Incredible Hulk #171. The Abomination and the Rhino

(Cover from January 1974.)

"Revenge!"

Plotted by Steve Englehart.
Written by Gerry Conway.
Drawn by Herb Trimpe.
Inked by Jack Abel.
Lettering by Artie Simek.
Colours by G Roussos.

Poor old Talia. First Jim Wilson drags her two thousand miles to see a military base (surely a thing every fashion conscious young lady dreams of seeing), and then he uses her as a decoy to distract two of the deadliest villains the world has ever known, while he tries to defuse a Gamma bomb. There’s no denying he knows how to show a girl a good time.

Still, she should take heart from the fact she’s not the only one who’s travelled a vast distance to be there because the Hulk’s stowed away in a crate on a plane and, like them, finds himself in a Hulkbuster Base that’s been taken over by the Rhino and the Abomination who plan to blow it - and him - sky high.

Fortunately, Jim saves the day by defusing the bomb, leaving the Hulk to sensationally defeat the Rhino and Abomination by doing…

…nothing. In one of the great twists, the Hulk beats his foes simply by getting bored and walking off, leaving his two onrushing opponents to crash into each other, no doubt bringing on yet another of the Rhino’s comas.

Though the idea of the Rhino and Abomination teaming up’s the sort of thing to get a fan’s pulse racing, it does seriously undermine the Abomination as a foe for the Hulk. The Rhino’s always been somewhat out of his depth against the jade behemoth but the Abomination’s a whole other matter. There was a time when he could defeat the Hulk with his bare hands. Later, he could fight him to a standstill. Now he’s reduced to needing a partner, and even then deciding that’s not enough and that he’ll need a bomb as well. It’s a shame. The Abomination’s one of my favourite villains and his descent into being little more than an irritant to the Hulk’s a waste of a perfectly good enemy.

The team-up of two foes aside, it’s a pleasing but straightforward tale that somewhat trivialises its villains and to some degree recycles the plots of older issues like Incredible Hulk #139, where Jim Wilson also sneaks into a military complex and saves the day by using instinct and dumb luck to disable a deadly machine.

It does though give us a closing scene where Thunderbolt Ross seems to have finally learned his lesson to not hate the Hulk.

Will that lesson stay learned?

It never has in the past.

Incredible Hulk #159. The Abomination's back

(Cover from January 1973.)

"Two Years Before The Abomination!"

Written by Steve Englehart.

Drawn by Herb Trimpe.

Inked by Sal Trapani.

Lettering by John Costanza.

Colours by George Roussos.

Following his fall from Space in The Incredible Hulk #137, the Abomination's been in a coma for two years. But, upon reviving, he's immediately captured by Thunderbolt Ross who tells him that if he captures the Hulk he'll cure the villain and release him.

It seems odd that Ross takes it for granted the Abomination'll want "curing". He's never shown any displeasure at being the Abomination before, and how does Ross even know he can "cure" him, bearing in mind the repeated failures to cure Bruce Banner?

Regardless, the Abomination's never going to turn down the chance to duke it out with the Hulk and sets off into the desert to do just that but, there, both're in for a shock as the Abomination tells the Hulk that Betty Ross has married Glenn Talbot, and the Hulk tells Abbie he's been out of commission for two years. This discovery so destabilises the Abomination he can't even be bothered to defend himself against the Hulk - and we all know what the only possible outcome of a decision like that's going to be.

And so, the Abomination out of the way, it's off to the Niagara Falls for the Hulk, and a confrontation with destiny.

I love the Abomination. He just looks so good - in a bad sort of way - and the fact he can go toe-to-toe with the Hulk while having the intelligence to fling insults his way's all the better. In truth the strip hasn't always served him well. For a start, when he first came on the scene he was stronger than the Hulk, possessed a malevolent ambition and posed a genuine threat to our hero but by the time of this tale his physical advantage is gone to the degree that he poses no real threat to the Hulk at all. On top of that he seems to have no ambition left but to fight our hero. No desire to get rich. No desire to rule the world. No nothing.

But even when those things have been taken away from him, he's still the Abomination. He still has scales. He still has big ears. He still looks cool. And therefore there'll always be a kick from seeing him, even if it'll take a more ambitious story than this to fully utilise him.

Incredible Hulk #137. Cybor, the Abomination, Xeron and Klaatu

(Cover from March 1971.)

" The Stars, Mine Enemy!"

Written by Roy Thomas.

Drawn by Herb Trimpe.

Inked by Mike Esposito.

Lettering by Artie Simek.

Anchors aweigh, shipmates, it's another classic tale from a classic era as the Hulk finds himself as a crewman on an intergalactic whaling ship and we meet Captain Cybor, the half-man half-machine seeking revenge on the gigantic Klaatu for causing his unfortunate situation.

But first, of course, there's the murderous presence of the ship's first mate the Abomination to be dealt with.

I've written before about the challenges that must've faced the strip's writers for years, trying to construct compelling stories around a character with almost zero motivation and even less intelligence. One of the solutions to that problem was to make the Hulk at times a supporting character in his own book and that's what happens here. The truth is you could cut the Hulk out of this tale completely and the outcome would be precisely the same.

Still, if the Hulk hadn't been there we'd never have had the story, nor seen the return of the Abomination, nor gained witness to the strange visual poetry of the final few pages as Klaatu and his doomed nemesis drift, panel by panel, into the sun, while Xeron and his crew resign themselves to powerlessly circling that sun until their air supply runs out. It really is an oddly haunting ending and pushes the strip into the realms of art.

I am slightly confused though as to how Bruce Banner and then the Hulk and the Abomination survive adrift in space in the last couple of pages, let alone how they manage to speak in the airless vacuum. I can only assume the ship's atmosphere shell extends an awful long way into space.

I also wonder if Cybor was called Cybor before he became a cyborg. If so, he clearly had the most prescient parents of any captain this side of a man called Mar-Vell.

Incredible Hulk #136. Xeron, Klaatu and the Abomination

(Cover from February 1971.)

"Klaatu! The Behemoth From Beyond Space!"

Written by Roy Thomas.

Drawn by Herb Trimpe.

Inked by Sal Buscema.

Lettering by Jean Izzo.

They say talent borrows and genius steals. In which case Roy Thomas must be up there with Einstein, as he commits Larceny on a scale I think anyone would have to call Grand. He steals the story's title from the 1958 movie It! The Terror From Beyond Space, the name of its monster of the month from the protagonist in The Day The Earth Stood Still, and the plot from Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

And lo and behold it is indeed a thing of genius as the Hulk comes up against the gigantic Klaatu a space monster the size of the Empire State Building, and Xeron an interplanetary harpoonist out to kill the thing but having to settle instead for capturing the Hulk as his latest crew-member.

I love this tale. It's like some strange dream gone mad, with gigantic monsters hiding in skyscrapers, and aliens travelling across the universe in sailing ships and rowing boats.

Gasp as we see Klaatu, a foe so huge and powerful that even the mighty Hulk himself can do nothing more than mildly annoy it.

Thrill to see the Hulk helpless against superior alien technology.

Shudder to see the return of the dreaded Abomination, radiation-spawned menace.

I think that, like Roy Thomas, I may have been watching too many 1950s sci-fi flicks.

But, on the Abomination front, even if we only get a brief glimpse, it's great to see him. For a villain who's supposed to be one of the Hulk's arch-enemies, it's amazing how long it's taken him to make what's only his second ever appearance in the strip.