1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 27

Cover to issue #1.

    This month marks the 40th Anniversary of one of my favorite comic books- The Rampaging Hulk. It actually is more like a magazine or tabloid. because it was printed over-sized like a copy of LIFE Magazine. The book was printed in black and white and served 2 purposes A) to be a little more edgy in order to appeal to older readers and B) be used as a promotional tool for the live-action Hulk TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno that debuted a year later.

    This first issue of the Rampaging Hulk recaps Hulk's origin as a gamma bomb transforms Bruce Banner into a big Green Monster. But instead of being a full retelling of the Incredible Hulk comic book, this series takes Hulk and his sidekick, Teenager Rick Jones into the stratosphere. While vacationing in Rome (where all superheroes go after they get their powers for some much needed R&R), Hulk and Rick are kidnapped by alien invaders called the Krylorians. 

    Under the guise of friendship, the Krylorians actually want to use the Hulk as a weapon against those who oppose their harsh rule. Rick helps the Hulk figure this out and the duo escape. While on the run, they meet Bereet, a rebel who uses her techno-artworks as weapons against the Krylorians.
 

Bereet.
Her weapons were kept in her satchel.
It's like the TARDIS: bigger on the inside.

     For the next several months, Hulk, Rick, and Bereet's adventures are chronicled as they seek to overthrow these alien tryants. But then all of a sudden in the middle of 1978, this storyline abruptly stops. Gone is Bereet. The Hulk is back on Earth and who knows where Rick Jones went. That's because the editors lead by Stan Lee decided to shift the focus to being more like the TV show as I mentioned earlier. (Later issues of the Hulk comic would tie-up the loose ends to the Bereet storyline. Turns out it was all part of a series of very popular films that Bereet made on her home planet!)

   In the new Rampaging Hulk format, Bruce's name is changed to David as like on the show. (Rumor has it that CBS execs though the name Bruce was a homosexual name and requested Stan Lee change it on the show. Honest!) Each issue has Banner travelling the US searching to be cured from the Hulk transformations. More often than not, trouble finds Banner and he turns into a giant monster. 

    One thing about this new format that was not like the TV show were guest stars. Characters who also had their own Marvel Magazines such as Moon Knight and the Man-Thing made appearances in Rampaging Hulk. It's the closest fans the show would get to an actual superhero team-up until the Hulk TV-Movies in the 80s that featured Daredevil and Thor.

Cover to Marvel Essential
Rampaging Hulk Vol. 2.

    I never read these books in their original form. I found giant-sized treasury editions called Marvel Essentials that reprinted these stories plus some of the background articles on production of the Hulk series and that issue of the Hulk comic that tied-up Bereet's storyline. I enjoyed both and they are now permanent fixtures of my collection. A little silly, a lot of action and a whole lotta Hulk.

   Worth Consuming!

   Rating: 8.3 out of 10 stars.