2009 Reading #65: Essential Incredible Hulk Volume 1
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
61. Hmong in Minnesota by Chia Youyee Vang.
62. Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie L. McLaughlin.
63. Heir of Sea and Fire (Book Two of the Riddlemaster trilogy) by Patricia McKillip.
64. Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories by Craig Laurance Gidney.
65. Essential Incredible Hulk Volume 1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al. I love these Essential collections that Marvel's been doing (and DC, under the Showcase Presents banner); thick black-and-white reprints of the early runs of their classic (and sometimes not-that-classic) comics. If these had been in the library when I was a kid I would have read every single one of them; as it was, I had to settle for scattered issues of the Hulk. Most of these early issues are new to me, aside from the origin story, which has of course been recapped a thousand times. What's interesting here, aside from the weird forgotten villains like the Mole-Man's rival Tyrannus and the lame forgettable villains like Boomerang, are the changes the Hulk/Banner transformations go through as Smilin' Stan tries to figure out how this power works, exactly. The Hulk goes from gray to green (which, given the black and white, you'd miss entirely if you were coming to the character cold), from a day/night Banner/Hulk cycle to changes brought on by stress (but not anger specifically, and it works both ways--if the Hulk gets upset he changes into Banner), from somewhat dull intelligence to Banner's-brain-in-Hulk's-body (and even Banner's HEAD on Hulk's body) to something like the familiar big green dummy who can't even remember that he's the same guy as Bruce the scientist. Also, the first iterations of the "Soldiers can't hurt hulk/Hulk is the strongest one there is/Why won't humans leave Hulk alone?" Hulk is like a passive-aggressive drunk guy at a sporting event where his team is losing; he can't decide if he wants to get into a fight or go cry in a corner.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
61. Hmong in Minnesota by Chia Youyee Vang.
62. Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie L. McLaughlin.
63. Heir of Sea and Fire (Book Two of the Riddlemaster trilogy) by Patricia McKillip.
64. Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories by Craig Laurance Gidney.
65. Essential Incredible Hulk Volume 1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al. I love these Essential collections that Marvel's been doing (and DC, under the Showcase Presents banner); thick black-and-white reprints of the early runs of their classic (and sometimes not-that-classic) comics. If these had been in the library when I was a kid I would have read every single one of them; as it was, I had to settle for scattered issues of the Hulk. Most of these early issues are new to me, aside from the origin story, which has of course been recapped a thousand times. What's interesting here, aside from the weird forgotten villains like the Mole-Man's rival Tyrannus and the lame forgettable villains like Boomerang, are the changes the Hulk/Banner transformations go through as Smilin' Stan tries to figure out how this power works, exactly. The Hulk goes from gray to green (which, given the black and white, you'd miss entirely if you were coming to the character cold), from a day/night Banner/Hulk cycle to changes brought on by stress (but not anger specifically, and it works both ways--if the Hulk gets upset he changes into Banner), from somewhat dull intelligence to Banner's-brain-in-Hulk's-body (and even Banner's HEAD on Hulk's body) to something like the familiar big green dummy who can't even remember that he's the same guy as Bruce the scientist. Also, the first iterations of the "Soldiers can't hurt hulk/Hulk is the strongest one there is/Why won't humans leave Hulk alone?" Hulk is like a passive-aggressive drunk guy at a sporting event where his team is losing; he can't decide if he wants to get into a fight or go cry in a corner.