published: July, 1962

Originally, Russ was going to have me skip over this second Hulk story and go straight to the third, The Hulk Banished to Outer Space. But as I started to read, I felt I was missing something. I didn’t know how Hulk had gotten from where he was at the end of his origin story to where he is at the beginning of the third story. I guess Russ didn’t think The Terror of the Toad Men was worth reading, because the villains, the Toad Men, are not a formidable foe. But they certainly provide a good amount of trouble for Hulk, and for humanity in general, until the brilliant brain of Bruce Banner takes care of them in the end. So it’s a good story, full of drama and excitement. But more importantly, I think in this story we also have some important developments in the relationships of our main characters. So I want to say a word or two about The Terror of the Toad Men before we move on to the next adventure.

QUICK SYNOPSIS
As we begin, people everywhere are terrified by the Hulk, and only teenager Rick Jones can deal with the monster. While Banner and Jones make arrangements for an underground chamber to contain the Hulk, the Toad Men from outer space “have focused on the most brilliant scientific brain on Earth” and sweep up both Banner and Jones with their magnetic ray.

Captive aboard the alien spaceship, the earthlings are treated to a dissertation by Captain Torrak, who details the havoc their race can wreak on Earth with magnetic force, UNLESS Banner agrees to tell them everything he knows about Earth’s technological capabilities. When Rick Jones pipes up his objections, the Toad Captain catapults him back to earth in a “magnetically guided plastic escape cylinder.”

Banner transforms into the Hulk, overpowers the Toads, then decides to use the ship’s weapons to wipe out mankind. But the military shoots down the alien ship, finds Banner, and arrests him for treason.

The Toads use their magnetic power to escape the fallen ship and signal their comrades in the sky, who launch an invasion, which consists of pulling the Moon closer to Earth, with those intended results of wreaking havoc.

Meanwhile, Banner becomes Hulk again, escapes his prison cell, overpowers the army and kidnaps Betty Ross.

One again, Hulk becomes Banner, and now that he has his wits about him, he uses the gamma ray cannon to vanquish the Toad Men. End of story.

Yes, I know I went through all that very quickly. But that doesn’t mean I’m done. Not by a long shot! As I read through this story, question upon question kept occurring to me, and I’m afraid the rest of this entry is going to be series of questions, peppered by the occasional comment.

In fact, I’ll start with a comment. In the first story, Hulk is gray. But now we see him in his traditional green skin. My guess is that the artists/editors simply decided that green was more visually appealing than gray. It certainly makes a nice contrast against the Hulk’s pink/purple outfit. I don’t really think you can call his clothes a “costume,” like other superheroes wear. There’s no forethought; it’s just the torn shred of what Bruce Banner happened to be wearing at the time of the transformation.

QUESTIONS AND MORE QUESTIONS
Which brings up the first of my questions. And I’m sure I’m not the first person to ask this, but how is it that Hulk doesn’t completely bust out of Banner’s clothes? He’s significantly larger in every way, so why do these garments still hang on his body? Unless Banner’s pink/purple jumpsuit is made from a stretchable jersey material? But what about when Banner is dressed in a collared shirt and dress pants? We know those aren’t stretchable!

And how about this: wouldn’t it be likely, at some point, that someone is going to notice that the rags hanging on Hulk’s body look suspiciously similar to the remnants of the outfit Banner was wearing…just before he bleeped off the radar screen?

And isn’t anyone going to notice that Banner and Hulk never seem to be around at the same time?

Well, General Ross has an explanation for that last one. “That milksop will find a safe place to hide whenever danger threatens!” I’m not sensing a lot of respect here. But then again, that would be totally in keeping with the General’s character, to value brawn above brains. Of course, with his daughter totally ga-ga over the brilliant Bruce Banner, that’s likely to cause some tension and disagreement in the Ross household. But that’s a good thing, isn’t it? The more drama, the better.

But back to my questions! And this is a big one, one that I feel really has to be explained, or it will just be totally unbelievable if no one in the story decides to ask the same question. It seems that we’re developing a pattern of Rick Jones showing up when Hulk is in full swing and shouting out things like “Lemme thru! I’m the only one who can reason with ’im!” and “Hulk! It’s me, Rick! Your friend!”

Uhh….why? What does some teenage orphan boy have to do with a monster like the Hulk? How is he “friends” with the Hulk? Isn’t anybody going to ask him that? And by the way, kid, aren’t you that pipsqueak that’s always hanging around Dr. Bruce Banner? And say, kid! Where IS Banner anyway? Why is it that he’s never around when the Hulk is around? Is General Ross right about him being a milksop? Or might it be…something… more….

SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF
So this is the really weird thing about how I approach comics. As far as “suspending my disbelief” I’m totally willing to do so in matters of magic and mutations. Hulks, super-powers, monsters, little green men from outer space (or, toads, as the case may be)—bring ‘em on! The more the merrier. But DON’T tell me that the army, the navy, the marines and the local police are not going to question the one person who always seems to be right in the middle of everything.

Now, maybe in future issues Rick Jones will be questioned, and maybe he’ll come up with some kind of explanation that makes sense, or at least seems plausible to law enforcement. I’ll just be extremely disappointed if the authorities don’t at least make some attempt at getting information from him.

Now, speaking of Rick Jones, why did the Toad Men take him aboard their ship in the first place? They want Banner, “the most brilliant scientific brain on Earth,” but why does Rick Jones have to come along for the ride? Is their magnetic ray not fine-tuned enough to hone in on only one person? Well, maybe. But that only leads to the next, and more compelling question: once they’ve got Rick Jones, why don’t they just kill him? They don’t need him. The only possible good he can be to their evil plans is that if Banner refuses to talk, they can say “Tell us what we need to know or we’ll kill your companion!” But they don’t even do that. As soon as Jones squawks, they catapult him back to Earth.

My question still stands: why not kill him? Why send him back to Earth, so he can report everything he’s learned about the Toad Men, their capabilities and their plans to invade and conquer Earth? Why risk letting this pesky little kid mess everything up for them?

VILLAIN VALUATION
This leads directly to my Villain Valuation. The Toad Men don’t rank much higher than the Skrulls, as far as I’m concerned. No self-respecting villain is going to wrap an escape cylinder around someone who is absolutely of no use to them, and may in fact be able to do damage to their plans. They are much too kind for villains. Well…kind…or just plain stupid.

Yeah, I think I might have to come down on the side of stupid. The only thing the Toad Men have going for them is interplanetary space travel and the use of magnetic force. And perhaps their biggest mistake is kidnapping “the most brilliant scientific brain on Earth,” and letting him in on exactly how they plan to conquer Earth, never imagining that this brilliant scientific brain might indeed be able to find a way to put an end to their ambitious plans. Which of course, he does.

Not very bright, Toad Men.

HEROES AND MOTIVATION
But once again, I find it is Banner who is the hero, not Hulk. Hulk is, in fact, still somewhat of a mystery to me. I’m not sure what motivates him. Yes, he’s angry, incredibly angry at the human race. The moment he gets a chance to strike back at Earth, he takes it, willing to attack his own planet for…for what? For “That’ll show ’em!” Show ’em what? What exactly is he upset about?

The best I can figure, he’s upset because the military and police are always chasing him and trying to kill him. Well, I guess that’s a good reason to be upset. But if he succeeds in his plan to “wipe out all mankind,” where is he planning to live? On the desolate Earth? Or perhaps with the Toad Men? Maybe Hulk is smart enough to figure out that if he throws his lot in with the Toad Men, they won’t be capable of giving him any trouble. Either he’s thought through his plan to that point, or he hasn’t thought things through at all, and is just acting on sheer emotion. They hate me, I hate them, I kill them.

But later, when Hulk meets Betty, she asks him “Why do you hate us so??” And Hulk says:

Okay, now I’m even more confused. What does Hulk mean when he says “Look what men have done to me?” Does he mean the fact that he’s a Hulk? Does he think “mankind” has done this to him? Does he not remember it wasn’t “men” in general who turned him into the Hulk, but that it was his own doing, as Bruce Banner? It was Banner’s gamma bomb experiment that caused him to turn into the Hulk. And what’s more, if you really want to get technical about it, this is all Rick Jones’ fault, isn’t it? If Jones hadn’t gone out on that testing ground in his jalopy in the middle of a scientific experiment involving a gamma bomb, Banner wouldn’t have had to run out to rescue him, and therefore the Hulk would have never come into being.

But maybe Hulk IS thinking things through…maybe he’s thinking right back to the security guards that should have been alert enough to keep Rick Jones off the testing grounds, so that Banner wouldn’t have HAD TO run out there to rescue him, and therefore the Hulk would have never been created.

But does Hulk detest himself so much that he wants to kill anyone and everyone who is responsible for his being? Does that really make sense?

So Hulk, still an enigma. But here’s another enigma. When the army discovers the spaceship, they immediately shoot it down. When the spaceship falls to Earth, they find Banner aboard and arrest him for treason. Whoa! Slow down there! Wouldn’t he explain that he was kidnapped by the aliens? Of course by the time the army gets there, the aliens have escaped, burrowing underground with their magnetic power, so maybe the army thinks this is Banner’s spaceship? Would they continue to think that even if Banner provided a different version of events? And not only that, it’s not very trusting, is it?— to assume that just because a man is on a spaceship he was necessarily planning to attack Earth.

And “planning” is all they can accuse him of, because nowhere in the story does it say that the alien spaceship actually made any hostile move on the Earth. The military is just shooting down the spaceship because it IS a spaceship. As General Ross says, “If your radar shows an unidentified flying object above us, SHOOT IT DOWN, man! What do you think we’re HERE for?”

In other words, shoot first, ask questions later. Sigh…

A lot of questions raised in this second issue of Hulk. Maybe some of this stuff will get sorted out in future issues. But I’ve been here long enough now, and I’m anxious to get back to my reading, so that next time I can give you my impressions of Thor!

MY MID-MONTH MARVEL MOVIE MUSINGS
But before I go, one exciting announcement! At least I’m excited about it. In preparation for the release of The Avengers, Russ and I just completed a Marvel Movie Marathon, watching five films in five nights leading up to The Avengers, and of course I wrote about them here. It was a hectic schedule, but I did so enjoy reviewing these films. I enjoyed it so much that I decided I would like to continue reviewing Marvel movies, and so I am instituting My Mid-Month Marvel Movie Musings. Once each month, somewhere near the middle of the month, I’ll pick a Marvel movie to watch and review. I’ve chosen the middle of the month in honor of Stan Lee’s alliterative character names. I wanted something full of the same letter, and M was the obvious choice.

So, starting in June, look for a movie review somewhere in the middle of each month. The focus of this blog will continue to be a celebration of the comics in their classic format, but as the future of Marvel’s most popular characters is now being played out in blockbuster movies, in living color, with symphonic soundtracks and special effects for all the world to see, I’m excited to explore this marvelous new territory opening up here in The Marvelous Zone.