Why Can't We Be Friends? Incredible Hulk 340

Incredible Hulk #340 (February 1988)
"Vicious Circle"
Peter David-Todd McFarlane

Doug: Some of you may be wondering about our timeline over the past two weeks. Last week's Wonder Woman review hearkened back to 1987, today's is from 1988 -- both dates past the general parameter of 1985 that we usually use on this blog. An explanation -- since the Crisis plays so heavily on the end of the Bronze Age at DC Comics (at least according to most of us here), checking in on those reboots that came after seems wholly appropriate. Plus George Perez is just about as Bronze an artist as you're going to find. But what of today's fare? I bought this one at the comic shop due in large part to the out-of-this-world cover. Certainly that's one of the best of its era, although I could nitpick it. Whenever I first lay eyes on it, I always think Wolverine is slashing forward; but then I look again and see that we are looking at the back of his left hand. But I forgive quickly, as I'm a sucker for covers with a reflective scene in them. Anyway, this comic had gone missing for years from my collection, and I could not for the life of me figure out where it was. I wondered if I'd loaned it to a friend, but he swore I never did. So I wasn't losing sleep over it, but was nonetheless aware that I no longer possessed it. That is, until I was grading/pricing my collection a few weeks ago and was in my X-Men longbox. Back in the day I was very organized in my storage, to the point where I'd take a larger-sized magazine bag and stuff it with mini-series. So when the "Fall of the Mutants" storyline was over, I bagged the four or five chapters individually and then slipped them all into a magazine bag. Guess what? This book was ancillary to that story. Found it!! But that still doesn't answer why it's being reviewed here today. Simple -- I want to, and I want to solicit opinions on several elements of the story as we go along. So, let's go along!

Doug: First up is the coloring in this issue, which is an odd palette for my eyes to behold. Sure, I know the Hulk was now gray instead of green, but why does everything else in the book seem to be so softened? We open on a snowy road near, of all places, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Clay Quartermain and Rick Jones are in a vehicle with the Hulk and they're lost. This doesn't make the Hulk very happy. Quartermain suggests, in these days well ahead of GPS devices, that they pull over for a break and try to regroup. The surly Hulk wants out and at first opportunity lifts off, up and away. One of the conceits you may notice on this page is artist Todd McFarlane's obligatory inclusion of a Felix the Cat face. Got it out of the way early in this one. So after the Hulk takes to the skies, we shift to the control tower at DFW where they, too, are battling the snow. As the tower advises a Pan Am flight to divert to Houston, an unidentified craft enters their airspace. It's the Blackbird, piloted by Wolverine, who really isn't in any mood to be talking to air traffic controllers. A few things to notice in this panel -- Rogue and Logan must have gone to the same hairdresser, and doesn't McFarlane sex-up Rogue's right side? You see what I mean...

Doug: On the next page, author Peter David brings those few Hulk readers who may not have been regular X-Men readers up to speed on who the players are and why they're in this magazine. As I said above, this issue tied in (loosely) with the "Fall of the Mutants" storyline. This was an interesting X-line-up, with Storm and Wolverine being the old hands and surrounded by Rogue, Havok (he'd be an old hand if he'd ever had a lengthy tenure on the team), Dazzler and Psylocke in her original "form" (pre-ninja), and recent addition Longshot. Wolverine is surprisingly under control here, and David writes him as the mature member of the group (not that any of the others are acting silly). Suddenly from a view outside the plane, we see the Hulk hurtle by, narrowly missing the Blackbird. Ah, but recall the tower's concern about the X-craft being too close to the Pan Am flight in the blizzard? Guess what the Hulk hits as he reaches the peak of his ascent?

Doug: Wolverine picks up the mayday call and orders Rogue out of the Blackbird to rescue the airliner. He orders her to remove the damaged engine from the wing Hulk had hit, and then guide the jet to a safe landing. Moments later we see the Hulk on the ground in the woods, mad that a) he doesn't have anything to eat and b) he can't find his ride. Just then, KRASH! the engine lands... guess where? Hulk not happy. Cut to the site of the jet on the ground, with Wolverine out of the Blackbird and investigating. His senses don't lie, although he's a bit confused: there's little doubt that the Hulk was the impetus for the destruction of the jet's engine, but it's a different scent. But Wolverine thinks to himself that he's the leader of the X-Men now, and although he'd love to check out this anomaly, he cannot. Cut then to a one-page scene with the Leader, in his very odd-looking revised form (I've seen from time-to-time readers state that his new "shape" was somewhat phallic in nature). Apparently there's been some plot by the Leader to take over a cache of gamma bombs being developed by the U.S. military. But that's all I know, and it's the only time it's touched on in this book, so...

Doug: We sceneshift again to a highway in the area where motorists have become snowbound. McFarlane focuses on a food truck. With a gaping hole in its side. The National Guard is out on patrol to assist motorists when they come upon the truck. Sensing some potential looting going on, they call into the darkness of the rupture. We know who's in there, right? Out comes the Hulk to a -- you guessed it -- hail of gunfire. The bullets rip into the truck's gas tank, causing it to blow. Hulk hurls it away from himself, now fully ticked off that his meal's been ruined. The truck lands a fair distance away, but near enough to an apartment complex that some folks might be in danger. That brings the X-Men to the area, and you can see where this is heading (after all, it's why I bought the book in the first place). Wolverine pulls on his mask and is out to investigate and to oversee his team's relief efforts. He says aloud that he wonders what sort of jerk could have done this. Trouble is, the wind carries his words away -- to the Hulk's ears. Yup -- game on!

Doug: The Hulk launches himself at Wolverine, but at the last instant Logan whirls, popping his claws, and slashed the Hulk across his right arm. Hulk can't believe that Wolverine cut him -- and we remarked in our review of Hulk #181 how bloodless the art was in their battle. Wolverine's body tells him that it's go time, but his mind actually calms his instincts! Yep, the runt turns and walks away! Hulk is incredulous. And isn't taking no for an answer! What follows are 40 panels of sheer carnage. Todd McFarlane really cuts loose on these two heavyweights cutting loose. There is a brief interruption for an interlude showing Rick and Quartermain driving in their van in search of the Hulk, but for the most part the second half of this issue is what the reader paid for -- and that's to answer the question, if Wolverine really went into a berserker rage, with no Comics Code Authority to hold him back (tell me the presence of the Code stamp on this cover wasn't just for tradition's sake by this point in time), could he beat the Hulk? Well, the answer is "no"... not this Hulk. Because this Hulk not only gets stronger the angrier he gets, but he also gets bigger and has a healing factor that kicks in. And oh yeah -- this one thinks a little more clearly than the Jade Giant of decades past. Enjoy some of McFarlane's action, and while you do, I'd invite your critique of (again) the coloring, and also of his figurework and proportionality between the two combatants.

Doug: So it ends with Rick and Quartermain finally finding the Hulk in the midst of his battle royal. Quartermain uses an Image-era trademark -- the biggest gun you've ever seen -- to shock the two brawlers. He then gives a pretty ballsy (sorry for the PG-13 term) lecture to both of them, which surprisingly ends the fracas. Wolverine again walks away, and that's the last we see of him in this magazine. The Hulk bows to Quartermain's wishes and hoists the van above his head and leaps with it in his hands. Inside the van, Rick and Clay muse about Betty Ross Talbot Banner, and whether or not she still thinks about Bruce Banner. Quartermain suggests, not if she's smart. And then we see the woman whose hand we'd seen during interludes throughout the issue -- it's Betty holding a snow globe, which she hurls against a wall, smashing it to pieces. Betty thinks that she and Bruce are just two figures who continue to encounter each other, but never as closely as they should. Even after marriage, the live in a sort of cycle of close, apart, and then close again. Hence Peter David's title to this issue.

Doug: Not being a regular Hulk reader, some of the periphery stuff didn't matter to me or really even make sense. As to the main part of the story, it is what we thought it would be, huh? Although the cover date is 1988, what's between these covers is a definite precursor to what would be fully unleashed on readers in the 1990s. I suppose in 1988 that wasn't bad, but who could have seen into the future? It's sort of like The Dark Knight Returns -- I loved it at the time, but that sense of awe has faded through the years as I saw what subsequent creators did in an effort to emulate or even top what Frank Miller had done in Daredevil and then with his Batman work. In closing, I suppose I'd view this as a cog in that machine that was beginning to pick up steam. And oh if it didn't then proceed like a runaway train.

PS: One more thing -- I absolutely love the return to the blue pants on the Hulk. Seriously -- no one wears purple pants.