Review by Ian Keogh

Essential Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 covered the Hulk’s early years of struggle from 1962 beginning to 1963 cancellation and partial revival from 1964 in ten page episodes. This collection contains the final short stories and sees the Hulk promoted back into his own title, from which he’s never looked back.

The content picks up in 1967 and is primarily written by Stan Lee, but with Lee increasingly lacking focus, and secondary contributor Gary Friedrich unconvincing in picking up the slack. Artistically, though, there is continuity, with Marie Severin (sample art) sometimes a little too exaggerated in the civilian scenes, but delivering a powerful Hulk. Herb Trimpe begins inking her pencils, progresses to pencilling from her layouts and then taking over the pencilling entirely. Severin is technically the better artist, but Trimpe’s poor figurework is mitigated by his imaginative layouts and storytelling skills.

For all the artistic consistency, though, there’s little to recommend the stories. Standing head and shoulders above the remainder is Lee reworking The Island of Doctor Moreau, replacing Moreau with the High Evolutionary, a geneticist obsessed with the creation of humanoid animals. There’s hubris, pathos and tragedy as the despite his best intentions the High Evolutionary discovers his creations have reverted to feral instincts. Beyond that, two battles between the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner hit the mark, the second better for having them face each other on equal terms and showing the sheer power the two of them generate.

However, it’s not long into the Hulk regaining his own title that Lee’s distractions elsewhere affect the plots. Some make little sense, he forgets what’s been happening and what villains can do, and attempts to drag stories on past a natural lifespan are obvious. Others filling in don’t improve the situation.

This isn’t prime Hulk, but moves nearer that state in Vol. 3 when Roy Thomas becomes writer. If you’d prefer these stories in colour they’re found in Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Volume 3, Volume 4 and Volume 5, and most are also in The Hulk Must Die. The earliest material here is also found in the first Incredible Hulk Omnibus.