Books like The Incredible Hulk, Vol. 1: Return of the Monster

I’ve been reading comics since I was four and the Hulk has always been at the top of my list of favorite characters. There were a few Hulk issues that I would read over and over again. The first one that comes to mind was I believe titled: Here Dwelleth the Monster. Yeah, written by Stan Lee. The Hulk vs. Namor. In this one, Namor has just returned from the surface after a month of stalking Sue Richards, to find Atlantis in shambles. * He’s outraged. Hulk is going through his “me-want-to-be-left-alone” period and is out for a swim in the ocean. Subby wrongly blames Hulk for the destruction. The battle is on. I do remember this issue had very little dialogue (bonus points for that) – Hulk was under water, holding his breath and Namor is never one for small talk. After an epic, tsunami-like collision between the two, the Hulk is knocked half way around the world. After Namor recovers, he pursues the Hulk but only finds Banner. Namor is nonplussed. This was back when the Hulk still had a secret identity.Another dog-eared issue had Hulk on the cover sandwiched between an on-rushing Abomination and Rhino. Way to ramp up the tension. Gosh, what’s the Hulk going to do? Well, here’s what the Hulk did. He grabbed Rhino by the horn and bitched slapped The Abomination with him. Game over.Back in the Neolithic Era of comics that was pretty much what you could expect from the Hulk. Hulk, his speech, unimpeded by helping verbs, usually tried to avoid conflict but conflict always found him. He usually had the thought process of toddler and the quick temper of a strung out junkie stripper on crack. Then Peter David took over the writing chores.David skillfully and humorously explored all of the finite possibilities that are inherent in the Hulk. He brought back the cunning Grey Hulk, he split Banner from Hulk, Hulk went on a rampage, nobody could stop him (check out Hulk Vs. Iron Fist), Dr. Strange banishes Hulk to another dimension, those Canadian idiots, Alpha Flight reel him back with a cosmic fishing line, Hulk fights Wolverine a thousand times, Hulk and Banner psyches get merged and Hulk retains Banners intellect. Finally after ten years, David just got burned out with the writing chores.Skip some mediocre storylines (sorry, John Byrne) until we come to Jones run. Jones took a page from the Bixby TV show and squeezes Hulk into “smaller” storylines. Bruce Banner on the run, chased from small town to small town by a secret government entity. Posing as a Mr. Green, he is in contact with a Mr. Blue via email.** A literate (he’s a college professor) Abomination is a major player.This run also has some of the cleverest, funniest cover art I’ve ever seen. It includes cereal box art, back–handed Norman Rockwell tributes, movie posters and the covers drip with meta-humor, skewering the then cultural zeitgeist.I also used a Hulk action figure for my son as a learning tool. When he was younger, he was in and out of the hospital quite frequently. Hulk would be used as a surrogate for what to expect with anesthesia, needles, recovery from surgeries and anything my wife and I could anticipate. If the Hulk could calmly endure this, then my son could as well. And my son hung there like a super hero. Thanks, big guy!*Kids, this is the consequence for letting little Sub-Mariner think for big Sub-Mariner.**They used this in The Incredible Hulk movie. It isn’t Stearns in the comics.