Remember back in Hulk #112-114, when Hulk turned Spidey villain The Sandman into glass? Cool. I remember that, too. Remember in Fantastic Four #94, when Sandman was his old self again? Well, Roy Thomas didn’t when he wrote this issue of The Hulk.
And it’s a good thing, too, because this is one of the best issues of Hulk so far. Sandman goes to the hospital and forces a doctor to give him a blood transfusion to cure him from constantly shifting into glass form. And guess who is also a patient there? Betty Ross. And you better bet they share the same blood type.
So one transfusion later, and on the final page of the comic, Betty has turned to glass.
But before we get there, we get a terrific fight sequence between Hulk and Sandman. Sandman is an awesome Hulk enemy because he doesn’t need to rely on brute strength.
We also see Herb Trimpe getting artsy, which is cool. There’s a terrific dream sequence with Betty sleeping under ghostly figures of Hulk, Bruce, her father, etc., and this sequence of the Hulk-to-Banner transformation that focuses on the inner transformation instead of going green to flesh.
Very cool, very different from what we usually expect from a Hulk comic.
Jim Wilson’s in this one, too.
That’s Bruce Banner pulling him into the bush.
I’m giving an issue of Hulk an A. It’s definitely awesome compared to other Hulk books, but it also can stand up against any other Marvel book from 1971. Great issue.