Fantastic Four 166
“If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be The Hulk!”
Published October 1975
Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencils: George Perez
Inks: Vince Colletta
Letters: Joe Rosen
Colors: Phil Rachelson
Editor: Thomas
Cover: Rich Buckler and Dan Adkins

Synopsis

At the behest of the military, the Fantastic Four are flying west to find the Hulk, whom Mr. Fantastic thinks he can prevent from transforming from Bruce Banner with a device of his invention. Their plane is damaged by the Hulk, and after the FF help with an emergency landing, the team eventually captures the Hulk and helps the military secure him. But when it’s clear the authorities aren’t releasing Banner to the FF as agreed, the Thing frees him and joins the Hulk to fight the military.

What’s going on here?

This a bit of an odd issue. The mission to end Banner’s transformations into the Hulk seems to come out of nowhere, and it feels more like an opportunity to get the Hulk on the cover than to tell a good story. The story is padded out with a long sequence of the FF rescuing the plane (and with two pages for letters) but it picks up toward the end.

What’s most alarming about this comic are the inks of Vince Colletta, who is filling in for the Joe Sinnott. Colletta is infamous among comic book fans for butchering Jack Kirby’s work on Thor (it’s well documented here), and he’s accused of taking shortcuts and even erasing details that would take too long to ink. I always felt the criticism was probably over the top, given the passions Kirby evokes in his fans, and that Colletta was a journeyman professional who was doing a job as best he knew how (he is credited with working on more than 1,600 comics over the length of his 40+ year career).

But he does George Perez no favors in this comic. There is a distinct lack of Perez’s signature detail, and his faces look frozen and static. Here’s a good example:

It’s almost unrecognizable as Perez, and even though this is early in Perez’s career, we saw in the last two issues (inked by Sinnott) that many of his characteristics were apparent even at this stage.

In last month’s letters page there was an explanation that regular FF penciler Rich Buckler was unavailable for some reason, and that Perez was pressed into service. It’s possible he had to rush to complete this issue, and was only able to do layouts, leaving emergency inker Colletta the task of finishes. (The padded story and the double letter page would support that theory). In any event, the art in this comic is an unfortunate disappointment after the brilliant FF debut of Perez in the last two issues.

And one footnote: the cover by Buckler was inked by Dan Adkins, a longtime comics inker doing his first work on the Fantastic Four.

What I liked

Despite the shaky premise, the story becomes a good one as the plot develops and Ben’s outrage over the treatment of the Hulk — in his eyes, a fellow monster — at the hands of the military builds from a simmer to boil. His decision to free Banner is genuinely surprising. This is a pretty dramatic sequence, enhanced by Perez’s layouts, which build from an 11-panel page (!) to a great splash:

I also liked how matter-of-factly the FF defeated the Hulk. Granted, the Hulk in this comics isn’t the absurdly over-powered creature he has since become, but it was fun to see them work together as a smooth and efficient team, and where Sue plays a leading role.

And speaking of Sue, this was a fun exchange (this panel follows the “Fkoom!” panel higher up in this post):

What I didn’t like

As mentioned earlier, this story feels padded and contrived, never more so than in the opening sequence, where the FF are flying in a commercial airline — it’s not explained why they’re not in one of their own planes — which just happens to be accidentally clipped by the Hulk. It’s all a set up for the FF to land the plane, but it really serves no narrative purpose. Also, there are some really ungainly poses in this panel (and whose kid is that?).

When the FF scramble to rescue the crashing plane, Reed directs Johnny to burn a hole in he fuselage so they can exit the plane. But why not just open a door?

Overall

A bit of a mess