Peak Marvel? In 1964, I’d have said that happened when Fantastic Four 25 hit the newsstands in January.
Looking back now, I wasn’t wrong.
I find it hard to describe just how exciting that issue and the subsequent one were to readers. The sheer convergence of storylines felt like a breakthrough in suspenseful superhero melodrama by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.
In ordinary comics, you knew that the headline hero would win and the villain would lose. That’s what the villains were there for, after all. But here you had two protagonists — the Thing and the Hulk — who’d each starred in their own titles. Who could predict the outcome of a fight like that?
The Fantastic Four had fought the Hulk before, back in issue 12 (March 1963). But this time three members of the team were hors de combat, and the Thing was left to carry on protecting Manhattan on his own.
The odds were long. Readers had been clamoring for a matchup between Marvel’s two super-strong superstars, but face-to-face, the Thing was clearly smaller and weaker.
And although he’d clearly gone bad, readers still had sympathy for the tortured Hulk. Reader interest kept getting ratcheted up.
So how do you top a book-length slugfest between the Thing and the Hulk? By dragging in Marvel’s new superhero team, the Avengers, for a massive melee in the next issue.
“When (the FF) attempt to stop the Green Goliath, he makes mincemeat out of them, leaving only the Thing left to continue the battle,” recalled comics historian Dan Greenfield. “But the Hulk’s former teammates, the Avengers, have been on his trail as well. However they don’t mesh well with the FF and a melee ensues — allowing the Hulk to escape. Stan’s scripts do well to juggle the multiple characters and their distinct personalities.”
That splash panel — with a massive, seemingly unbeatable Hulk looming over the plucky-but-outmatched Thing — lives vividly in my memory to this day.
Werner Graf wrote: I’d have to go with 1973 & ASM 122. Romita’s iconic cover is the best of all time with true pathos and depth. Nothing before matched it nothing after as either.
ReplyDeleteMark Engblom wrote: Almost as exciting as the "Who would win?...Hulk or Thing"? scenario was the wonderfully perplexing moral ambiguity the early Marvel Universe introduced and thrived upon. We simultaneously cheer for and root against so many of the principals, while the two official superhero teams argue and pose like rival neighborhood kid gangs, unlike the non-stop mature geniality the Distinguished Competition was pumping out. Knowing there are so many ways to view conflict, or for situations to be misunderstood was Marvel's primary contribution to my growing moral sophistication.
ReplyDeleteBrian Vorce wrote: My dad had a reprinted version of this story in an FF giant-sized. We loved it. It went well with a new FF comic we had where Dr. Strange constructs a new FF of Ghost Rider, Hulk, Wolverine and Spider-Man to bring in the Human Torch, and of course, a rumble with the real FF ensues.
ReplyDeleteCharles Hoffman wrote: Also, excellent portrayal of the city battening down during a rampage by the Hulk.
ReplyDeleteMarcus Bressler wrote: The best one-two punch up to that time. The side plots were great (Reed’s fever).
ReplyDeleteChris Smillie wrote: This changed comics. Under any other company, the fight would have been a draw or the hero of the book would win. Not here. The Thing is utterly defeated. Ben fearfully prepares to die to give his best friends a chance. The humanity shone through the superheroics.
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