The Day A Comic Book Made Me Cry

Yeah, I was only 12...but still, this comic had be bawling like a baby. And as I'm looking at it 34 years later, it still makes me cry, dammit.

Yeah, part of it was a pre-teen reaction to angsty melodrama, and the echo that still holds in my mind today.

And certainly, part of it was because comic book deaths were much, much more "real" back then. When somebody significant died back then (villains who were left to meet their fate in fiery explosions excepted), they stayed dead. No "oh, we know they'll be brought back in 6 months to a year." No deus ex Geoff Johns, or "Oh, I was just on vacation in Europe and hired someone to fake my death." The one attempt at a resurrection, bringing Gwen Stacy back as a clone, was met with such universal anger and derision that the clone was sent away and unheard from for another 13 years. So when this death occurred, it was as "real" as real could be.

And of course, part of it was seeing the most powerful person in the world--the character so many identified with as the weakling who could deal with the bullies and tormentors by giving vent to his anger and rage, and no one could stop him--reduced to a sobbing, pathetic wretch, helpless again despite his power.

So, anyway, we saw in this week's Friday Night Fights (there's still time to vote!!), Hulk's girlfriend Jarella was killed in a senseless battle with a big android.

Doc Samson told him there was nothing science could do, so of course Hulk decides that magic might help.

What followed was a couple of issues of Hulk rampaging through New York, seeking Doctor Strange to revive her through mystical means. After a confrontation with the Defenders, Strange sends his astral form to investigate...but when he returns, the news isn't good:















Damn you to hell, Len Wein & Sal Buscema & Joe Staton in Hulk #207 (1977).

Obligatory snarky postscript: I always found one of the most touching things here Dr. Strange's attitude: "it's the least I can offer...he's my friend." Of course, Strange would later go on to exile Hulk in a pan-dimensional crossroads, and still later trick Hulk into a one-way exile into space. So maybe he should change that "it's the least I can offer" to "it's the only thing I can offer, because I kind of suck as a friend." I'm just sayin'...