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.

Essential Rampaging Hulk, Volume 2

I was sorely disappointed with this volume. I loved volume 1. It was a recap of the Hulk’s earliest adventures mixed in with the exotic alien artist Bareet. Her and her cosmic magic bag of tricks were a delight as she sought the Hulk and Rick Jones’ help to defeat a hideous race of invading aliens. Sadly, Bareet was written out of this magazine after it was decided to make Rampaging Hulk more like the hit live action television show starring Bill Bixby.

Since the series was written and published as a magazine, it wasn’t subject to the Comics Code. So, some more adult themes were up for grabs in this book. For example, in one story, Bruce Banner takes refuge at a Manhattan Y, he’s nearly gang raped by a pair of homosexuals. In another story, Banner juggles an abused drug addict and a suicidal single mother. There’s some very frank story lines in this volume that you wouldn’t have seen in a normal 48 page monthly. It’s just really weird to see such mature themes in a 70's comic dealt with such grittiness. Did Martin Scorsese craft these?

The biggest thing this volume has going for it is the art. The magazine was originally published in stark black and white. It made for some fantastic experiments with shadow. Graphite has never come in so many shades.

But while the art clearly benefits from the black and white of both the original format and the newsprint reprinting, one areas that was overlooked was the lettering. I’m not sure how it looked back in 1981, but using dark letters on a charcoal gray shaded letter box is very hard to read in a black and white reprint. Why the editors at Marvel did not retouch these is beyond me. But it also meant that several stories were difficult to follow as the lettering was unreadable.

Speaking of editing, in the next to last story, I found a big typo. A woman who picks Bruce up in her truck refers to both her betrothed and her new suitor with the same name. However, the new paramour’s name was referred to just a couple of panels earlier as a different name. I bet if I had found this when the magazine was originally, I would have won a coveted Stan Lee ‘No Prize” which was a honorary accolade given to astute Marvel Comics readers back in the day.

I did enjoy reading this volume. The art is some of my favorite in all of my years of reading comics. Yet with it’s new format of no holds barred material and poor lettering, this wasn’t as good as volume 1. Things did pick up towards the later issues, but the series was cancelled before these improvements were implemented to win back readership. Oh, well.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Essential Marvel: The Rampaging Hulk, Volume 1

The Hulk's face looks like my grandmother's when she'd get mad.
She'd get mad a lot!

Think about popular super heroes and the volume of titles out about them. Superman has Action Comics, Superman, Superman/ Batman, Superman/ Wonder Woman, and appears in the pages of Justice League of America. Spider-man, Batman, Wolverine, and countless other fan favorites appear in several different titles every month. Now think about the Hulk. He’s been a pretty popular dude for a very long time, but until very recently, he only appeared in the pages of Incredible Hulk and the occasional mini-series.

I remember reading Incredible Hulk as a kid and I thought that was really the only series to star the Green Goliath (brief membership in the Avengers and his quasi-membership status in the Defenders excluded.) I’ve been reading comics for 33 years now and I’ve come to be considered to friends and family as an expert on the subject. So imagine my surprise when I came across a used copy of this book a few months back. Rampaging Hulk- what is that?

My first thought was that these was a collection of the Hulks greatest rampages. Instead, this was a magazine format black and white edition published in the late 70s. The idea for the book was in relation to the live action Hulk series starring the late Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. These adventures of the Hulk take place during the first 6 issues of the Hulk published all the way back in 1963. It was meant to be a slightly more adult reader for people who loved the TV show but had never read the comic before. The only difference was the addition of a 3-fingered alien artist named Bereet and her bag of assorted gizmos, who enlisted the Hulks aid in defeating her alien brethren who sought to conquer the earth.

Apparently, the mag was more popular with comic book fans than new readers and after 9 issues the title and the format of the publication changed. Instead of providing an altered history of the Hulk and the early days of the Marvel Age of Comics, fans clamored for a comic that was similar to the live action series. Gone was the word “Rampaging,” as was Bereet, her brutal alien race, and one time sidekick to the Hulk, Rick Jones. Now, Robert Bruce Banner travelled the by-ways of the US, seeking solitude and solace from the one thing he can never outrun- the Hulk!

These new format tales have Banner finding work where he can find it, and usually he ends up finding corruption too. Thus as he tries to make things right, he ends up becoming the Hulk and doing a lot of destruction. Why nobody wonders why this wanderer comes to town and winds up shirtless and in purple pants after the Hulk rampages is beyond me. If I was to track down the Hulk, I would put an APB out for stores that have recently sold a large quantity of stretchable purple pants. Find the guy buying the purple pants, find the Hulk. Problem solved!

Anyway, I liked this series- both formats. I think the reboot was imaginative and I liked the newer tales that reflected the TV show. Some of those tales tackle child abuse, nuclear waste, and race. It’s like Marvel’s answer to the relevant comics of DC, such as Green Arrow/ Green Lantern, just about 7 years too late. There’s a second volume and I am on the hunt for it. I liked what I read and saw. Though I think the Ramping Hulk artwork is far more superior than that of the later issues. The early stuff has fantastic shading and looks very artistic. The later stuff is very clean but is what I would expect out of the comic book. Either way, the entire series is a fantastic read and very much worth consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.