Tales from the bag part 2

Well the second batch I pulled out of the Mbag where all Hulk comics from the early 80's...I remember buying some of these straight of the stands, but never read the other 90%. These were all pretty cheap, all books are VF to NM and cost me 70
cents each...how's that for a bargain

Let me start by telling that I like the Hulk....don't ask me why but I always seem to enjoy his books, his appearances etc...
My very favorite Marvel book is probably Marvel Fanfare #7 where the Hulk takes on the combined might of Unus the Untouchable and the Blob (Hulk wins...of course).
But I never seem to volunteer Hulk as one of my favorite characters when asked...not that I'm ashamed of being a Hulkofile...it's just that well I don't really see him as a hero, but then again I don't see him as a villain either...he's just there....the Incredible Hulk...a force of nature, the strongest one there is.

The Hulk books have never been one of Marvel flagship books, but has been a steady seller throughout the years. One of Marvel oldest characters (Hulk #1 predates Spider-man) the Hulk has always been a major force in all of Marvel's events, crossovers, specials, end-of-the-universe stories etc, Can you imagine a major Marvel story without the Hulk ? In short, the Hulk just IS.

Now, like a lot of people the first time I had ever heard of the Hulk was through the Bixby/Ferrigno TV-series, took me years to find out that Hulk was actually a comic-book character (I was a DC-kid initially) and I believe it's still a sort of stigma attached to the character which prevents people from picking up the comics. A shame really because the Hulk has a lot more debt than that growling green giant that pushed over cars and knocked down plywood walls in that 70's TV show.

But once I started reading the Hulk I realized what a great character he is....both arguably the most powerful of the terrestrial Marvel characters and an innocent, naive man-child as well.

Peter David gets props as being the best Hulk writer and his astounding long run of nearly 12 years (#330-467) was probably the only 90's Marvel comic series that was really any good...of late the Bruce Jones 4-year run was very good as well, but most of the pre PAD (Peter Allen David) books get no respect. People claim it's all lot of stories where The Hulk just runs across a monster or an alien and they fight. But the few stories I have read from this period were pretty good, a lot of grade-A villains, a lot of visiting heroes (FF, Avengers, Doc Strange et etc.) and a nice balance between the simple (stupid ?) Hulk and the wimpy but intelligent Banner.

So now I have a nearly complete run of #250- #325 in front of me...give me a few weeks to read them and I'll reblog to tell you how I found them.