The Incredible Hulk #1-6

The Incredible Hulk #1-6

Originally released in 1962

Written by Stan Lee

Art by Jack Kirby (#1-5), Steve Ditko (#6)

The Incredible Hulk is one of Marvel's most enduring characters.  After being bombarded with gamma radiation by a bomb of his own creation, reserved scientist Bruce Banner transforms into the monstrous green behemoth known as the Incredible Hulk.  It's a modern day Jekyll-and-Hyde story of a man tortured by the darker impulses lying just beneath the surface.  The Hulk has lasted for sixty years, becoming a cultural icon that's immediately recognizable.

And his series was cancelled after six issues.  The early issues felt like Marvel's attempt at making a horror comic under the strict restrictions of the 1960s Comics Code Authority - the palette is darker than something like the Fantastic Four or Spider-Man, and the exposure to the gamma bomb causes Bruce to scream non-stop for hours.

Jack Kirby's work on the book can be surprisingly haunting at times - I saw the image of the Hulk trying to break down a wall, howling at the sky, in a Marvel history book when I was a kid, and that image stuck with me.

Bruce Banner's only confidant is Rick Jones, the teenager who he saved from being killed in the explosion of the gamma bomb, a selfless action that led to Bruce becoming the Hulk.  Bruce was working for General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who becomes a more active version of J. Jonah Jameson as the series goes on.  Whereas Jameson is content to write editorials calling Spider-Man a threat and/or menace and occasionally sending Spider-Slayer robots after the wall-crawler, Ross will send out tanks, planes, and missiles if he even thinks that the Hulk is in the area.

The general's daughter, Betty Ross, is one of the few people on the military base that respects Bruce.  The two of them want to have a relationship, but the presence of the Hulk gets in the way of that.  It's no Spider-Man and Mary Jane as far as Stan Lee-written relationships go, but I'd put it above Donald Blake (Thor) and Jane Foster, at least.

A hero can be defined by his villains, and the Hulk's rogues gallery... is severely lacking.  It's not the worst that Lee and Kirby had to offer (Ant-Man and the Wasp didn't have much of a rogues gallery beyond Whirlwind, and even he originally went by "The Human Top"), but it seems to speak volumes that the only remotely noteworthy villain out of these first six issues is the Ringmaster, a hypnotist and petty thief.

As well, it kind of felt like Lee and Kirby weren't really sure what to do.  With comics like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, you could tell what they were going for within the first issue or two, whereas with the Incredible Hulk, what's going on with him changes from issue to issue.  Issue 1, he's gray and only turns into the Hulk when the sun sets.  Issue 2, he's green and wants to use alien weapons to take over the world.  Issue 3 has a burst of cosmic radiation giving Rick Jones the ability to control the Hulk's actions.  By issue 4, Bruce adjusts one of his machines, allowing him to maintain his intelligence in Hulk form and control the transformation whenever he wants, and so on.

You would think that this last part would take away a lot of the drama or tension surrounding the series - Bruce transforming into the Hulk due to anger or stress hadn't been established yet.  However, despite having Bruce's intelligence, the Hulk's rage remains, and if anything, the boost in intelligence makes him more dangerous.  He's willing to help mankind, but now he's more acutely aware that no matter how he tries to help, he'll always be rejected, hunted, and marked for death.  If anything, this added awareness makes Bruce's situation more tragic.

The comics give us a good core concept (Jekyll and Hyde with a sci-fi twist, and Jekyll is working for the people who are hunting Hyde), but it kind of felt like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby weren't sure what to do with it, or it didn't sell well so they felt the need to shift direction. (though that's understandable, given how many books they were working on at the time)  The book sends some mixed messages on patriotism - on one hand, American soldiers and technology are consistently portrayed as being superior to their Russian counterparts, but on the other hand, people acting out of patriotic duty (including Rick Jones) constantly screw over the Hulk's life.

While I can kind of see why it only lasted six issues, it's a shame; I would have liked to see how the comic would have turned out if they had stuck with the original tone rather than changing things up nearly every issue. (including, by the final issue, the artist; I preferred Jack Kirby's take on the series over Steve Ditko's)  Much like its title character, The Incredible Hulk went through a lot of changes in a very short time - some good, some bad, and it was still a work in progress by the end of those half a dozen comics.