MYSTERY ISLAND Celebrates the INCREDIBLE HULK in honor of the greenest holiday of all, St. Patrick’s Day!



Last year we compiled a list of “green themed” heroes for our retro pals at retroCRUSH. See link after this article. However, after drinking too many green apple martinis on Mystery Island we somehow forgot Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s big bastard child, their greatest green creation, the loveable and sometimes in need of severe anger management, the one and only: INCREDIBLE HULK!

The Incredible Hulk, created by Stan “the man” Lee and Jack “king” Kirby for Marvel Comics, first appeared in Incredible Hulk No. 1 (May 1962). Due to Marvel’s limited distribution back in the 60s, Hulk moved into Tales to Astonish after just six issues of having his own book. Marvel had a set limit as to how many titles could get distributed to the newsstands, so rather than launching too many ongoing series, some of their newer “superhero” types shared room in anthology comic books. I personally love the Marvel split books and wish they would reinvent the idea. The Hulk shared comic space with the Astonishing Ant-Man, and well, you all know the love I feel for that little (or sometimes very big) guy. Later, after poor ol’ Henry Pym aka Ant-Man aka Giant-Man lost his spot, Tales to Astonish brought in the Sub-Mariner as its co-host.

It's no news that Marvel grew larger than Giant-Man on Alice in Wonderland cookies … and launched a deluge of new titles after gaining a better distribution deal. That’s the shortcut of the story, but essentially how it played out. So, when the anthology series had run its course the Incredible Hulk took over the numbering sequence from Tales to Astonish and began his new solo career with Incredible Hulk No. 102, and the Sub-Mariner lucked into his own book.

Since those early days of the Marvel Bullpen the Hulk has of course evolved into a major player and has starred in many of his own titles and spin-offs, a TV show, animated series, and now movies, although, in my opinion none of the newer material ever topped the original run of the character as laid out by Lee, Kirby, and friends.

A really interesting aspect of the Hulk is his popularity. I mean, why is he so appealing? Basically, the Hulk is a monster, and in the hands of lesser creative forces, would possibly have just been a footnote in comic book history. Yet, Stan Lee had a real magician’s touch when it comes to characterization, a formula most likely born out of a love for radio drama and a wide variety of other sources, but he really understood how to make you, the reader, remember and care about his characters, despite how fantastic or even unrealistic their worlds may seem under a scientific microscope. This was a world of fantasy with one foot grounded in realty, and the other dangling inside an open doorway of creative possibilities.

Stan’s smartest move was to surround himself with the absolute best the comic industry had to offer, and there was and is no better comic book artist than Jack Kirby. He is our generation’s Picasso and then some. Much has been made of Stan’s unique form of plotting, usually in terms of leaving too much for the artist to interpret in pictures before he laid out his script. But history itself has proven that Stan’s crazy formula was not only unique but one that could not be duplicated. Some of the artists he worked with plotted or co-plotted stories, but it was flat out Stan’s dialog that carried Marvel to the top of the totem pole. He knew how to balance characterization and give wholly inhuman or outright fantasy characters a living beating heart that the reader could identify with. If Jack Kirby was the Picasso of our generation, then Stan Lee was our Mark Twain. We cared about Bruce Banner and we still cared about him when he was going berserk as the Hulk. We wanted Bruce to win the love of his life, Betty Ross, and we wanted him at the same time free to SMASH when the mood stuck.

The Hulk is simple. He is the destructive force inside us all controlled by the thing all good folks would like to be, a natural hero.


Bradley Mason Hamlin, March 16, 2007, Mystery Island. Updated format: 03.17.08.






CLICK HERE FOR THE RETROCRUSH ARTICLE: ST. PATRICK NEVER DID THIS!