INCREDIBLE HULK #157-158 (1972)

Jim Wilson is stuck in traffic.  He climbs on top of a car to see what’s up.  And of course it’s Hulk. 

Who hasn’t felt like this in traffic?

This reminded me of one of my favorite Iron Man comics, where he, too, meets the Hulk in a traffic jam (Iron Man #131).  And then Hulk punches the crap out of him.

But it’s what happens towards the end that is shocking.  Jim Wilson decides to call General Ross and tell him Hulk is back.

Wilson has unwittingly betrayed Hulk in the past, but this seems over the line.  It’s intentional.  But it’s kind of cool in a way, because he’s not a one-dimensional sidekick.

Meanwhile, we see that the Leader didn’t die when that mountain exploded on him in Hulk #147, but, instead, it left him a paraplegic living in a tube.  But his psychic abilities still work, so he draws The Rhino to him, and gives him a new suit.

And then, Buh-Koom!, he’s inside Rhino’s body!

In the conflict, Hulk and Leader/Rhino wind up on top of a rocket that somehow is able to reach Counter-Earth (despite the fact that High Evolutionary was supposed to have made that world unreachable from “normal” Earth). 

They fight for days. Which is awesome.

We get a brief cameo from Warlock, who for some reason doesn’t think it’s worth investigating when something huge drops from the sky on the world he’s sworn to protect.

We then see Kohbra, from the pages of Warlock’s own mag (natch).

And in the end Hulk returns to “real” Earth.

Then on the last page Betty marries Major Talbot.

That may be the first-ever Marvel marriage not crashed by a super villain!

Don’t forget: The world still thinks Hulk is dead after Egghead shrunk him down small enough to revisit Jarella.

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