MISSION: MARVEL ENTRY #43
Incredible Hulk #6, March 1963, written by Stan Lee, penciled by Steve Ditko
And Incredible Hulk comes to an end. A mere 10 months after it released its first issue, the title ceases publication. This is Marvel’s first failure, and its swift cancellation actually looks more like today’s marketplace than 1962’s. Except today those 6 issues would have come out in 6 months. I think it took 8-9 months for sales reports to reach Marvel in 1963, so that means Incredible Hulk was canceled after disappointing sales on its…first issue? Maybe it’s first and second? I’d be very interested in seeing the numbers, if those exist.
Hulk-fans don’t fret, he’ll be back in Tales To Astonish, co-headlining that title with Ant-Man in 1964 before hijacking its numbering for Incredible Hulk volume 2. In-between now and then, though, I think he pops up as a founding member of a team or something…
This issue is pretty bonkers. It features an alien named Metal Master who controls metal down to a molecular level. He actually reshapes metal and causes it to melt n stuff, which is not something that another metal manipulator can do. Anyway, Metal Master runs amok across Earth while the Army wrestles with whether or not to let a newly captured Hulk take down the alien. With the help of Rick Jones’ newly formed Teen Brigade and a cardboard gun, the Hulk takes down Metal Master! Hurrah!
This issue is a relatively fun read, although it has some incredibly ridiculous bits in it:
- The Hulk is still using a gamma ray to trigger his transformations, which in this issue starts to mess up. It transforms Banner into the Hulk…except for his head, which turns out to be okay because Banner has Hulk masks hangin’ out to wear.
- Betty Ross (which is mislabeled as Betsy Ross in this issue) does NOTHING but cry and moan over a missing Bruce Banner all issue. All. Issue.
- Rick Jones forms the Teen Brigade, a seemingly cross country network of teens dedicated to helping the Hulk that communicates through radios. He forms this network in a matter of hours, judging by the story, and they start shipping tons of materials to the Hulk to help stop Metal Master. The shipping, yep, takes under a day. Wow, 1963 post office.
- The weapon they build is a HUGE gun, like Liefeldian in size, that is impervious to Metal Master’s manipulation. Because it’s made of cardboard. A giant faux gun…made out of cardboard…that had to be shipped…from across the country. Sigh.
Positives? Ditko’s art is pretty great. He’s an odd choice for the Hulk, who is such a Kirby monster, but he adds a sense of uneasiness and lumbering awkwardness to him that Kirby didn’t.
The letters page doesn’t mention this being the last issue of Incredible Hulk, but it does have a plug on the last page for a new hero appearing in Tales of Suspense (Iron Man).
1st Appearances:
- Teen Brigade (Rick Jones’ team goes on to support the Hulk and later the Avengers)
- Metal Master (who appears 3 more times despite his whole schtick being put to better use by Magneto: once in a 1977 issue of the magazine Rampaging Hulk, then next in a 1982 issue of ROM Spaceknight and lastly in Maximum Security in 2000)
My Score: 6.7
