Part of what makes Steve Englehart such an interesting writer is his range. He could do straightforward superhero stories, but he also could get his weird on.
Hulk is where he got weird.
Jim Wilson sees Hulk and does a “Heil Hitler” before bringing him to his girlfriend’s house.
While Jim Wilson is calming Hulk down and getting him to change back to Bruce Banner, MODOK is luring Betty Talbot (nee Betty Ross) into a trap. Remember, over the past several issues she’s been showed to be losing touch with reality, so her mind is easy for MODOK to affect…And he turns her into a new villain: Harpy!
Harpy captures Hulk and flies off with him.
She has to fight off the air force to keep Hulk.
I love that “famous fact #422” blurb. Hilarious. I don’t recall the first 421 facts…
While flying away, Harpy happens upon (seriously!) a city in the clouds where they meet…
Bi-Beast! The character with a name almost as hilarious as Man-Thing!
From there, Steve Englehart just gets weirder. As if that’s possible.
Bi-Beast’s two heads talk with each other, and one is philosophical while the other is warlike. Using Bi-Beast’s lab, Bruce Banner cures Harpy just as the cloud city is invaded by MODOK.
The cloud city blows up, and Banner and Betty fall…
…into next issue! Where they meet…
Strange monsters!
Sadly, Steve Englehart is done with Hulk now. He gets a plotting credit here, but the script is by Chris Claremont. Claremont tries to continue the weirdness, but that’s not his gift.
Englehart’s run was wild.