Incredible Hulk #231-237 (1979)


Hulk trashes a bar full of jerks.

Then he gets into a long story featuring Moonstone.  It also involves “The Corporation,” a loosely defined conglomerate of evil people who are also running around in the pages of Captain America and Iron Man.

The leader of The Corporation, named “Kligger,” looks an awful lot like Kingpin.  He kidnaps Jim Wilson, and in the process we learn that it’s not a coincidence that two of the only black characters in the Marvel Universe in 1979 have the last name Wilson: Falcon is Jim’s uncle!

Cap, Quasar and Falcon are featured prominently—Hulk is really just a big strong force that chases down one of The Corporation’s operatives for most of two issues.


Quasar is still called Marvel Man at the time, which leads to some teasing…

I like that scene because, hey, you can’t argue with truth.  I also like the big gay dude in the background in the muscle shirt with a big stache.

Also along the way, Hulk fights Machine Man, who he thinks kidnapped his friend Trish.  Lots of kidnapping.  In fact, if it weren’t for kidnapping, we wouldn’t need “normal” people in the MU.

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Hulk busts poor Aaron Stack into pieces.

These issues are all definitely related—the story flows together—but there’s not a real need for it.  The through-line is The Corporation, but in the end nothing is really resolved and we get Hulk being punted into space (again), this time by Machine Man.

Not bad, but not great.  Having a talented creative team saves what could have been an extremely jumbled and pointless mess.  And it’s nice to finally see Machine Man being used really well.

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