Friday Night Fights--Sal Buscema Style!!

You know whom I don't feature enough here on Friday Night Fights?

Sal Buscema, that's who. Because for my money, pound for pound, Sal Buscema is one of the greatest super-hero artists ever.

Sure, my opinion is no doubt colored by the fact that, during my impressionable youth, there was probably NOTHING at Marvel the man didn't draw at one point or another. Avengers, Defenders, Thor, Marvel Team-Up, Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Marvel Two-In-One, Master Of Kung Fu (seriously!), New Mutants, Nova, ROM, Sub-Mariner, Tarzan, and heaven knows how many Hostess ads. In the 1970s, you couldn't make it through a month without picking up at least one Sal Buscema-drawn title...and usually several.

The man could put out a million pages a month, it seemed. But even if they weren't all "frame them in a museum" quality, the were all good solid comic book pages, and you never couldn't figure out who a character was or what the hell was happening in the panel in front of you.

And the man could sure draw a fight scene. Especially with the Hulk. If I were of a mind to, I could do a year's worth of Friday Night Fights just from Sal's Hulk work in the 70s and 80s.

Case in point: Incredible Hulk #205 (1976), by Len Wein, Sal Buscema and Joe Staton.

A really stupid anonymous scientist has revived the long dormant Crypto-Man android, and powered him up to Thor-like levels. Why? As a way to make himself famous, and rich, and powerful, and just because it's Marvel in the 1970s, dammit!!

So whilst rampaging about the town, robbing banks and such, Crypto-Man comes across Bruce Banner and Jarella on date night. And proving why he wasn't a famous scientist before:


Yeah, because Hulk is green, Hulk= power, therefore green=power! SCIENCE!!!

Anyway, the inevitable happens, and in the ensuing rumble (SPOILER ALERT) Jarella is killed. Really, really killed, not 21st-century killed where she comes back six months later. She's Gwen-Stacy-dead, without the convenient clone walkback.

As you can well imagine, this does not make the Hulk happy. Sal Buscema...take it away!!













That's what you get for killing Hulk's girlfriend, bro.

Even Spacebooger gets misty-eyed when he's ponders the death of Hulk's green girlfriend...

Now do yourself a favor, and go vote for a winner in this week's fights, will ya? And do yourself a bigger favor--put together your own fight, and come play with us!!