Incredible Hulk (1962) #1 recap
"The Hulk" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Ooh, #1 issues are always exciting and today it's time to recap Incredible Hulk (1962)!
Our story begins with Dr. Bruce Banner and his associate Igor about to test their gamma-bomb. Igor is complaining that Bruce hasn't shared the deets of the gamma ray with him when General Ross walks in and tells them to hurry the heck up. Luckily, his lovely daughter Betty steps in to cool everybody down:
They get ready to launch the bomb, but as Bruce is looking out at the test site he sees a kid driving a car right in the danger zone and leaps into action! Meanwhile, Igor is about to prove himself a bad bitch by pressing the button to fire instead of delaying the launch. Bruce manages to get the boy to safety just in time but is hit with the bomb's rays himself and radiation fried!
That didn't look too comfortable...
Bruce comes to back inside the lab, looking surprisingly good for a dude with major radiation poisoning. He and the boy, whose name turns out to be Rick Jones, wait in a room with two cots for something to happen. And something does!
Wait...hang on. The Hulk was originally blue??
Okay, I'm over my shock. The Hulk smashes his way out of the facility and Rick follows since he feels indebted after Bruce saved his life. Soldiers soon come looking for the Hulk and christen him with that name as seen below:
The Hulk, retaining vague memories from his life as Bruce Banner, smashes his way into a cabin where he kept the gamma ray formula. Once inside he finds none other than that bastard Igor trying to steal it from him!
Hulk totally wastes Igor and in the process upends a flask which had the gamma ray formula taped to the bottom. Rick grabs it for him as Hulk sees a photo of himself as Bruce and freaks out, saying he was weak and he's glad he transformed. Just then, though, the sun comes up and with its rays Hulk turns back into Bruce.
Funny, I didn't realize Hulk was some sort of vampire.
The army arrives along with Betty, who supposedly wanted to come apologize for her father's behavior earlier.
Once she leaves, Bruce angsts over potentially becoming the Hulk at sundown again. But that might be the least of his worries, because Igor might be in jail now but that doesn't mean he can't still scheme with his... thumbnail!?
The Russians send word to the Gargoyle, who they all seem to be afraid of. I wonder what his powers are aside from a funny-looking head.
The Gargoyle manages to make his way to the US via rocket just in time for Bruce to change back into the Hulk while driving a jeep with Rick. Hulk wants to go see Betty, and it seems she has Bruce on her mind as well. She wanders outside but faints at the sight of the Hulk.
Unfortunately there's no time to deal with that, as the Gargoyle opens fire using bullets that will supposedly make Hulk his slave. He captures Hulk and Rick and brings them all the way to Russia, but on the way not only do the bullets' effect wear off, Hulk turns back into Bruce!
This is a total wtf moment for Gargoyle, and it turns out he's not one to keep his cool. In fact, he is totally jealous that Bruce gets to be normal at all, and they strike up a deal.
The Gargoyle gets a normal-sized head and also turns on his mother country. He blows up some Russian soldiers along with himself, but not before he sends Bruce and Rick back to the US in another rocket.
And with that, our first issue of Incredible Hulk is finished! Poor Gargoyle... He really wasn't so bad...
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Just finished Spirit World. Loved it genuinely. There is something really potent in it about the intersection of queerness and heritage, but that deserves it's own post. I'm just going to say that the Jade Court not wanting Xanthe to exist because they're a person of two worlds speaks to me on some deep level that I'm having trouble putting into words.
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Fantastic Four (1961) #2 recap
"The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
In the opening to the second issue of Fantastic Four, we see our heroes committing unforgivable acts of crime. The Thing ruptures the support beam to an off-shore Texas Tower (which if you're like me, you discovered was a radar facility used during the Cold War while writing this post), toppling it. The Invisible Girl makes off with a $10 million gem by turning invisible and walking out of the jewelry store. The Human Torch melts a new monument (seen below), and Reed (gasp) switches off the power to the whole city using his absurdly long arm.
In Johnny's defense here, this monument looks suspiciously like one of those Confederate ones so maybe he did us all a favor.
But how could our heroes do such horrible things? Well it turns out that they are in fact being impersonated by Skrulls. (This is the first issue in which the Skrulls appear.) Watch "Reed" transform back into one below.
Naturally, the FF get some slack in the media for supposedly having committed these crimes, and they hole up in a cabin to talk things over. The Thing suggests a hands-on strategy:
Ben looks so sad here it breaks my heart. And he does have a point. Reed lucked out comparatively in the whole mutations game.
But they don't have time to work out a strategy before the army comes and throws them in federal prison. They're locked in separate cells and each work out ways to escape. Susan, predictably, turns invisible and makes her way past the guards. Johnny, seen below, is totally going to be able to sue the prison in a few years when he gets sick from the asbestos. Ben does what he does best and smashes his way out. And Reed? Well... See the panels I've picked out below.
Once they're out of the prison, the group decide to sabotage a rocket in order to lure the Skrulls out and convince them they're also Skrulls. Johnny and Ben fight about who will do it, and wow, didn't expect Ben to go so dark. New sadboi blorbo acquired?
Johnny manages to infiltrate the Skrulls' headquarters and shoots off a flare gun to call the others. They fight, and rather than be killed by the Thing the Skrulls end up telling them about their impending invasion of earth.
The FF decide to impersonate the Skrulls and talk to their leader, giving them "proof" that the FF are actually monsters by showing them monster drawings. Frightened, the Skrulls decide to leave Earth alone for their own safety. And the FF tell them they'll sacrifice themselves on Earth to remove evidence they were ever there.
Mission accomplished, they go back to Earth, but not before the cosmic rays hit them again, mutating Ben back into a human briefly. Sadly, though, it doesn't last.
The end of the issue has the FF proving to the authorities that they were being impersonated by Skrulls, and they also decide what to do with the Skrulls who were left on Earth.
I know I, for one, am amused by the cow thing.
The End!
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