The Hulk Completist – The 1970s

The main Incredible Hulk title was fairly straight forward in the 1970s. The only complication is the odd cross over with other titles.

The Hulk also appeared as part of the team in the Defenders comics. Seeing as this title has it’s own line of Masterworks and Epic Collections, I’ll stick to focusing on the Incredible Hulk for this guide.

In the late 1970s Marvel published a magazine called The Rampaging Hulk (later shortened to The Hulk!). This magazine’s relationship to the main Marvel continuity is a bit complicated so I’m going to ignore this here and focus on the Hulk’s colour comics.

If you’re interested in the magazine the best starting place is Marvel’s Essential line of books.

Part One focusing on the 1960s/Silver Age Hulk can be found here: The Hulk Completist: The 1960s

The Rules

Just a quick reminder of the rules:

• The issues collected must be in issue order, i.e. #1, #2, #3, #4, etc.
• No skipping of issues. So books collecting a specific story arc, or focusing on particular supporting characters or themes are out.
• This one is a personal preference: no insertion of modern ret-cons/retellings even if they’re strictly correct in terms of chronology. I just find jumping from classic art and story telling to the modern equivalents and back again too jarring!

The 1970s – The Bronze Age Hulk

The Ages of Hulk

Let’s get this out of the way.

I should have addressed this in the last article but I’ll be up front about it now. I’m being very slap dash and assigning the comics Ages to decades. For example, the 1960s are the Silver Age, the 1970s the Bronze Age, the 1980s early Modern Age and so on.

It’s a bit lazy, but then I’m only using the Ages as a handy way to divide the guides up.

So I’m not going to worry over whether Bronze Age Hulk started when Herb Trimpe became the regular penciller on the title in the late 60s rather than 1970.

Or I might. No, dammit! I’ve got a guide to put together!

Hulk Smash!

As the 1970s progressed our favourite Jade Giant developed into the version of the Green Hulk that people are probably most familiar with – namely the child-like, monosyllabic, jolly green giant known for talking in the third person.

For the majority of the decade just two long running pencillers worked on the comic: Herb Trimpe followed by Sal Buscema. Both artists had astonishingly long stints on the comic and this leads to a rock solid foundation for the series as a whole.

Herbe Trimpe started on the title in 1968 by inking over Marie Severin’s pencils. However, by the early 1970s he was firmly established as the main Hulk artist. Not always considered the best artist, Herb Trimpe none the less gained recognition for strong story telling and action scenes. Perfect for the Incredible Hulk!

In the mid to late 1970s Herbe Trimpe was replaced on pencils by Sal Buscema. Starting work for Marvel in late 1960s, Sal Buscema (brother of John Buscema) worked prolifically for Marvel and had already notched up experience drawing our Green Gargantuan (okay, that’s the last of these!) in the Defenders.

Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Vols. 6 – 13

There’s no Omnibus line for the Hulk in the 1970s, so fans of high end hardback books can only opt for the Masterworks. Fortunately, a huge amount of material has now been collected!

Let’s look at the contents in more detail:

• Volume 6: Incredible Hulk #122-134 (Vol. 2), covering years 1969-1970.

We pick up where we left off with Volume 6 which finishes off 1969 and takes us through to the end of 1970.

In #126 Hulk battles the Night-Crawler (nope, not that one!) who comes back (much) later as part of the Hulk Hunters (and with a name change to Dark-Crawler!). These issues also feature Doctor Strange and Barbara Norriss, important characters in the Defenders a couple of years from now. Oh and Hulk gets a new buddy in #131 when he meets Jim Wilson.

Heart of the Atom

• Volume 7: Incredible Hulk #135-144 (Vol. 2), Avengers #88 & Phantom Eagle story from Marvel Super-Heroes #16, covering 1971.

Quite a few notable first appearances in this volume. Issue #140 crosses over with Avengers #88 and features Hulk’s doomed love Jarella. Both of these issues are plotted by famous sci-fi author Harlan Ellison. These issues are followed up with #141 featuring the first appearance of Doc Samson.

Originally Doc Samson’s strength level depended on the length of his hair. This daft idea was wisely dropped later on!

All this plus an early version of Valkyrie appears in #142, again an important character in the Defenders later on.

Of X-Men and Counter-Earths

• Volume 8: Incredible Hulk #145-156 (Vol. 2), covering years 1971-1972.

The main highlight for me in this volume are the inks by John Severin. His inking take off some of Herb Trimpe’s rougher edges and gives the art a bit of grittiness.

Other highlights include a return to the sub-atomic world of Jarella in #148 and #156. In #150 the X-Men Havok and Polaris guest star. At the time of publication there weren’t any ongoing X-Men comics if you can believe that – Len Wein’s and Dave Cockrum’s re-boot was still a few years away. (This issue is also collected in Marvel Masterworks The X-Men Vol. 7).

• Volume 9: Incredible Hulk #157-170 (Vol. 2), covering years 1972-1973.

Steve Engelhart takes over the writing reins early in this volume. We take a trip with Hulk to Counter Earth in #158 courtesy of Rhino and the Leader. Here he meets Adam Warlock for the first time and confusingly, an alternate version of Bruce Banner!

(Counter-Earth, established by Roy Thomas in earlier Warlock stories is an alternative Earth complete with a similar but branching history. Think DC’s Earth-Two.)

The Beast is the guest star in #161 (remember there’s still no X-Men title, although the Beast did have some solo adventures in the anthology title Amazing Adventures – also written by Steve Engelhart). Again this issue of The Incredible Hulk also appears in Marvel Masterworks The X-Men Vol. 7.

#162 has the first appearance of Wendigo – a Hulk villain who plays a significant part in a very important issue in the next volume…

The Gentleman’s Name is Wolverine!

• Volume 10: Incredible Hulk #171-183, covering years 1974-1975

… and before we get to that, I should quickly mention Hulk pops over to Counter Earth again in issues #175 – 178 and witnesses the end of Adam Warlock’s first saga and ‘death’. Warlock next appears in Strange Tales #178, which starts Jim Starlin’s epic run on the character.

Finally, towards the end of the volume we get the first appearance of Wolverine. Would you believe one of Marvel’s most popular and important characters debuts almost as a throw away Hulk foe? Wolverine cameos at the end of #180 with his first full appearance in #181 – wonder what happened to him?

• Volume 11: Incredible Hulk #184-196, covering years 1975-1976

Len Wein is the writer for all of these issues so in many ways this is ‘his’ volume. But this also marks the end of Herb Trimpe’s amazing run on the title. Although Herb Trimpe returns to pencil a few issues and covers later on, Sal Buscema now starts his own long run.

Len Wein brings back some really old Hulk enemies including the Gremlin in #187 and the Toad Men in #190. Other notable appearances in this volume include the first appearance of Glorian, again in #190 and Doc Samson re-appears in #193.

A Surprise Groot

• Volume 12: Incredible Hulk #197-209 and Annual #5, covering years 1976-1977

As you can tell from the cover to this volume, the main story highlight is Hulk’s return once again to Jarella’s world in issues #202-203.

There are other highlights however, including a great Hulk and Man-Thing cover for issue #197 by Bernie Wrightson. Hulk also battles a series of 1950s-era monsters including a certain character called Groot!

Sal Buscema really comes into his own on pencils and it really feels like the start of the Hulk I grew up with!

Of Druids and Drooms

• Volume 13: Incredible Hulk #210-222 and Annual #6, covering years 1977-1978

Len Wein and Sal Buscema continue their great work on the comic helped on a few issues by Roger Stern.

In fact it’s Roger Stern who re-introduces Doctor Druid to the Marvel Universe in issue #210. Doctor Druid started out as Doctor Droom, a monster hunter in the anthology title Amazing Adventures way back in the early 1960s.

Here, he’s renamed, retooled for the Marvel Universe and eventually winds up as a member of the Avengers.

The Hulk Annual #6 should get a mention. Herb Trimpe returns on pencils and knocks it out of the park. This annual also features the first appearance of Paragon/Her/Kismet/Ayesha – introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

A big shout out should also go to Ernie Chan who does some stunning covers and inks over Sal Buscema’s pencils.

• Volume 14: Incredible Hulk #223-233, Annual #7, Captain America #230, Marvel Comics Calendar 1979 and material from Marvel Treasury Edition #17, covering years 1978-1979

This volume features Moonstone‘s first appearance in #228 along with guest appearances by Marvel Man (not that Marvel Man!) in #232 who was soon renamed Quasar.

• Volume 15: Incredible Hulk #234-244 and Annual #8-9, covering years 1979-1980

This volume came out in summer 2021 and completes the 1970s! Wow! Continuing from volume 14, Roger Stern does most of the writing with Steven Grant writing #244. Interestingly, penciller Sal Buscema is credited as co-plotter on a few issues.

The Masterworks programme has done a huge amount of work fully restoring the art work and publishing The Incredible Hulk from the 1970s. Each volume also features researched introductions and bonus material. If your budget can stretch this far they really are lovely, lovely books!

Marvel Epic Collection: The Incredible Hulk

The Epic Collections are only just beginning to break into the 1970s. No doubt more will follow but so far the only two volumes are:

• Volume 4: In the Hands of Hydra – collects Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #118-137, Marvel Super Heroes #16

This finishes off the 1960s and takes us up to 1971.

• Volume 5: Who Will Judge the Hulk? – collects Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #138-156, Incredible Hulk Annuals #3-4 (covers only) and Avengers #88
• Volume 6: Crisis on Counter-Earth – collects Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #157-178 and material from FOOM #1-2

This last volume brings us up to 1974 and is currently slated to be published in October 2021. So the Epic Collections are nicely chipping away at the 1970s.

Along with the above, there is a volume of the (now unfortunately cancelled) Marvel Premiere Classic line of books that collects the whole Jarella saga: The Hulk: Heart of the Atom collecting Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #140, #148, #156, #202–203, #205–207 and #246–248 and What If #23.

Mopping up the few remaining issues of the 1970s, issues #234-237, March to July 1979 are collected in the Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko Complete Collection.

Issues #238-242, August to December are I think uncollected in colour.

Digging will be needed to find older volumes of the Masterworks at down to earth prices.

Ebay is probably your best bet for these but look out for copies at independent comic book shops, both online and bricks and mortar. Volumes do crop up now and then at good prices.

If you’re on a tighter budget waiting for the Epic Collections is your best bet.

Now I need to pull my finger out and take a look at the 1980s!