Incredible Hulk #153. The trial of the Hulk

(Cover from July 1972.)

“The World My Jury!”

Written by Gary Friedrich.
Pencils by Dick Ayers and Herb Trimpe.
Inks by John Severin.
Lettering by Jean Izzo.

Here’s a tale so memorable it inspired a TV movie.

Happily, this is a whole lot better than that was. And we don’t even have to endure the sight of Daredevil in a costume that genuinely looked like it’d been made by a blind man.

Instead we get to see more heroes than we thought could be crammed into one comic, and the trial of the century, as the strip that refuses to settle on a genre becomes a courtroom drama.

Captured, at the airport, by the Fantastic Four, the Hulk’s on trial and, unless his attorney Matt Murdock can come up with the goods, he's facing the death penalty.

But it’s an odd sort of trial, as the prosecution offers neither evidence nor witnesses against the accused, while it never occurs to Murdock to ask psychiatrists to judge whether the Hulk’s even mentally fit to stand trial. Happily, in the end, none of that matters as, whipping up another of his impossible devices, Mr Fantastic engineers the monster’s escape.

You can’t get round it, Reed Richards’ behaviour in freeing the Hulk can’t be seen as anything but what it is, irresponsible. We may all be glad to see the star of the comic we’re reading dodge the death penalty but you can’t ignore the fact he’s caused innocent deaths in the past and will no doubt do so again.

It’s also a shame to see so little of Spider-Man at the airport. A couple of panels and he’s gone. Somehow it’s hard to imagine the infamously egotistical web head so easily agreeing to butt out of a fight - especially as, at that point, the Fantastic Four aren’t exactly setting the world alight. There is though an odd pleasure in seeing Daredevil get bashed against the tailpiece of a plane by the Hulk. Although you do wonder how he’s still alive after that. And of course we get to see yet another Hulk/Thing scrap.

But, despite the early action, the tale’s focus is on the trial and, with its grumpy judge, endless objections from the prosecution, and overall feel of a kangaroo court, it does what a legal drama should do which is make you sympathise with the accused and hate everyone else.

So, all in all, we get all we could ask of a Hulk tale. It’s good to see the strip still happy to veer away from our expectations of what a Hulk story’s like by having a tale dominated by people stood in a room talking - even though the whole way the court functions makes no sense in terms of how a real court'd do things.

That judge really does need to learn to relax a bit though.

The Avengers #88. Harlan Ellison, Psyklop and the Dark Gods

(Cover from May 1971.)

“The Summons Of Psyklop”

Plot by Harlan Ellison.

Script by Roy Thomas.

Drawn by Sal Buscema.

Inked by Jim Mooney

Lettering by Shelly Leferman.

It’s ironic that one of my favourite Hulk tales of the era isn’t a Hulk tale at all and barely even features him. It’s an Avengers tale but it ties directly into the Hulk mag’s continuity and that gives me all the excuse I need to include it here.

My love for it’s also ironic because I hated the Hulk’s last meeting with the Earth’s mightiest heroes which could only be called a wasted opportunity.

This, however, is a whole other kettle of Cthulhu. It might be because it’s plotted by Harlan Ellison. It might be because it draws heavily on the work of HP Lovecraft or it may just be that, as it’s the Avengers’ own mag, they get a bit more room to spread their wings and therefore impress us. Contrast Thor - effortlessly taking out a giant caterpillar of death with one blow of mighty Mjolnir - with the Avengers’ hapless blunderings in The Incredible Hulk issue #128.

So here’s the deal. The Hulk’s been captured by Reed Richards and Charles Xavier who knock him out with a massive dose of electricity. Unfortunately, just as they’re about to enact Part Two of their plan, the Hulk vanishes, only to reappear in an underground chamber belonging to a compound-eyed being called Psyklop, servant of the Dark Gods. Meanwhile, above ground, after a tip-off from a dazed voodoo priest, the Avengers are closing in on Psyklop’s lair. I think we could all guess that a fight ensues. What we might not have guessed is that by the end of the tale the Hulk’s been shrunk to the size of an atom, and the Avengers are back in New York with no memory of any of it.

Being a bit of a sucker for HP Lovecraft, I was always going to love this outing, as the Avengers find themselves slap bang in the middle of one of his tales, complete with secret occult rituals, Dark Gods and creatures that time forgot.

I also have to praise the artwork. There are certain parallels between Sal Buscema and Herb Trimpe, the most obvious being that both have had a tendency to be criminally underrated over the years but also that it’s hard to think of many pencillers whose finished work was more dependent on who was inking them. Just as a change of inker could dramatically alter the whole look of Trimpe, so could Sal Buscema seem like a different artist in different hands. At times he could look like Don Heck, at times like big brother John. In Sam Grainger’s hands, he could even in places resemble Steve Ditko. In this issue he’s inked by gentleman Jim Mooney who does a fantastic job of it, his variety of line thickness giving a weight and solidity to Buscema’s pencils that could sometimes be lacking under other inkers.

Really, my only quibble with the tale is Psyklop’s motivation for shrinking the Hulk. Clearly he has no good reason to do so and only does it because Ellison wanted to shrink the Hulk. Oh well, what’s it matter? In the end it leads us into the next issue of The Incredible Hulk and yet another classic tale.

I tell you those classics are coming thick and fast now.

Incredible Hulk #128. The Avengers

(Cover from June 1970.)

"And In This Corner... The Avengers!"

Written by Roy Thomas.

Drawn by Herb Trimpe.

Inked by Herb Trimpe.

Lettering by Sam Rosen.

Following his recent encounter with Tyrannus, the Hulk's still roaming the nation's underground caverns. You might think out of sight out of mind, but there's only one problem.

He's heading straight for the San Andreas Fault.

If he decides to use that as his punch bag it's bye bye California.

Happily, General Thunderbolt Ross has a plan. He calls in the Avengers to lure the Hulk above ground so he can try out his latest super-weapon on him.

I suppose it was always the danger, given his style, that Herb Trimpe would have trouble drawing the Avengers. Costumed adventurers were never his strength. But the truth is, for some reason, in this issue, he seems to be having trouble drawing everything - even the Hulk. His artwork looks terrible; not just his pencilling and inking but his layouts too. It's like he's trying a whole new way of drawing the strip, and failing. Gone is the heightened visual drama we're used to, replaced by a form of story-telling that seems both flat and juvenile.

He's not the only one. Whatever malaise is afflicting Trimpe seems to have overcome Roy Thomas too. A man more used than anyone to writing the Avengers seems to have lost all feel for them. Apart from the Hulk and Goliath no one in this story seems to be speaking the way they should be.

To make matters worse, the Avengers are plain useless. They're just there to divert the Hulk so he'll step into the path of some beam or other that Thunderbolt Ross and his men have whipped up. When the Hulk finally obliges, the beam doesn't work, so the Avengers simply give up and leave, congratulating themselves on the fact they've proven they can work as a team, seemingly not caring for one moment that the Hulk's still on the loose. The various Avengers' dialogue as they depart is like some sort of parody of how super-heroes speak.

I really don't know what was going on with this issue. The impression you get is it was knocked out in a hurry under pressure of a tight deadline. Then again, maybe everyone's brains just sprang a leak during the making of it but it really is one of the few tales from the era that you'd avoid letting anyone see if you were trying to turn them on to the Hulk.

It's a shame because it's the Hulk, and it's the Avengers and it should be great. But sadly that's the one thing it isn't.