Bruce Banner - The Hulk Appreciation 2021

[Micabe]

That's not a Hulk though, I mean we all know Jason Aaron wanted him to be the "Hulk" of the team but he is just a caveman who became Starbrand. Also Xemnu is just referred to as Hulk he's not a gamma mutate of any kind.
This new Hulk is the first because he's an actual gamma mutate and is connected to the green door etc.

Who is this "New Hulk", you speak of, and which title and issue can I find him/her in?

[TCHRISJ]

Who is this "New Hulk", you speak of, and which title and issue can I find him/her in?

It's a new oneshot that's coming in May IIRC, then name is Immortal Hulk: Time of Monsters.

[Agent Z]

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #303
“Growing Up is Hard to Do!”

Cover Date: January 1985
Sale Date: October 9th, 1984
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Inker: Gerry Talaoc
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Carl Potts
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Puffball Collective, Nalee
Villains: Iron Knights
Synopsis: Open to a subdued Hulk slowly turning a massive wheel that grinds the bones of dead beings into the mortar used to build and expand the Iron Knights’ City of Death. He pauses to look at the somber princess Nalee, only to be lashed for his lagging. He attempts at a comeback are short-lived as the Iron Knight page is summoned and strikes him from behind. The overseers pummel him into submission and we then get a deeper backstory to the green-skinned people’s struggles. That night, Nalee is imprisoned with the Hulk and she cries tears of rage, which spawn giant vines to grow break them from the castle prison. The greens are inspired to take arms and attack the Iron Knights. Nalee sheds more tears over the violence and instead of vines, vicious killer trees grow and kill the Knights. Nalee encourages the greens to retake their world and a battered and confused Hulk finally triggers the fail-safe spell back to the Crossroads.
Commentary: Interesting dynamic for this two-parter, the Hulk has never been portrayed as equal or less than another being at this point. Odd to see him with a bloody nose and black eye.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of like that Sal-or maybe it's just the inker?-gives the Crossroads Hulk sort of a distinctive look, with more ape-like features and posture.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Kind of like that Sal-or maybe it's just the inker?-gives the Crossroads Hulk sort of a distinctive look, with more ape-like features and posture.

It was Sal...he wanted to give the mindless Hulk a distinctive primal look. You can really see the difference in issue #299 -- 90% of the issue had him portrayed in the traditional Sal style. Although more savage, you could see a focus in the Hulk's eyes. Once Banner commits psychic suicide, the primal look comes into play and they lose focus with the beady-eyed look.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #304
“Prisoners!”

Cover Date: February 1985
Sale Date: November 6th, 1984
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Inker: Gerry Talaoc
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Carl Potts
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Puffball Collective, U-Foes.
Synopsis: The U-Foes, imprisoned in a special facility, are accidentally set free by their prosecuting attorney, but the exhilaration of having their powers restored has Vector repelling the molecules of reality around the group and they disappear. As this is happening, a starving Hulk is prodded to a dimension by the Puffball Collective to find nourishment. He befriends an alien name Zgorian, who was banished to this particular world for showing compassion to the enemy. The two bond over time but soon, members of his race arrive to carry out his death sentence and the Hulk watches in horror as his friend is executed before his eyes. A tearful Hulk takes one last look at Zgorian before the Fail-Safe Spell is triggered, and he arrives back at the Crossroads…right next to the U-Foes.
Commentary: U-Foes are back! The Hulk portion of the story wasn’t anything special. Sad but forgettable.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #305
“Fancy Meeting You Here!”

Cover Date: March 1985
Sale Date: December 11th, 1984
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Inker: Gerry Talaoc
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Carl Potts
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Dr. Strange, Puffball Collective
Villains: U-Foes
Synopsis: Dr. Strange is testifying to a Senate Committee about the disappearance of the Hulk, while at the Crossroads, the Hulk and the Puffball Collective fight for their lives against the vengeful U-Foes. Together, they are able to send X-Ray to a dimension where life eats radiation, Vapor to a world with no oxygen where she dissipates, Ironclad to a planet made of quicksand and Vector to a world where he must spend the rest of his life repelling the planet in order to survive.
Commentary: Good fight issue. Up to this point, they’ve fought a savage, smart and now mindless Hulk. They show up in a couple/three years in the Avengers, and make their way back to the Hulk about 4 years after that...

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #306
“Call Me Ishmael, Call Me…Hulk!”

Cover Date: April 1985
Sale Date: January 8th, 1985
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Inker: Gerry Talaoc
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Carl Potts
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Puffball Collective
Antagonists: Xeron, Captain Cybor, Klatuu
Synopsis: The Puffball Collective is continuing to probe into the recesses of the Hulk’s mind to better communicate, and he manages to dig up memories of Bruce Banner, which infuriates the brute. Suddenly, the giant space giant Klaatu arrives at the Crossroads and nearly kills the pair by draining their life forces. Klaatu then disperses himself across multiple portals just as the starship Andromeda arrives. Xeron the Starslayer notices the Hulk and is disturbed at the change in the brute. A brief exchange between Xeron and the Puffball catch readers up on the past and what happened to the half-man, half-machine Captain Cybor – now a completely mechanical being and attached to the ship as a living figurehead. Eager to renew the hunt for Klaatu, Cybor orders that the Hulk be taken aboard. He resists but the energy drain from Xeron’s laser harpoon and Klatuu prove too much for the brute. The Puffball explains that it too must go with them, as he will be an uncontrollable without his presence when he awakens. Later, a chained Hulk reluctantly sits at the oars and the Puffball eagerly awaits to leave the Crossroads. However, even the Andromeda isn’t able to carry it thru a portal, and the Hulk’s rage begins to rise, just as Klaatu is sighted….
Commentary: Talk about digging up an obscure character. This issue and the next have strange abrupt endings, with no next issue blurbs or anything. Not sure if this was something that happened across all the books that month, or just a strange hiccup on this title alone. Bugged me for the longest time, because I thought it was missing the last couple of pages.

[ChrisIII]

Thing looked like it borrowed the Supreme intelligence's face.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Thing looked like it borrowed the Supreme intelligence's face.

I likened him to Jabba the Hutt with legs, LOL

[ChrisIII]

Wonder how Hulk's going to get re-gamm'd? I'm wondering if perhaps Joe tricks X-ray of the U-foes somehow into giving him gamma energy.

[Intothevoid]

Wonder how Hulk's going to get re-gamm'd? I'm wondering if perhaps Joe tricks X-ray of the U-foes somehow into giving him gamma energy.

Hmm, i dunno if it's possible for him to get his gamma back that way. Somehow i think it's gonna involve him getting Banner back somehow, but who knows.

[Kingkalamari]

https://monkeysfightingrobots.co/mar...ortal-hulk-44/

Preview for #44. Hulk getting quite the beatdown.

[ChrisIII]

The last bit brings to mind that iconic GHOSTS OF THE PAST moment (#398?)