Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
"The Coming of the Hulk"
The book billed as a companion title to Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four is not a traditional superhero story. This is a common theme for the titles from Marvel in the early 1960's. Similar to Tales to Astonish and the other titles of the time, this book would more accurately be described as fantasy or science fiction than superhero. The 'hero' books from Marvel were certainly not the Batman or Superman books that the competition was publishing.
The origin story of the Hulk presented here is the one that everyone knows: Dr. Bruce Banner is testing a gamma bomb for the US government, a teenager (spelled teen-ager in these issues) blunders onto the site, Banner rushes out to save him and Banner is caught in the blast (thanks to the soviet spy/scientist Igor who does not delay the blast). The gray-skinned angry Hulk is born.
As we progress further into this six issue run, I'll delve more into the ever-changing scope of Banner's relationship with the Hulk. In this issue, it is established that the Hulk emerges when the sun goes down, with Banner returning at dawn. Throughout these issues, the circumstances of the 'change' evolve rapidly.
In addition to the Hulk fighting the US government in this issue, he also battles the Gargoyle (Igor's red superior behind the iron curtain).
Jack Kirby deliver dynamic pencils and Stan Lee scripts a fun story.
I'll also mention this - which goes for all six issues - these are not quick stories. This issue is 24 pages and even with the beautiful full-page spreads which open each chapter, the comic takes time to read. It's a different experience from modern comics. I've also noticed that there are times when I want to read modern story-telling and there are times when I love these comics from the 60s.
2 comments:
as difficult as it can be to read silver age comics due to language, there is no doubt that the masters of the art form such as stan lee, actually tried to make them as wordy and in depth as possible, to convey every emotion possible.
I absolutely think that Stan wanted to make sure that the reader fully understood everything that he wanted to impart. If I was him, though, I think I would've let Jack's pencils do the heavy lifting.
Post a Comment