May 1962: The Strangest Man of All Time

“In fact, there are some surprisingly heavy themes at work for an early ’60s comic,” observed comics historian Don Alsafi of The Incredible Hulk 1 (May 1962).

“Bruce (Banner)’s genius came up with the devastating gamma bomb — and was punished for it accordingly. And that’s not all: Earlier, when warned of the consequences if his theories were wrong, his arrogance is staggering: ‘I don’t make mistakes.’”

The fact the Banner becomes the Hulk because he heroically rescues a reckless teenager from a nuclear blast may distract the reader from the more unsettling implications of Banner’s personality.

I don’t think it’s arguable, at least in the early Hulk comics, whether Banner or the Hulk is the more dangerous figure. Whatever happens, the damage the Hulk can do is limited. The potential damage Banner can do isn’t.

The Hulk was a somber recombination of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Boris Karloff Frankenstein films of the 1930s and the parade of shambling radioactive monsters that lit up drive-in movie theatres during the 1950s.

And the immediate inspiration for the Hulk — the Fantastic Four’s tragic man-monster the Thing — is winked at more than once even within the text.

In Fantastic Four 5 (July 1962), Johnny Storm cheekily compares the Thing to the Hulk, whom he’s just read about in a comic book. Early on, the super-strong Ben Grimm was prone to frightening rages and random reversions to his human form.

However, the Hulk is, at it turns out, no mere comic book fantasy because the teammates are asked to corral him in Fantastic Four 12 (March 1963) — but only after the Army has attacked the Thing, having mistaken him for the Hulk.

The company that would become Marvel Comics was a small, tight-knit affair without editorial fiefdoms, and that factor permitted it to grow successfully by growing swiftly and organically, building fresh titles on the solid foundation of previous hits.