The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Volume 4: In the Hands of Hydra by Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, et al.

Boilerplate stories with pretty good art

The Epic Collection is Marvel’s line of trade paperbacks that reprint their comics from bygone eras, giving today’s readers a chance to experience the early runs of many of Marvel’s best-known superheroes from the 1960s and ‘70s. Nowadays, these comics are known as Marvel Volume 1, before they started renumbering all their titles with new #1s. The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection, Volume 4, reprints issues 118 to 137 from the Incredible Hulk title. These issues were originally published from August 1969 to March 1971. As is typical of the Epic Collection paperbacks, the comics are reprinted in color and brightly reproduced on matte-coated paper. The quality of the reproductions in this volume is very good.

Although this volume is subtitled In the Hands of Hydra, Hydra only appears for an issue or two. There weren’t a lot of multi-issue story arcs back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Rarely did a story last longer than two issues. In the first few issues of this Hulk run, Stan Lee has a hand in the stories, but he soon hands off the writing duties to Roy Thomas, who would succeed Stan Lee a few years later as Marvel’s editor in chief. This was the era of the classic Hulk, the brutish beast who frequently proclaimed “Hulk smash!” and frequently uttered variations on “Why can’t puny humans leave Hulk alone?” As in the Bill Bixby TV series, this Hulk never manages to explicitly kill anyone. There was a narrowly prescribed limit to what could be done with this character, and the same basic story involving Hulk, Betty, and Thunderbolt Ross is repeated over and over again issue after issue, the only variation being the adversary on the receiving end of Hulk’s blows. In this volume, the Abomination, Maximus, Kang, the Leader, Tyrannus, and the Absorbing Man all show up for an issue or two. The Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Iron Man each make an appearance. Two stories are devoted to a forgotten Man-Thing prototype named the Glob.

With a few exceptions, the art is handled by Herb Trimpe. Trimpe was a big name at Marvel during this era, primarily for his work on the Hulk. His art, however, isn’t nearly as good as contemporaries like Neal Adams, John Romita Sr., or the Buscema brothers. Trimpe tends to draw stocky, cartoony-looking characters with marshmallow shaped heads. The first few issues in this volume are not very well-drawn at all. In one panel, Trimpe adds an extra knuckle to a finger. Halfway through the volume, however, it’s as if someone at Marvel told Trimpe, “You should imitate Jack Kirby’s style,” and his art improves considerably from there. The best looking issues in this book are the few that were inked by John Severin, who I’m guessing did more than just ink, because he brings a more detailed, expressive style that calls to mind Hal Foster’s work on Prince Valiant. This brief Severin run includes issue #133, a comic I owned in my youth and lovingly reread and copied until it pretty much disintegrated. In this exciting issue, Hulk fights the forces of Draxon, the dictator of Morvania, a one-story villain who was never heard from again.

This volume also includes a reprint of Marvel Super-Heroes #16 (September 1968), featuring a World War I aviator hero called the Phantom Eagle. I guess this story is included because he’s a Trimpe creation, but it doesn’t really belong here, even if the character does make a supporting appearance in one of the Hulk issues. Overall, the art in this book is good, the writing is not so good, and neither is really great. If you like old Silver and Bronze Age Marvel Comics, as I do, then this book is a satisfactory nostalgia trip, but it once again proves that the contents of the Epic Collection volumes aren’t always epic in quality.