Incredible Hulk #169. The Bi-Beast, Modok & the Harpy

(Cover from November 1973.)

"The Calamity In The Clouds!"

Written by Steve Englehart.

Drawn by Herb Trimpe.

Inked by Jack Abel.

Lettering by John Costanza.

Colours by P Goldberg.

Some people dream of a cottage in the hills. Some, of a life on the ocean waves.

And some people dream of building castles in the air.

Maybe the last of those should think again as, caught up in a tornado, the Harpy and the Hulk find themselves in a floating city built by an extinct race of bird people.

But if its builders are extinct, its guardian certainly isn't. He's the Bi-Beast, a giant, two-headed android that holds within his split cranium the bird people's cultural and military knowledge. What he doesn't have is their scientific knowledge with which to repair their failing machinery.

Happily, Bruce Banner does have such knowledge.

Unhappily, he's not going to get the chance to use it, as Modok shows up and decides to claim the complex in the name of AIM. Cue the destruct button being pushed and the whole place falling apart - but not before Bruce Banner and the now cured Betty make their dash for it.

I've said before that I always feel The Incredible Hulk's at its best when it's at its oddest and it goes into odd overdrive here as the Bi-Beast constantly argues with itself, one moment reasonable, the next aggressive, the next reasonable again, as its twin personalities struggle between them to decide quite how to deal with any situation it encounters.

With its three (or is that four?) villains and a flying city, not to mention the forces of AIM showing up, Thunderbolt Ross putting in an appearance and a dogfight between the Harpy and a bunch of military jets, I think we can safely describe this story as having everything but the kitchen sink thrown in. Some might argue it uses up its ideas too greedily. Maybe, with so much to get through, it could have been stretched to a two-parter.

Having said that, it really doesn't suffer from being a one-shot and at least it means we quickly get the Harpy out of the way, which is clearly the real aim of the story. Already, by halfway through this issue, you get the feeling Steve Englehart's run out of things to do with her, as the character who dominated the first half of the story quickly becomes marginalised and virtually disappears from it, reappearing at its climax, just in time to revert to Betty.

He seemed so keen on her last issue too.

It seems giant androids aren't the only ones who can change their minds.

Incredible Hulk #168. Modok & the Harpy

(Cover from October 1973.)

"The Hate Of The Harpy!"

Written by Steve Englehart.

Drawn by Herb Trimpe.

Inked by Jack Abel.

Lettering by Artie Simek.

Colours by S Goldberg.

Jim Wilson should be grateful. He only has to put up with his girlfriend not letting him him keep a monster in her dad's basement. The Hulk has to put up with his "ex" wanting to kill him with nuclear blasts.

That's right, it's the issue where women prove what a pain they can be as Betty Talbot becomes the Harpy and Jim's Talia becomes a would-be fiancee.

It's also the issue where Betty Talbot spends virtually the whole story naked. I can't say this excites me much but, from my roamings around the Internet, I've learned it seems to have made a lasting impression on surprisingly many people.

With the Hulk at last having left the hospital, Modok finally gets his hands on Betty Talbot and, by blasting her with large doses of Gamma radiation, turns her into the Harpy, half woman, half eagle, all green. Driven by a desire for revenge against the monster she blames for everything that's gone wrong in her life - which is plenty - she attacks the Hulk and, with the aid of a bit of trickery, knocks him out, ready for the kill.

It has to be said the Harpy's a somewhat unwieldy design with ludicrously big feet and a very odd thing happening with her chest feathers to preserve the modesty that's no doubt all important when you're a giant bird woman. She also doesn't live up to Modok's boast that she's stronger than the Hulk but at least she's got deviousness on her side and, from the reader's point of view, she's so over the top both visually and spiritually that all logical objections to her tend to be swept away by the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

This is probably a good thing. I suspect that, logically, Harpy Betty is as bad an idea as six-armed Spider-Man was. But there's something wrong with me. Despite all the criticism it got, I happened to like six-armed Spider-Man and, for the same reason, I don't have a problem with the Harpy. She's laughable and silly and no doubt a disastrous misstep by Steve Englehart but it's a comic book, and often ludicrousness is its own reward in such a medium. With her ranting and raving, she also makes the Enchantress' version of the Valkyrie look like easy-going, so how could you ever fail to warm to her?

But if I'm happy and the Harpy's happy, her father certainly isn't because Thunderbolt Ross has had command of the Hulkbusters taken off him and given to Colonel Armbruster.

You see? It turns out it's not only women you can't trust.