COMICS-Tales of the Bargain Bin: Hulk #55
Hulk CHEAP!
A quarter wont even get you a phone call in most towns. Terry Bradshaw, Mike Piazza and ALF talk about the virtues of cheap 99 cent long distance and operate above the quarter realm. Most coin-op video games require at least 50 cents, nowadays. Busfare ranks around a whole dollar. Parking meters will accept quarters... and give you maybe 5 minutes of parking. About the only thing a quarter can net you is a game of skeeball at a cheap amusement park, or a ride on the mechanical horsie outside of Sam's Club. It can also net you this month's Hulk comic.
With the heavily promoted HULK movie arriving next weekend, Marvel Comics cooked up a special promotion and released their current issue of "Hulk" for only 25 cents. The last time an issue of the "Hulk" checked in at 25 cents was circa 1974. Designed to hook new readers, this issue is the start of a new storyline featuring a vagabond Bruce Banner and Carl "Crusher" Creel - the Absorbing Man. I haven't read a Hulk comic since 1992, so I passed on my weekly horsie ride and purchased the thing. (With my discount it only set me back 24 cents!)
As the story opens, we see that Creel's been detained in a secret government lab beneath a New Jersey cemetery for a few months. Creel's being detained by special plasma beams, one of the few things he can't absorb. During his solitary captivity, Creel has developed a way to possess people and jump from body to body. He's also developed a crazed "hi....Joker" type of grin. The employees of the lab begin acting out of the ordinary and start doing odd things. One jumps in front of an oncoming subway train and two co-workers try to molest each other. A female employee has a chance meeting with Bruce Banner at a diner, as a way to bring the protagionist into the fold. Not much happens beyond that, as this issue sets the table for the next 3 installments.
Creel's a longtime Marvel villain, so I'm glad that he got the villain spotlight, instead of a new run-of-the-mill "modern" villain named "PsyMax", "Obstenciator" or something equally forgettable. I always enjoyed Creel's appearances around Marvel-land. He's one of the first supervillains I can remember quoting, as I once told my brother "Let's ace this sucker!", sometime in 1984. He's been primarily an Avengers foe, but he's fought just about every major Marvel hero without an "X" connection. Plus, he runs around in 1950's prison fatigues. He looks
more like a villain from Popeye! With the bald head and craggy beard, he looks a cross between
Alice the Goon and Bluto. His new "body-hopping" power seems like a major development...but I have a feeling that when he pops up in "Avengers" in two years, he'll be back to the same ol' Absorbing Man, sans the new power.
I liked Creel's involvment, but I don't think it's a good pick for this particular issue. With the mass ditribution and cheap price, this comic was supposed to get people interested in the HULK, not the Absorbing Man. The new Hulk movie has a character who hints at the Absorbing Man...
but they're two completely different people. Creel's presence might further confuse
new fans, sucked in by the movie. The Hulk doesn't even appear in this story...just Bruce Banner. This might hook existing Marvel fans... but will it hook "non-educated" outsiders, when this book shows up at MediaPlay, Barnes & Noble, Giant Eagle, Winn Dixie and other grocery stores in four weeks? It's a good buy for comic nerds, but not for the public. --Keep in mind that this was supposed to hook the public and spread Hulk's supposedly newfound mass apeal-- I expected Marvel to run an introduction story- similar to the 9 cent Fantastic Four issue from last year. That issue entertained while doing a good job of summarizing the Fantastic Four concept. I liked this book, but if it's the first story a comic virgin ever reads, I doubt it would bust their hymen and make them return.
Well, I guess they've got another 458 chances to hook someone
..with all the Hulk Slurpees, crackers, mylar ballons, t-shirts, party hats...
Avengers Dissassembled TPB
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