Longbox Review #1: Incredible Hulk #379

Incredible Hulk vol. 1 #379

Release Date: January 15th, 1991

Cover Date: March 1991

Credits: (w) Peter David; (p) Dale Keown; (i) Mark Farmer; (l) Joe Rosen; (c) Glynis Oliver; (e) Bobbie Chase; (eic) Tom DeFalco

Title: "Hit and Myth"

We start the issue with Hulk, Doc Samson, and the Ringmaster going to a bar to celebrate Doc Samson's curing the Hulk of his big angry monstrous hulkiness.  They refer to Hulk as Bruce (that's Bruce Banner if you didn't know) and we learn that what Samson has done is combine all three of Bruce's fractured personalities into one.  Now, he's big and green and not angry.

A little FYI here, the three fractured personalities are the enraged green Hulk; the more relaxed, intelligent, but violent, Joe Fixit; and the highly intelligent scientist, Bruce Banner.

It's obvious right away that Hulk is now all three of these.  He's got a swagger to him that is making the others a little uncomfortable, and he's the one who wants to get a beer.  When they get to the bar, there isn't a booth they can fit into, so Hulk pulls a bolted down table out of the ground and moves it.  When he gets grief for damaging the table, his response is, "the bar has insurance."

Meanwhile, Rick Jones, Betty Banner, and Rick's sweetheart, Marlo, are across the street at Rick's apartment.  Betty is a little nervous about the new Bruce.  She was confident that Doc Samson could cure him, she just didn't think he'd still look like the hulk.  Anyway, Rick is looking out at the bar with binoculars, when he notices some super bruiser types casing the joint.  He runs out to warn the Hulk but when he does, they attack him.  Luckily Bruce saw Rick from inside and goes out to see what Rick was going on about.  Of course, a fight breaks out between the Hulk and a whole group of people named things like Ulysses, Hector, Achilles, and Ajax.  

The bar gets wrecked as a result of the fight and Hulk's carelessness and Rick gets injured.  The bad guys take Hulk down and they split with him in their vehicle.

As they drive away, we are left thinking that this could have gone way better.  In fact, the Hulk is also thinking the same thing, but we learn that he went down to avoid more damage and to get into the villains' headquarters.

The End.

A few notes here:

1. I don't like this Hulk.  He's cocky and a careless jerk.

2. Also, Betty isn't sure she likes him either, and she flashes back to after Leonard cured the Hulk.  Bruce showed up at Betty's door with this huge Jack Nicholson grin and said, "Honey, I'm home..."  Very reminiscent of the character who said that line in the Shining.  By the way, that character was an abusive father and husband who beat and tried to kill his family (so yeah, not funny).

3. The art is interesting.  I used to be crazy about Keown's art in the 90s.  It's very stylized and very cool.  I think it's still good but it no longer has that fresh art feeling to it.

4. I also liked Peter David's writing back in the 90s, and as we've since discovered, he's not so cool.  Besides that, reading this book now, I find the characters too exaggerated for my taste.

5. After reading this with today's eyes and without surrounding issues for context, I'm giving this 33 year old comic book less stars than I would have 33 years ago.  I'm giving it a solid 5 out of 10 stars.  With art I liked better when I was younger and writing that makes the characters look silly, I found it just ok.  I wouldn't say it was bad but it wasn't good either.

That's it for now.  See ya next time!

-Rob