A very cool little Roy Thomas/Herb Trimpe one off in which Hulk becomes a member of the glitterati set. Briefly. Truly one of Roy Thomas’ best.
The story was inspired by Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic,” and so he’s even included in the comic as a cameo. It starts with some feminist activists taking Hulk to a cocktail party.
They treat him like an accessory, and offer him money.
Hulk doesn’t need money.
But then it’s time for Valkyrie to return. (She and Hulk will soon be in The Defenders together. It’s very cool how organically The Defenders formed. And it really wasn’t a master plan. Thomas wrote about the characters coming together and they Marvel decided they needed another team book.)
Anyhow, here’s Valkyrie’s second appearance. Last time, Enchantress disguised herself as the Norse warrior woman. This time, she transforms a hippie girl named Samantha Parrington.
Next time we see her, Val will take the form of Barbara Norris, who was a bystander in Valkyrie’s first appearance. She’ll occupy the Norris form for many years, but will eventually return to the body of Parrington. Like Thor, it’s often hard to discern whether Valkyrie is “real” on her own. But also like Thor, by the turn of the Century she will eventually be able to operate independent of a human host. I guess Marvel decided around that time that it wasn’t necessary to tie Gods to human bodies.
Valkyrie is supposed to be a warrior, but she’s cunning. She uses her sexuality to seduce Hulk, and to neutralize him with a simple pressure point.
Perhaps in response to that, Hulk denigrates her based on gender.
At the end of the tale, they go their separate ways.
This is one of my all-time favorite Hulk stories. It uses every aspect of the character. This issue is one of my 100 favorite self-contained issues of all time. For the full list, go here.