Marvel 1978 Week--Incredible Hulk #230

Another title, another fill-in issue...sadly, this one not nearly so entertaining. What do we have today??

Ah, a Hulk-on-the-farm story!! Not really, though.

Issue #230 appears in the middle of a fun run by Roger Stern and Sal Buscema. Nothing earth-shattering or ground-breaking, to be sure...but good, competent stupid Hulk stories, usually peppered with lots of unusual but well-used Marvel guest-stars (and for my money, Sal always drew the best Hulk...)

But as I noted yesterday, a lot of Marvel creators must have had December of 1978 off. Last week we finished off with Thunderbolt Ross collapsing from a Moonstone-triggered nervous breakdown (great Hulk quote: "You hurt Ross with words!!"), with Doc Sampson blaming the Hulk and vowing to follow him to the ends of the Earth for revenge. But instead of following up on that, this month we get a surprise story that doesn't follow-up on any of that (well, hardly). Our one-issue guest creative team??

Wait--Elliot S. Maggin?!? Jim Mooney?? Holy Moly, what is this, DC guys come over and do a fill-in issue month?!? Could we hope for something as radical as a look at how DC would handle the Hulk? Nahhh.

Yeah, those are Bob Layton inks, all right. Don't worry, they're not as overpowering the rest of the issue...but they don't do Jim Mooney's artwork any real favors, either.

The splash page pretty well explains what is going on, but we get some elaboration in the next couple of pages--it's going to be Hee-Haw vs. the Hulk:


Or is it? Unbeknownst to the farmers or the Hulk, they're being observed by the galaxy's stupidest alien:

Yes, because the Hulk is green, he must have the secret of how to grow plants. And these guys invented space flight?

Well, even after that thought balloon, Maggin still tries to be coy about the unnamed alien's mission, but forgive me if I spill the beans early: the alien is from a "war ravaged" and "starving" planet, seeking the secret of nurturing plant life so he can save his species. Uhhh....OK??

Well, Hulk vs. yokels goes pretty much as expected:


But at least the cover gave us an actual scene from the issue, right?

And we get the first EVER caption comparing Hulk to Shakespeare:

But it is 1978, so after Hulk rousts the farmers back to their dells, E.T. beams him aboard.


And Bug-Man continues to show a...curious...grasp of logic: the farmers were attacking, so therefore Hulk must have had something they needed, and obviously that something had to be the secret of agriculture!! Q.E.D!!!

Bug-Man manages to quell the Hulk with a "sedation beam:"

But, as anyone who's read 1970's Hulk would know, that actually leads to Hulk's escape:


We'll give Bug-Man a pass on this one, as he wasn't aware of the Hulk's dual nature.

Meanwhile, we get a token page dropped in, reminding us of the status quo at Gamma Base, without actually advancing the story one iota, because this is a fill-in issue, dammit!!

Back in the actual story, Bug-Man has discovered Banner, but hasn't discovered the Hulk's magic farming secrets, so he decides:

We all know how that turns out:


Well, Bug-Man manages to stun the Hulk again, and proceeds to give him....a manicure?!?



Oh, dear. The Hulk manage to escape, and leaps to Earth safely. And our Bug-Man??

You're serious?!? I know you've told up his mind is addled--but Bug-Man, while searching for the "secret of food production," never once thought to check Earth's soil?!? How is that possible?!? And, if I'd known it was possible to build a space-faring species without ANY knowledge of agriculture, my games of Civilization would have gone a lot more quickly...

Postscript: Bug-Man, of course, returns, as his entire species decide they want Earth's food production capabilities for themselves...so they launch a Secret Invasion, covertly scraping under the fingernails of every human being...

But that's our story. Nothing too horrible, despite an impossibly stupid alien. But nothing nearly as interesting or offbeat as Avengers #178. No new or interesting revelations or observations on the Hulk (except for the Shakespeare bit, of course). No real look at Hulk from a DC perspective--oh, it's overwritten, as were many DC books of the day, but nothing that couldn't have come from the usual suspects at the House of Ideas.

Then again, they didn't take 3 months off between issues, either, so we shouldn't complain...

ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:

This double page ad ran in all Marvel titles this month:

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, Marvel Team-Up #76 featured Spider-Man and Doctor Strange:

Not to mention Clea, and Ms. Marvel, and the villain Silver Dagger. And breakdowns by Howie Chaykin!?!

This was in the midst of Chris Claremont's fantastic, underrated and terrific 3 year run on the title. Writing that title could have been a thankless task, a "fill-in issue of the month" type of thing. But Claremont managed to give us offbeat heroes to team Spidey with, unusual villains for them to fight, and a surprising number of twisty multi-issue stories that never unfolded the way you thought they would. I mean, a 4-parter that eventually grew to include Spidey teamed with Nick Fury, the Black Widow, Shang-Chi AND the Silver Samurai versus the Viper?!? Good stuff.