Fantastic Four 12
“The Incredible Hulk”
Published Dec. 1962
Story: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Script: Lee
Pencils: Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
Cover: Kirby and Ayers

Synopsis

Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters are leaving the symphony when a company of soldiers mistake Ben for the Hulk and try to capture him. Later, at the (still unnamed) Baxter Building, General Thunderbolt Ross tells the Fantastic Four the Army is searching for the Hulk, who it believes is destroying military hardware. The team discusses how they would capture the Hulk.

The FF and Ross fly to the southwest in a newly remodeled Fantasticar, where the meet Bruce Banner (secretly the Hulk, of course), his sidekick Rick Jones, and his new assistant Karl Kort. Banner and Jones try to persuade Ross and the FF that the Wrecker, not the Hulk, is not responsible for the damage but the FF persist in investigating. While leaving, Kort drops his wallet and when Jones finds it, he discovers Kort is a communist. Kort—in a Scoobey-Doo-esque plot twist that should surprise no one—is revealed to be the Wrecker, and takes Jones prisoner. He then blackmails the Hulk to drive the FF out of the area.

The FF searches for the Hulk in the tunnels beneath the military installation, and he finally confronts them. After a battle, the Hulk is knocked out by a ray from a giant robot wielded by the Wrecker. The Thing and the Invisible Girl apprehend Kort while the Hulk escapes.


What’s going on here?

It takes an extremely convoluted story to do it, but after 12 issues, the Fantastic Four finally cross over with another headliner in the Marvel Universe. This same month, the FF will also make a brief appearance in Amazing Spider-Man 1. These stories firmly plant the FF in the same interconnected world as other Marvel characters, and helps establish the pattern of cross overs and tie-ins that knit together the Marvel universe. That shared universe is big part of the secret sauce that makes comics, and later Marvel’s movies, so addictive to fans. It’s both the fear of missing out on a vital chapter, and the rewards that come from knowing the full story. Marvel would of course learn to cynically exploit this later with massive crossover events, but for fans who first encountered it here in its embryonic stage, it much have been thrilling.

The story also features a fight between the Hulk and the Thing, the first of dozens of times they tangled. It takes 17 pages to get there, and Stan violates the first rule of writing by telling us, instead of showing us, what a big deal it is with a caption describing it as “one of the most dramatic moments in the history of adventure-fantasy.”

Given their roles as Marvel’s two biggest, baddest bruisers, it’s perhaps inevitable they would fight frequently. The Hulk—stronger and more ferocious—usually comes out on top, although the Thing occasionally scores a moral victory, often by displaying more “heart.”

While there are far too many of these fights to recount here, (although blogger John Cimino valiantly tries to do so in his Hero Envy blog here) here’s a taste of them fighting in the 1970s …

… in the 1980s …

… in the 1990s …

… and this century.

New wheels

The issue debuts the new, more space-age Fantasticar. The older “flying bathtub” version will still make occasional appearences.

They’re fighting again

This time everyone joins in.

The sixties are sexist

After last issue’s defense of Sue’s contributions to the team, we sink to new lows with more painful stereotyping.

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Kirby Krackle

Check out this cool sequence of Ben fighting the soldiers.

The red menace

Not only does Rick Jones feel entitled to go through Kort’s wallet, but he is horrified by what he discovers.

It’s an honor

The FF is treated to a rare military parade, according to Stan. At least Reed and Ben are veterans.

For Sale

Thanks to the appearance by the Hulk, FF 12 will set you back about $200,000

Next issue: The Red Ghost and his Super Apes!