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.

Marvel Compass #6

Incredible Hulk #1

 “The whole world's going batty! Even this kookie radio-- it won't play! All it gives out with is static!" -Rick Jones

The Coming of the Hulk 

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by Paul Reinman, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek
                         
In the middle of the desert at a military testing ground, all preparations are ready to test Bruce Banner’s Gamma bomb. Igor, Banner’s colleague, warns him that he thinks the bomb is too dangerous, and tells him that he should have confided in him his secrets of the Gamma Ray. Just then General Ross bursts into the room, demanding that they start testing the bomb at once. General Ross’s daughter, Betty, assures her father that Bruce knows what he’s doing. Igor tries again to pry information out of Bruce in case he’s made any errors. “I don’t make errors, Igor!”

The countdown begins, and just as it does, Bruce notices a teenager driving a car right through the testing grounds. Bruce tells Igor to delay the countdown, as he races out into the field to save the boy. Igor disobeys Bruce, leaving the countdown as is. The teenager, now parked in his car, tells of how some other kids bet him to sneak onto the testing grounds. Bruce runs towards the car, and leads the teen to a nearby trench for safety. At that moment, a finger triggers the fire button, and the gamma bomb successfully goes off, catching Bruce Banner in it’s wake.

Hours later, Bruce finds himself in the same position, still screaming when he finally snaps out of the shock he is in. He has been moved to an infirmary on the army base where a doctor tells him, “You absorbed the full impact of the Gamma Rays!” The teenager is there as well, who reveals his name as Rick Jones. Rick decides to stay at Banner’s side, since he saved his life. As night falls a change starts coming over Banner, his shirts is torn and his face becomes monstrous, as his muscles enlarge and his skin turns grey. He pushes Rick Jones out of the way and smashes a hole in the wall to escape from. On his way out, soldiers in a jeep come across him too fast to miss. Hitting the monster, the soldiers’ jeep crumbles and the men come spilling out of it. The monster runs to hide, as Rick Jones comes trailing after him.

While searching for the monster, one of the soldiers dub him Hulk, which seems to stick as a name. Hulk stealthily heads towards Bruce Banner’s home quarters on the base, with Rick still following him. Inside Bruce’s cabin, Igor is busy ransacking the place in order to find the Gamma Ray formula of Bruce’s. As Hulk enters, Igor whips out a gun and fires it into Hulk’s shoulder. Not even phasing him, Hulk grabs the gun out of Igor’s hand and smashes it “So! This is what the puny humans fear!" Hulk tosses Igor onto a nearby table, destroying many bottles in the process. One such bottle topples over showing Banner’s Gamma Ray notes taped under it, and Rick quickly grabs it. Hulk sees a picture of Bruce Banner, but cannot remember being him until Rick tells him so. Hulk starts to enrage at this revelation when the sun starts to come out, turning him back into Banner.

The army quickly arrives at the cabin looking for Hulk. The find Igor, who they assume was in league with the Hulk and carry him away. They ask is Bruce or Rick had seen the Hulk, but they deny it. Some of the army men who had seen Hulk claim that he must have been a gorilla, or an escaped circus bear. The army takes Banner’s Gamma formula for safekeeping. Betty shows up worried about Bruce. After she leaves, Bruce broods about turning into the Hulk again.

In the army base’s prison, Igor has a sub-miniature transistor short wave sending set embedded in his thumbnail. He uses it to send a signal behind the Iron Curtain, to tell them about Hulk. The message is sent to a small, ugly man called The Gargoyle. The Gargoyle plans to either imprison Hulk or kill him. He send a call to a sub to fire a rocket to the US. The army’s missile defenses destroy the rocket, but not not before the cap of it lands. The Gargoyle emerges from inside.

Bruce Banner and Rick are driving along in a jeep when night falls, and the transformation begins once again. Hulk destroys the jeep, before he decides to find Betty, who he vaguely remembers, while Rick tries to get him to stop. The Gargoyle looks on from a safe distance. Inside the Ross home, Betty is fretting about Bruce, and General Ross suggests she goes outside to clear her head. Betty strolls outside, when suddenly she comes across Hulk, and faints at the sight of him. Rick tries to get Hulk to put Betty down, when The Gargoyle shows up.

The Gargoyle shoots Hulk and Rick with a gun that dispenses pellets that saps their will. As Gargoyle leads them away, General Ross find his daughter as she reawakens, believing she’s going crazy. She does note that there seemed to be something sad about the Hulk. The Gargoyle who has sapped the will of a truck driver, commands him to a rendezvous where a boat is waiting for him. They take the boat to a waiting sub that fires a jet heading back to behind the Iron Curtain. As they travel, night turns to day and Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner.

After they’ve landed, Gargoyle is infuriated, not knowing where the Hulk is. Rick and Bruce try to bluff their way out of it, but the Gargoyle figures out the Bruce and Hulk are the same person. Gargoyle is confused to why Bruce would want to be a monster, just like him. Showing some sympathy, Bruce says he’ll turn Gargoyle back into a normal human, but if he does Gargoyle will lose is intellect. Gargoyle agrees to the operation, afterwards he speaks angrily at a picture of a communist leader. “It was because of you that I became what I was!” Just as it was ultimately his fault that Bruce has become Hulk. You could easily blame Rick, but it was that spy who didn't delay the countdown when he could have prevented the whole thing.

Not long afterwards, smoke fills the commie base as a rocket prepares to take off. The soldiers find the Gargoyle in his more humanoid form. He pulls a trigger, killing himself and everyone else in the room, as Bruce and Rick take off in the rocket towards America.

Bearings

• 1st appearances of Hulk/Bruce Banner, Rick Jones, Betty Ross and her father General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. They will all appear again in Incredible Hulk #2.

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• Yay! Let’s welcome the Incredible Hulk into our roster of characters, along with Rick Jones who will play a very important role in about a decade. We also meet General Ross and his daughter Betty Ross for the first time.

• I thought this was a very good origin story, I like it a little better than The Fantastic Four’s overall. Things seem to work out just a little more logically, at least until the commies show up. The story is completely linear, without any flashbacks, which makes it just a bit more enjoyable to me.

• My favorite line of this story comes from Betty Ross, when she says what I’ll quote her saying below in the quotes section. I love it when characters acknowledge the world that they live in, instead of being in ours. Which also ties in with the top quote I used from Rick.

• Probably reading far too much into it - The quote at the top that I used, I thought fit well sort of encompasses the story as a whole (which is what I’m trying to do with them, inspired by The Wire.) My thoughts on this particular one, is that the “radio” Rick is trying to play is actually a Geiger counter, so all it’s playing is static. When Bruce Banner Hulks out, with this version of the Hulk in particular, it’s like he turns into a static copy of Bruce.

Quotes

“The trouble with you is you’re a milksop! You’ve got no guts!” -General Ross

“Human?? Why should I want to be human?!?” -Hulk

“But today, with the strange, almost supernatural forces all around us, I feel as though we’re on the brink of some fantastic unimaginable adventure!” -Betty Ross

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