We're tuning into the request line here at Chuck's Comic of the Day, and this review goes out to my amigo Paul, who's a big fan of the Hulk. Even in the Silver Age, writing for comics wasn't exactly a prestige job, and most professional writers avoided comics work, except when writing under a pen name.
In my memory, the first big name writer to kick open that door and say proudly, "I enjoy comic books," was also one of America's best: Harlan Ellison.
In 1971 he plotted two comics for Marvel (both cover dated June) - Avengers #88 and The Incredible Hulk #140.
Both issues featured a fearsome alien named Psyklop, whose mysterious plot involved sacrificing the Hulk to the Dark Gods. When the Avengers intervene, the Hulk is reduced to microscopic size and finds himself on a barbaric, subatomic world where the people are green-skinned.
He defends them against attackers and is welcomed by Queen Jarella. The two fall in love and the Hulk finds happiness, love and contentment for the first time. Jarella would go on to become an important character in the Hulk's supporting cast (though her appearances were irregular), and she was even mentioned in the most recent issue.
The story is full of romance, action, adventure, tragedy and unexpected twists, and it stands up as well today as it did then.
Roy Thomas provides the dialogue and does his usual fine work, although perhaps he went a bit overboard in trying to work in the titles of various Ellison stories.
The art is by Herb Trimpe and Sam Grainger, and it's not a terrific combination - some of the anatomy is awkward - but while Trimpe never had a particularly slick style, he was always a solid storyteller and there are several powerful pages on display here.
As you'd expect from Ellison, the story is a different take on the Hulk, and I'd say it's the best Hulk story from the Silver Age.
But I admit to being a bit prejudiced, because Ellison is one of my all-time favorite writers, and I believe his work here raised the bar for comics writers everywhere.
These days it's not usual to see big names writing comics - but it all started with the tiniest Hulk of them all.
Grade: A-
2 comments:
Chuck, Thanks for mentioning this one, which, as you know is a favorite of mine. BTW, I was telling Evan about Tom Wolfe's (The Right Stuff) appearance in Hulk 142, wherein Hulk fights the Valkyrie.
My pleasure! We're always glad to take requests - I'll have to track down that Tom Wolfe appearance (I think he also did a cameo in an issue of Dr. Strange, which seemed appropriate at the time).
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