Marvel Compass #8

Incredible Hulk #2

“Why am I locked in here??" -Hulk

The Terror of the Toad Men 

by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Inking by Steve Ditko, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Art Simek
                         
Wandering aimlessly in a stream of water, the Hulk is come upon by a policeman of a nearby small town. The man starts firing a gun at the Hulk out of fear, with the Hulk chasing his car as he drives away. The man leads him into the small town “Get off the streets! Lock the doors!” The citizens rush into their homes, looking on as the officers of the town fail to subdue the monster. Suddenly, Rick Jones show up to calm down the Hulk.

Meanwhile (after a lengthy flashback to issue #1), in space a ship is heading straight towards earth, it is the ship of the Toad Men. They fire a magnetic grappler at earth, it focuses in on the most brilliant, scientific mind, which is none other than Bruce Banner. They plan to capture him in order to find out how advanced earth’s sciences are.

Equipped with mining gear, Bruce Banner and Rick Jones head off to a cave, after being stopped by General Ross and his daughter Betty. The voice their concerns about the Hulk, before letting them go. Rick and Bruce build an encasement for the Hulk inside the cave, so that the next time Bruce Hulks out,  they can keep him in there where he won’t harm anyone. Suddenly, Rick and Bruce are swept off their feet, and magnetically pulled into a wall of the cave. “Doc, look! In the shadows ahead! Coming towards us! They-- they look like giant human toads!”

Captured in the Toad Men’s magnetic ray guns, they pull Bruce and Rick into their spacecraft, and shoot off back into orbit around earth. The captain of the Toad Men tells them his name is Torrak, he then threatens that if they do not tell him how scientifically advanced humans are, he will us a magnetic repulsion ray to pull entire cities out of earth’s atmosphere. Bruce refuses and after Rick Jones cheers him on, the Toad Men promptly shoot Rick back to earth. Bruce notices that their orbit is approaching the side of earth that the sun isn’t exposed to, and starts to change. The Hulk bursts into the area of the ship the the Toad Men are in. He gets hold of one of their guns and fires it at them, knocking several out and holding the others at bay.

Down on earth, the military base run by General Ross, is ready to launch missile at the spaceship, when Rick appears and tells them to stop, for Bruce is on the ship. Rick is ignored and the military strike the ship in space, bringing it down to earth. The army moves to surround the crashed vessel.

From the destruction, Bruce Banner steps out and the army surrounds him, taking him into custody. In the rest of the ship, the remaining Toad Men dig out a tunnel underground with their guns to escape the army. As they re-emerge they shoot a flare into space, signaling the rest of the attacking fleet.

Imprisoned, Bruce speaks with Rick, who worries what will happen when he turns into the Hulk again. General Ross is suspicious that Bruce Banner is a traitor, so he has him locked up under 24 hour guard. General Ross receives a phone call that there is a massive alien invasion starting to come down across the globe. Every TV set is interrupted by the face of the Toad King, who issues a threat.

On TV, the Toad King tells everyone hat he plans to use his mighty fleet to send the moon out of orbit and crash down into earth, unless everybody surrenders to his forces. General Ross denies them, and they carry out their plan.

Inside his prison, as day falls to night, Bruce Banner changes into the Hulk yet again. He smashes his way out, heading towards the Ross’s house in search of the general. Betty shouts for help when the monster enters, alerting the nearby army headed by General Ross. Ross commands a tank to crash through the wall of his own house to capture the Hulk. Rick Jones runs in to try and stop everyone. He tries to talk the Hulk down, but the monster bats him away.

The whole platoon of men try to tackle the Hulk, but he merely shrugs them off. He runs runs off taking Betty with him as a hostage. Rick figures out the he’s heading for Bruce’s lab and follow them. He tries to talk the Hulk into saving earth from the impending moon crash when the proximity of the moon to the earth triggers an earthquake right under them, knocking everybody out. Night turns back into day, and the Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner.

As Bruce Banner, he realizes he can use his gamma ray gun to try and counteract the Toad Men’s magnetic ray that’s pulling the moon down into the earth. While preparing his gamma machine, the military arrive to take him back into custody, but Rick Jones sprays them all down with a fire hose. With the military distracted, Bruce successfully uses his gamma ray to reverse the pull of the Toad Men’s magnetic field. This sends the entire fleet sprawling through the void of space, and sends the moon back into normal orbit. Bruce is let go of being a suspected traitor, after having saved the world from the terror of the Toad Men.

General Ross tells Betty that he’s suspicious of some connection between Banner and the Hulk “I still feel there’s some connection between him and that ding-blasted Hulk!” The Hulk is last seen imprisoned in the cave that he and Rick built in, while Rick stands guard outside.

Bearings

• Hulk will be seen again in Incredible Hulk #3, as will Rick Jones and General Ross.

• Betty Ross on the other hand, won’t be seen until Incredible Hulk #5 (#4 in flashback only according to my source)

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• Amidst all of the crazy science, there does seem to be a theme of imprisonment throughout the story. The Hulk crosses paths with a small town, forcing it’s citizens to remain inside their homes, Bruce is imprisoned by both the Toad Men and General Ross. The entire earth is held prisoner by the Toad Men and their magnetic field. The Hulk is imprisoned in the cave that Bruce and Rick set the containment in at the very end. The earth is imprisoned, while Banner is imprisoned, while the Hulk is imprisoned inside of Banner and Banner is imprisoned inside of the Hulk.

• It also lightly touches on living in fear. The public are just as afraid of the Hulk as they are of the Toad Men’s invasion.

• The moon falling into the earth? I know he hasn’t been created yet, but in retrospect, I wonder how The Watcher felt about that.

• A lot of this story is very similar to the Fantastic Four’s second adventure with the Skrulls. An attacking alien invasion, the military out to go after the main characters.

• The Toad Men seem kind of dumb, but they accomplished a lot more than the Skrulls did when they tried to invade in Fantastic Four #2

• Rick Jones is a lot more pitiable in this issue than last. The final panel where he’s keeping Hulk contained is particularly striking.

• Next time in Marvel Compass, we introduce that amazing Peter-guy!

Quotes

“I’ll lead you to safety!" -Rick Jones

“You are powerless against our magnetic ray guns!" -Toad Man

“It might be better if darkness never came!” -Bruce Banner

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.