“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Incredible Hulk #1

“I have this strange urge to dye my hair blond and become a professional wrestler.”

The Incredible Hulk #1

Marvel Comics Publications (May, 1962; ComiXology edition)

“The Hulk”

WRITER/EDITOR: Stan Lee

PENCILER: Jack Kirby

INKER: Paul Reinman

LETTERER: Artie Simek

By now you all know at least part of this story. Doctor Robert Bruce Banner has created the G-Bomb, a bomb that uses gamma radiation rather than nuclear radiation. When he runs out to get a kid named Rick Jones (dared to break onto the base unaware of the bomb test) to safety, Bruce’s assistant Igor sees an opportunity to get rid of the doctor and steal the secrets of the bomb for his secret Soviet masters. Bruce manages to survive, but the gamma rays alter his body so that at night he turns into a grey monster of a man one of the base’s soldiers dubs “the Hulk”. Igor is found out by Hulk before he changes back to Banner but Igor manages to get word out to his master, the Gargoyle, who decides to capture the Hulk. he isn’t prepared for Hulk to turn back to Banner on the way back to the USSR, but Banner is able to help the misshapen Gargoyle turn back to normal. Without his intelligence but with his humanity back, Gargoyle helps Banner and Rick return to the US while blowing himself and the Soviet base up.

What they got right: While things have changed over the years (many, many things) the initial idea of a “Jekyll & Hyde” situation is a pretty good one. Bruce/Hulk has one ally for the reader to connect to as he tries to help Bruce and serve as a conscience for the Hulk. He even (unwittingly) stops a commie spy from stealing his secrets and manages to reform another one. It’s also the debut of Rick Jones. While Marvel seems to want to forget about him and he’s never had a live-action counterpart despite being in the majority of animated offerings featuring the Hulk as main or guest character, Rick has gone on to be the sidekick of the Hulk, Captain America, Quasar, Captain Marvel, the Avengers, and starting his own club of teens looking to help Hulk out, the Teen Brigade. He’s rather important to Marvel history…not that anyone in 2023 at Marvel cares about Marvel history.

What they got wrong: The Gargoyle story barely involves the Hulk and here’s more evidence that Stan Lee didn’t understand science. “I’ll just blast you with radiation and you’ll look human again but lose your intelligence.” Plus how he uses gamma radiation is so totally off if you even do a minor bit of research…but he admitted himself he didn’t know anything about science and just wanted to tell a story. I also need to call out the ComiXology version of this story for using “updated” coloring. It just looks weird with Kirby’s art because it wasn’t designed with modern coloring techniques in mind. At best just clean up the existing coloring and call it good. According the Marvel fandom wiki no colorist was credited anyway.

What I think overall: This is a good introduction to the Hulk, even if the nature of the transformations and the color changes (due to early printing requirements they changed to green, who became more savage while the grey would return as a more intelligent incarnation and so on…all tied to Bruce’s mental issues with an abusive father) have changed over the decades. It’s worth looking up just for the curiosity. It’s also weird for me, who knows Hulk mostly from the 1980s and 1990s cartoons, to see a Rick Jones with short hair, never mind lacking a cowboy hat and vest.