Incredible Hulk 5a

Beauty and the Beast!

by

Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

General Ross shows the group of Bruce Banner, Betty Ross & Rick Jones footage of the Hulk running rampant against his military. He demands that Bruce, his top scientist, help him find a way to capture the Hulk. Betty has realized that she has fallen in love with Bruce Banner, but is worried what her father might say, who thinks Banner is too much of a weakling and too secretive. This anguish is overseen by Tyrannus, an ancient Roman Emperor who has been trapped underground in Subterranea due to the magics of the legendary wizard Merlin. Deep underground he has discovered the fabled Fountain of Youth which has kept him young and virtually immortal for centuries. There he has enslaved these yellow, stocky, underground-dwellers to build his weaponry to attack the surface.

The next day, Bruce Banner and Rick return to the Ross's home. There they are greeted by Betty's new friend who we know is really Tyrannus in regular clothing. As the two of them go out for the day, Bruce and Rick quickly follow them based on a feeling Bruce has. His suspicion leads them to a cave the couple entered, which is now blocked by a boulder. On the other side, Tyrannus and Betty descend into Subterranea. Tyrannus calls up General Ross and tells him that he has kidnapped his daughter and will only release her if he swears to surrender when his legions attack the surface world.

Having turned into the Hulk, Bruce and Rick follow down the shaft into Subterranea themselves. As they crash right into Tyrannus's vehicle, he releases volcanic gas from a vent that knocks both Rick and Hulk out. Upon awakening, they are greeted by the Emperor. Tyrannus uses the Hulk as a slave under the same threats of harming Betty as he used against her father. He forces the Hulk to battle a giant fire-spewing robot in a gladiatorial arena for his amusement. After Hulk beats it, he starts tearing the arena apart before being reminded of Betty's plight and is knocked unconscious again by Tyrannus's weapon.

Tyrannus sets Hulk to work around his kingdom. Moving giant statues and building up dams while the former slaves revel in having this brute do all the work in their stead. As Tyrannus grows tired of the Hulk's antics and is ready to kill him, the forgotten Rick Jones has come up with an escape plan. Disguising himself as one of the guards, he breaks Betty out of her prison. With her in tow, they free the Hulk from his cell as well. As Tyrannus and his army realize what is happening, it is too late. Hulk grabs onto these huge pillars, using his strength to collapse the structures onto the oncoming armies. With Tyrannus's men stuck, Hulk, Rick and Betty board a sub-surface escape capsule to take them home.

Character Notes

Subterranea - This is the second time we see part of Subterranea, the same layer of the underground where the Mole Man resides in Fantastic Four #1. Tyrannus is another denizen of this area.

Tyrannus - 1st appearance of Tyrannus who is a mostly forgettable villain who returns a few times. A little more unique than most of Hulk's foes up til now. Trapped in Subterranea for centuries due to some kind of battle with Merlin when he was a Roman Emperor. Has found the Fountain of Youth to become virtually immortal and enslaved a race of stocky sentient underground people.

Betty Ross - Betty finally admits she has feelings for Banner, but keeps them to herself, afraid of what her father would think. Just the same, she tries to make Bruce jealous, which backfires with her kidnapping. She conveniently forgets this adventure ever happened due to a state of shock at the end

Rick Jones - Rick saves the day by actually using his brain for once. He has some inexplicable animosity towards Betty for almost no reason which makes him a bit unlikable in this story despite him being the one to rescue them all.

General Ross - Barely in this. He wants Banner to help him catch the Hulk and disapproves Betty's attraction towards him.

Hulk/Bruce Banner - The first time we see Hulk in some kind of gladiatorial armor. Not much to say that I haven't covered in the main post.

Thoughts

This is the new format I'm trying out for now. I'm trying to keep things a little more concise. The main character will typically be detailed in the main synopsis and any side character stuff will be below it.

I generally like this story more than some of the other Hulk ones. The villain seems interesting on the surface, even though I don't think much comes out of the whole Merlin/Ancient Roman origin Tyrannus is given. Rick Jones seems like a real twerp here despite being the main means of rescue. The way he acts towards Betty is annoying.

Rankings - I like it more than most of the Hulk stories I've covered so far, so putting it somewhere above Hulk #4a seems the way to go. I think it belongs between the Thor & Ant-Man clusters at #15 on the list. The villain Tyrannus is about as intriguing as Comrade X/Madame X was (which is to say not much) in TTA #36, but a little more memorable to me. The adventure however, it wasn't nearly as interesting or dynamic as Thor fighting those Soviets in JIM #87

1. Amazing Fantasy (Spider-Man) #15
2. Fantastic Four #1
3. Fantastic Four #4
4. Incredible Hulk #1
5. Fantastic Four #5
6. Amazing Adult Fantasy (X-Men) #14
7. Fantastic Four #6
8. Journey into Mystery (Thor) #85
9. Fantastic Four #9
10. Journey into Mystery (Thor) #83
11. Fantastic Four #2
12. Fantastic Four #8
13. Journey into Mystery (Thor) #86
14. Journey into Mystery (Thor) #87
15. Incredible Hulk #5a
16. Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #36
17. Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #35
18. Incredible Hulk #4a
19. Strange Tales (Human Torch) #103
20. Journey into Mystery (Thor) #84
21. Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #27
22. Tales to Astonish (Ant-Man) #38
23. Strange Tales (Human Torch) #102
24. Fantastic Four #3
25. Incredible Hulk #2
26. Fantastic Four #7
27. Incredible Hulk #4b
28. Tales to Astonish #37
29. Incredible Hulk #3
30. Strange Tales (Human Torch) #101

Next Time: The Hulk visits Asia in the second story of Incredible Hulk #5

Fantastic Four 1

The Fantastic Four

by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

"Those words... "The Fantastic Four"! What can they mean?" -shopkeep

A flare is shot into the sky above a panicking crowd of people. It spells out The Fantastic Four, to summon the various members of the group. They are: Young, blonde, socialite, Susan Storm who can turn herself invisible, her teenage brother the enthusiastic motor-head Johnny Storm, who can burst into flames and fly at will, a gruff, grumpy monstrosity with an orange rocky hide called the Thing and Reed Richards, the shooter of the flare, with the ability to stretch his body to any form he chooses, brilliant scientist and who is also the leader of the team. He has summoned them together to go on their first case, but first we get a bit of back story.

Reed, the brilliant scientist that he is, decided he and the US need to beat the commies to a manned space mission. He got those closest to him, his fiancee Susan, her brother, and his pilot friend Ben Grimm to agree to join him. Ben starts out apprehensive to the whole thing, due to his knowledge of the threat of cosmic rays surrounding the earth, but Sue manages to poke at his pride to get him to go along with them. So all four of them steal away into the night to a rocket that Reed Richards had built for the government. As soon as they depart the earth’s atmosphere, as Ben rightfully predicted, the whole missile is bombarded with cosmic rays. As all four of them panic, Ben’s hands start to feel to heavy to keep control of the spacecraft and the vessel falls back down to earth.

The four emerge from the wreckage relatively unscathed. Suddenly, Sue vanishes before their eyes, as soon as she reappears orange rocks start forming all over Ben’s exterior turning him into the Thing as he goes to clobber Reed who he feels superior to. With emotions running high Reed manages to subdue Ben’s new found strength by finding out he has stretching powers of his own and wraps his limbs around his friend. After they’ve calmed down, Johnny suddenly bursts into flame and flies around. Realizing they all have powers now, they decide to use these powers for the good of mankind, the four of them take on superhero names: Sue goes by the Invisible Girl, her brother Johnny goes by the Human Torch, Ben Grimm goes by the Thing due to a comment made by Sue and finally Reed decides he’ll call himself Mr. Fantastic. And so the Fantastic Four were formed.

Returning to the present, the Fantastic Four discover their mission. Power plants have been sinking all over the world, into the earth itself, each of them precipitated by what seems to be an earthquake. Reed charts these incidents to be centralized from the location of a mysterious place called Monster Isle. The four immediately head off to the island where they do indeed find it to be populated by monsters. Reed takes care of a three-headed winged beast in their way, but the confrontation triggers a cave in which swallows up both Reed and the Human Torch into it. The two of them survive by Reed stretching his body thin into a parachute which Johnny holds onto. After the two of them land deep in the underground, they are both rendered unconscious by the sheer brilliancy of a room full of shimmering diamonds. When they come to they find themselves in special blue suits that restrain their eyesight. The also find themselves the prisoner of an underground resident calling himself the Mole Man.

Back on the surface, Thing saves the Invisible Girl from some huge bi-pedal blue creature before the two of them continue their search for the missing teammates. Underground, the Mole Man reveals his troubled past to the other half. Long ago before he was the Mole Man, people trated him poorly because his looks. No one would date him, he couldn’t hold down a job, no one would treat him like a human being. So he decided if society will shun him he’ll do the same. He searched for the center of the world to find some solace where he could be alone, but he stumbled upon Monster Isle in his travels. Once there he navigated the cave system until he found what he was looking for, however his celebration of finding the place lead to an avalanche which caused a cave in and cost him his sight. He then figured out how to master the creatures underground and he’s survived all this time. Now he wants to destroy all of the earth’s power plants in a bid to take over the world and make it to his liking.

The Mole Man’s monologue is so long, the Thing and Sue manage to find his lair and the half of their team stuck there. They all get into a massive fight with the Mole Man and his creatures. Johnny flames on and uses his flame to create another cave in as all four of them flee to their waiting aircraft outside. The entire island appears to explode behind them as they speed away.

Notes

1st appearance of the Fantastic Four and Mole Man

Generally regarded as the introductory issue to the Marvel Universe. There were stories in the late 30's & 40's before this as well as Westerns, Romance & Fantasy comics that become incorporated into the Marvel Universe.