Another issue featuring Marvel’s TV sensation THE INCREDIBLE HULK dropped on my local 7-11’s spinner rack, and I bought it dutifully, even though my interest in the title was only middling. But I had signed on aboard the series at some point previously, and through this era, that tended to keep me steadily buying the books that I was buying until there was either some financial need to let something go or else the direction and storylines went so far afield that I felt I wasn’t getting any real enjoyment out of them. While a number of issues of INCREDIBLE HULK from around this period are a bit underwhelming, they were all well-executed, and so that as much as anything kept me purchasing.
This particular installment was something of a transition issue, setting up what would be the main storyline for the next couple of issues. In recent months, the Hulk along with Captain America had staged a two-prong attack on the criminal Corporation, which dealt a serious blow to their activities. But Corporation executive Curtiss Jackson had escaped to fight another day, and he’s got an idea about how he might be able to kill two birds with one stone. Meanwhile, the Hulk’s newfound pal Fred Sloan has taken the Green Goliath to bunk down with an old friend of his–who also coincidentally happens to be an old friend of the Hulk’s, Trish Starr.
The opening couple of pages are devoted to a detailed description of Trish’s previous appearances across Marvel’s history. She’s the niece of super-criminal Egghead and she first turned up in an Ant-Man story before becoming a steady fixture in DEFENDERS. She also lost her left arm when her uncle blew up her car in revenge for Trish having sold him out to Hank Pym. Elsewhere, at Gamma Base, Marvel Man departs the Super Agents of SHIELD in favor of a new gig as the head of security for energy research installation Project: PEGASUS. He also adopts the new code-name Quasar. This was all writer Roger Stern setting things up for Mark Gruenwald, who would pick up the character in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE and eventually write him in his own series a decade later.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the free-wheeling commune that Trish Starr lives at, which has now taken in Fred and the Hulk, isn’t quite so free-wheeling after all when it comes to practical matters. Almost everybody is scared to death at having the emerald powerhouse in their midst, and while they try to tiptoe around him as best they can, their incessant whispers of terror steadily enrages the Hulk until he explodes, shattering the oaken table where he was eating. This arrangement clearly isn’t going to work long-term.
In the aftermath, Fred and Trish are able to coax the Hulk into going to bed. Then they discuss their disillusionment with the way the ideals of the 1960s have eroded in the 1970s. Meanwhile, getting back to Curtiss Jackson, realizing that he needs to do something big in order to retain his place in the Corporation and not get ousted permanently by its Board of Directors, he figures that the smart play here would be to set the Hulk against Machine Man, the Jack Kirby creation who had contended with the Corporation in the final couple of issues of his own title. (Kirby had originated the Corporation as well, but had left Marvel before bringing the storyline to a close, something that his successors were still trying to do.)
Accordingly, Jackson’s plan is very simple. The Corporation’s goons attack the house where the Hulk is staying, filling its interior with a paralytic gas. They also have one of their number dress up as Machine Man and taunt the Hulk while they make off with Trish Starr. They aren’t really interested in Starr, they’re just using the situation as a prompt to send the rampaging Hulk barreling towards the real Machine Man, and hoping that the two will polish one another off. It isn’t a great plan, but the Hulk isn’t all that smart, and so it works like a charm.
And that’s about where this issue ends. Some time thereafter, the paralysis wears off of the Hulk and Fred, and the Green Goliath declares his intention to track down Machine Man and to smash him flat. To Be Continued! This story represented the first appearance of Machine Man in the wider Marvel Universe, since Jack Kirby kept his stories relatively isolated within their own titles (though the Corporation did contend with both Machine Man and captain America during his closing days on those series.) This was a thing that Marvel typically did in this time period, tying up the loose ends of characters whose series had been discontinued in other books.
And the Green-Skin’s Grab-Bag letters page this month includes a note from future Marvel writer Kurt Busiek, who would eventually collaborate with Roger Stern on a number of projects. Spoiler alert: he liked the direction Stern had been taking the series in.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
The Corporation ( Highly organized criminal combine — Machine Man#7 ( October 1978 )/Nationwide business-like criminal organization/ Mystic Comics#5 ( March 1941 ) Black Marvel last page panel 4 -“Combine of crooks bein’ formed. Just like a big corporation” ) & the Organizers ( a secret cabal of business people ) [ Marvel Knights – Spider-Man#9 ( February 2005 ) Flashback ( funded Golden Age villains — see Asbestos Lady’s marvunapp.com profile ) ]– I wonder if these 2 groups had members in both or cooperated? I have the next issue of the Incredible Hulk. Was Justin Hammer ever a member of either group or was he inspired by them but decided to go it alone?
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In the case of the Organizers I should have added funned Marvel age villains too ( according to the Scorpion ).
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Tom: ( Curtiss ) Jackson’s plan is very simple. It isn’t a great plan, But it is an oldie, especially when you throw in shape-changers like the Super-Skrull and Thanos thrall Skragg [ Captain Marvel#25 ( March 1973 )- 26 ( May 1973 — Thing fight ) ] in their plan to get Mar-Vell to fight the Thing hoping they would weaken each other ( They wanted to secret of the Destiny Force from Rick Jones’ mind — see profile on Skragg at marvunapp.com ).
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It is also a plan used by Darkseid against Superman ( impersonated by Kalibak ) and Wonder Woman ( impersonated by Amazing Grace ) [ Action Comics#600 ( May 1988 ) by John Byrne ( script/pencils ( breakdowns ) and George Perez ( finishes & inks ) ] on Olympus.
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I’ve always loved Sal Buscema’s art, even when it doesn’t appear to match his style like when he’d at most depict Doctor Strange’s magic nearly identical to Iron Man’s repulsors for example. The man could lay out a story so easy to read he’d save stories by very confusing writers. Not that it was needed here since Roger Stern even debuted as awesome. I never cottoned to Fred or Trish but the biggest turn off here was Abel. People get on Colletta’s case but at least the end result was always attractive. I’ve never read anything Abel didn’t at least bring down a notch.
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I was never all that big a fan of Jack Abel’s inks, either, though he was a very entertaining guy.
But I’d take Abel over Colletta any day.
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You’d think that if they could paralyze the Hulk like that they really didn’t need to play games with him. Paralyze him, drop him into the Pacific Ocean, let him drown before the gas wears off. [Of course, that wouldn’t work, because Hulk have ongoing series, and he’d do something like overcome the gas due to stress or something, but they don’t know that.]
I don’t think Trish was ever a steady fixture in DEFENDERS — I think she turns up in three issues, over a period of two years or so. She wound up a HULK supporting character for longer than she’d appeared anywhere else. Her DEFENDERS appearances were her most interesting, though.
And for all that I thought that issue of HULK was the best ever, I can’t remember it today. No disrespect to Roger!
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You would think the sight of seeing his friend Trish Starr getting kidnapped would have sent him into a rage and counteracted the paralyzing gas the way the sight of the dead boy [ Incredible Hulk#256 ( February 1981 ) page 18 ( panel 7 – “The Hulk’s rage flushes the paralytic agent in the energy quills from his system!” ) –SABRA’s energy quills ( a lot of them, I mean a lot ) ] did. But I suppose the Corporation’s scientists ( or whomever they might have bought the gas from ) could have put something in the gas to counter act whatever chemicals are released ( assuming it is chemical ) during the Hulk’s rage induced strength increases.
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Hulk 234 is an all-time favorite of mine. I still re-read it every January. For reason’s I won’t go into it reminds me so very much of a specific childhood winter outing with my Mom. I miss her so much.
I truly Love that Last Page & Panel, you just knew reading it there would be a great battle issue the next month…and there was. As it turns out Hulk basically rearranges Machine Man who is then put back together albeit slightly differently in issue #10 of his soon to be re-launched Comic.
Thank for reviewing Tom, I’ve been waiting for this one!
Kurt while I do prefer Stone’s inks in #233, I’ve always kind of though Abel workmanlike inks were a decent fit with Sal’s pencils. Who’s inks do you like or prefer with Sal B’s Hulk pencils?
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I think Sal himself is Sal’s best inker. But aside from that, I was very happy to see Klaus Janson ink him on DEFENDERS, Joe Staton on HULK and DEFENDERS, Joe Sinnott, Joe Rubinstein, Bob McLeod…
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I loved Akin & Harvey a lot too.
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Akin & Garvey were so much Not for Me that I actually quit reading ROM, and will have to catch up on it through the Epic Collections Marvel’s starting to put out next year.
After years of Sal inking himself, or Joe Sinnott inking him to similar effect, Akin & Garvey’s finishing style read to me like they didn’t want the book to look like Sal drew it, so they buried him under heavy inking that made everything look glossy but less expressive.
I was probably being overly judgmental — Sal was doing breakdowns, not full pencils, so the finisher was expected to bring their own style to it. But at the time I reacted very negatively.
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I guess it depends on the project/character. I liked the metallic sheen they gave Rom & Starshine. Same for the shine on Luke McDonnell’s “Iron Man”. Their issues were the peak of Luke’s long run for me. I’d like to have seen them ink Michael Golden’s Micronauts work, too, if they ever did any of his issues.
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“I’d like to have seen them ink Michael Golden’s Micronauts work, too, if they ever did any of his issues.”
Not me. They’d have buried his drawing. They were best over layouts, where they did their particular brand of finished art, for good or ill. Over Luke McDonnell’s rough pencils, they added a slick finish that suited IRON MAN. But Golden’s pencils were very specific, and his facial expressions nuanced. Akin and Garvey would have made it look shiny but they’d have lost the details.
I wouldn’t even want to see Joe Sinnott ink Golden — Joe’s inking looks great, but he’d bury too much of Golden’s own drawing style.
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Abel’s are willing, but they dull Sal’s edge. Over some artist’s Jack’s might work- they remind me of a blurry Golden Age gloss. Sal’s work needs a crisper look. Klaus’s were perfect, & added depth & tone. I don’t have examples, but I’d think John Beatty’s inks would work over Sal’s stuff, too. Al Gordon’s or Karl Kesel’s to emphasize those clean lines.
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“I wouldn’t even want to see Joe Sinnott ink Golden — Joe’s inking looks great, but he’d bury too much of Golden’s own drawing style.”
That reminds me of that brief period when Sinnott inked Bill Sienkiewicz on Fantastic Four: Two great talents who absolutely had no business being on a page together!
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This must have come out around the time when I briefly dropped out of comics. (It happens every so often …) I’m going to have to go on Marvel Unlimited to find out how the story ends!
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Joining Kurt B & crew in my childhood dislike for Abel’s inks on Sal Buscema. All the inkers he mentions were a big improvement, whether over breakdowns or full pencils. I also remember liking Steve Leialoha’s inks on a stretch of MTU issues with Spidey & Black Widow.
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