Why Can't We Be Friends? The Incredible Hulk vs. the Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing -- Part 1

Fantastic Four #112 (July 1971)
"Battle of the Behemoths!"
Stan Lee-John Buscema/Joe Sinnott

Doug: Happy Wednesday, O' Faithful Ones! We're back at a fun little BAB category we call "Why Can't We Be Friends?" It's been awhile since we looked in on Iron Man and Subby, and Spidey and Luke Cage. Today we begin a 3-parter spanning Fantastic Four #'s 112 and 166-167: Bronze Age Thing/Hulk tussles!

Doug: Is there a more iconic Marvel cover from the early 1970's than this baby you see just above? Wow. Two of the company's most recognizable characters in an all-out slugfest and drawn by the Michelangelo of Comics himself, John Buscema, at the height of his artistic powers. The black background only serves to heighten the excitement and power of this full splash. One of the best...

Karen: This was a sheer joy to read again. The first FF comic I can recall getting was FF #111. These were some exciting issues. They seemed to move at a fever pitch.

Doug: Stan remarks on the first page, "As the rampaging Thing battles the police in Central Park, the hate-maddened Hulk attacks him! And that's all we need to know!" Uh, well... no Stan. It's not. Why is the Thing fighting the police? How did the Hulk get to the heart of Manhattan? Where is the rest of the FF? We soon get up to speed, but I thought that was a funny way to start a book. To me, Marvel's strength in this period was it's long-running stories with subplots, tales beginning halfway through one book and ending a book or book-and-a-half later, etc.

Karen: It's been my feeling that as Stan approached the end of his writing career at Marvel, his stories became more rudimentary. Of course, the guy had been writing Marvel's entire line for years, so I think he can be excused for easing up a bit later on. Even so, this is still a very exciting story. Buscema's art is textbook super-hero dramatics.

Doug: As I went through this story, I was continually struck by what a true mismatch this bout should have been -- Ben enraged notwithstanding. Consulting the traditional Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, I reminded myself that the Hulk is 7' and 1000 pounds; Ben is only 6' and 500 pounds. But Buscema managed to convey to the reader that Ben was holding his own.

Karen: What I love about Hulk-Thing fights is the fact that everyone knows Ben is the underdog. But his great determination keeps him going (this is especially evident in FF #'s 24-25). He's like the Rocky Balboa of super-heroes.

Doug: The slow reveal is that Ben has run amok and is out of control, encountering Bruce Banner -- who ironically had been enlisted to assist Reed in helping Ben! Banner, seeing the duress that the Thing was being put under by the authorities, loses control and becomes the Hulk.

Karen: You know, for being the smartest guy on Earth, Reed is pretty dumb sometimes. He summoned Banner to the Baxter Building but had no idea he might Hulk out? Oh come on!

Doug: While Ben battles the Hulk, Reed is of course holed up in the Baxter Building laboratory trying to find a solution to cure Ben's madness. Johnny wants to fly out to help Ben against the heavy odds, but Reed won't hear of it. In fact, as Johnny flames out of the window, Reed douses him and reels him back in. Johnny's not happy, but he defers to his brother-in-law's leadership. Another burgeoning subplot is that the public (enflamed by none other than J. Jonah Jameson) is turning against the FF.

Karen: I got a big laugh out of that panel with a rabid JJJ yelling, "Put an end to violence! Smash them! Crush them! Kill them!" Boy, he'd do great with his own talk show today!

Karen: One thing that did bother me with this issue was the lettering. This was during a time period where I noticed that sometimes the letterer did not punctuate sentences properly - there are no periods at all in this issue. Many sentences end without any punctuation, except the ones that end in exclamation marks.
Doug: Basically 80% of this issue is an all-out war between the Thing and the Hulk. Buscema really moves the action, and his camera angles often add superior emphasis to the power generated by these two combatants. Trees, sculptures, an obelisk, a merry-go-round, a chimney, and a water tank -- all of these become weapons, projectiles, or simply tools in the hands of Ben or the Hulk. As the story wears on, what we all know to be true comes to pass: the angrier Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets! And as Ben starts to run down, he is distracted by his love-come-looking-for-him, Alicia... at the same instant the Hulk delivers the death blow!

Karen: I enjoyed the Thing heaving a statue of 'General Forbush' at Hulk. And the merry go round reminded me of issue #122, where Thing hurls a ferris wheel at Galactus. I've said it before, but I do think Stan had some sort of preoccupation with circuses. Although it's possible Buscema added these elements himself.

Doug: Reed and Johnny arrive with the gizmo Reed had insisted on building to save Ben; in a scene eerily reminiscent of the plot of FF #'s 140-141, Reed is left holding a gun-like device he's concocted to save someone dear to him. But unlike what will happen in several issues when he has the opportunity to affect his son Franklin, here he arrives too late to do anything other than apparently mourn over his still friend.

Karen: And of course Johnny is there to blame Reed. And why is it that Reed's 'helpful' devices always look like guns? I just read Incredible Hulk #152 the other day, and the machine Reed made to cure the Hulk also looked like a gun. Some sort of subconscious problem perhaps?