874 – Hulk Change… Again

After last issue, The Hulk is now mostly mindless and Rick’s to command, right? Well they change the rules on the Hulk again in Incredible Hulk #4 (Sep 1962). After the Hulk is chased across the country and has some fun antics with a movie set, and saves a schoolbus trapped on a railroad, the […]

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862 – The Hulk Is Yours To Command

The Incredible Hulk #3 (July 1962) is an opportunity for the creative team behind the Hulk to completely change the “rules” around the Hulk, presumably for better story-telling. Rick Jones is tricked by General “Thunderbolt” Ross into luring the Hulk into a military rocket that is shot into space. While traveling up into space, the […]

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852 – Hulk Goes Green

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 […]

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844 – The Incredible Hulk!

In March 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby combine forces again and The Incredible Hulk #1 hit the newsstands. A combination of a Marvel Monster and a super-hero in a long-form serial story-telling style. Dr Bruce Banner saves teenager Rick Jones from the G-bomb and is bathed in the full force of the mysterious gamma […]

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782 – Return of the Less-Incredible Hulk

I should have known by the ending of the first Xenmu story back in July 1960 that he would return. In Journey into Mystery #66 (Dec 1960), he does this very thing – being the only “giant Marvel monster” to appear in the last couple months. Production trouble at Atlas/Marvel? Or maybe a re-thinking of […]

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759 – Marvel Monsters: July 1960

Atlas/Marvel Comics continues to explore the “giant monster” concept in July 1960. Interestingly, all three comics have monsters with names of future Marvel superheroes / villains: The Hulk, The Thing, and Krang.

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758 – Incredibly, Not The Hulk

The modern Marvel era inches closer with Atlas Comics’ Journey Into Mystery #62 (July 1960) where one of the “Marvel monsters” is given the name “The Hulk”. A giant orange hairy metal creature is discovered next to a shattered spaceship and nursed back to life by Joe Harper, who feeds the creature electricity. The creature […]

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682 – The Creature From Planet X

In late 1950s, Atlas Comics had not yet transformed into Marvel Comics, but its fantasy and sci-fi titles started featuring more outlandish covers replete with fantastical creatures in both shape and names. In Strange Worlds #3 (January 1958), we get a nice early example of this with “The Creature from Planet X”. The cover features […]

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566 – Betty Betty Betsy

Oddly, all the Atlas/Marvel superheroes that were revived in 1953 happen to have girlfriends named Betty / Betsy. Someone must have loved that name – Stan Lee perhaps? Betty Wilson was introduced as a minor character for the Human Torch. Betsy Ross (no relation to the Hulk’s Betsy Ross?) used to be Golden Girl, but […]

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