In Incredible Hulk #2 (May 1962), we get a quick re-telling of the Hulk’s origin… saves Rick Jones, dose of gamma radiation, upon nightfall turns in Mr. Hyde… with the never-explained change from grey-skinned to green-skinned. Bruce and Rick proceed to build an underground bunker for the Hulk to spend his quiet evenings, with 10-ft thick concrete walls.
But then the story kicks off with an alien invasion by the “Toad Men”, who quickly use their weapons of magnetism to kidnap the smartest person on the planet – who naturally is Bruce Banner – into their alien vessel.
But woops – before Bruce Banner can betray all of mankind to the Toad Men, the spaceship moves onto the dark side of Earth, which triggers another Hulk-out. The Hulk shows that he’s not some brainless slob, but realizes that the alien technology could make him master of Earth.
The spaceship crash lands, surrounded by the army and General Thunderbolt Ross, but Bruce Banner emerges, the aliens deciding to flee underground, implicating Bruce as behind the whole invasion (?). Bruce is imprisoned (yet again). Night time comes, Hulk busts out of jail and instinctively goes to Betsy Ross’ house. Rick arrives to calm the Hulk down. Eventually Bruce Banner regains control and figures out he can use his gamma weapon to repel the alien invaders.
The story ends with General Ross ominously stating that the Hulk and Bruce Banner are connected. Meanwhile Rick Jones successfully imprisoning the Hulk, who can’t even break through a measly 10-foot thick concrete wall.
These early stories definitely are kind of all over the place. It’s clear that Stan Lee is still trying to figure out a good way to handle his “monster protagonist” and the rules around who the Hulk is, how smart he is, what triggers the metamorphosis, and just how strong is the Hulk have not been established yet. But it’s still interesting to see the serial storytelling emerging.
Despite cheeky allusions in the Fantastic Four, it’s not clear to me if Stan and Jack had the original intention of creating a “connected universe” between the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. So far the Hulk seems more of the Marvel Monster variety of story.