Incredible Hulk #249 (1980)

This is a true fill-in issue.  It’s drawn by guest artist Steve Ditko and written by the fill-in master, Bill Mantlo.  Granted, Mantlo is the regular writer for this book, but his script on this is classic Mantlo done-in-one.  It barely touches any ongoing plots, introduces a new villain who is 100% gimmick (“Jack Frost,” who is made of ice and rules an underground ice realm), and it’s resolved in the end.

I’ve never been a big fan of Ditko’s Hulk.  It makes this issue feel “old,” by which I mean not contemporary to the 1980s.  But at one point, Hulk claps and makes an avalanche that he himself is swept up in.  That’s kind of cool, because it’s a metaphor for most Hulk stories: He goes nuts, breaks everything and ruins lives, and then he gets in trouble for it.

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