Peak Marvel? In 1964, I’d have said that happened when Fantastic Four 25 hit the newsstands in January.
Looking back now, I wasn’t wrong.
I find it hard to describe just how exciting this issue and the subsequent one seemed to readers at the time. The sheer convergence of storylines felt like a breakthrough in suspenseful superhero melodrama by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.
In ordinary comics, you knew that the headline hero would win and the villain would lose. That’s what the villains were there for, after all.
But here you had two protagonists — the Thing and the Hulk — who’d each starred in their own titles. Who could predict the outcome of a fight like that?
The Fantastic Four had fought the Hulk before, back in issue 12 (March 1963). But this time three members of the team were hors de combat, and the Thing was left to carry on protecting Manhattan on his own.
“(T)his time the throwdown is squarely between the two,” observed comics historian Don Alsafi. “And, happily, this issue is everything that #12 wasn’t: exciting, focused and full of suspense. And lest the promise of such a slugfest leave any buyer still wavering: Look at that cover! Look at the carnage these two engines of destruction have left in their wake! It’s so catastrophic that the city is collapsing!”
“(Kirby gives us an) excellent portrayal of the city battening down during a rampage by the Hulk,” Charles Hoffman wrote.
The odds were long. Readers had been clamoring for a matchup between Marvel’s two super-strong superstars, but face to face, the Thing was obviously smaller and weaker.
And although he’d clearly gone bad, readers still had sympathy for the tortured Hulk. Reader interest kept getting ratcheted up.
“Perhaps I’m proudest of ‘The Thing vs. The Hulk’ because we managed to fashion a story with an unforgettable battle — and yet it’s a conflict virtually without a villain,” wrote Lee. “It serves to illustrate another unique Marvel formula in action — the pitting of superhero against superhero, in a genuine, no-holds-barred battle, wherein you’ll find yourself cheering equally hard for both combatants.”
Comics historian Mark Engblom wrote: “Almost as exciting as the ‘Who would win?… Hulk or Thing?’ scenario was the wonderfully perplexing moral ambiguity the early Marvel Universe introduced and thrived upon. We simultaneously cheer for and root against so many of the principals, while the two official superhero teams argue and pose like rival neighborhood kid gangs, unlike the non-stop mature geniality the Distinguished Competition was pumping out. Knowing there are so many ways to view conflict, or for situations to be misunderstood, was Marvel’s primary contribution to my growing moral sophistication.”
That splash panel — with a massive, seemingly unbeatable Hulk looming over the plucky-but-overmatched Thing — lives vividly in my memory to this day.
“This changed comics,” Chris Smillie noted. “Under any other company, the fight would have been a draw or the hero of the book would win. Not here. The Thing is utterly defeated. Ben fearfully prepares to die to give his best friends a chance. The humanity shone through the superheroics.”
This was an early example of what would become a signature Marvel move, the multi-issue story. “It’s also with this issue that you really get the feel of a grand design from Stan, as the myriad and disparate threads seem to culminate in this one tale, leading us to wonder — and not for the first time — whether it’s due to intent, or simply good timing,” observed Alsafi.
“The story picks right up from the end of The Avengers 4, with the team returned from their overseas battle with Namor and the Hulk, and having absorbed the newly revived Captain America into their ranks. (That issue also saw Rick Jones being grafted on as an Avengers supporting character, and that continues here as well.) Seeing these separate elements coming together gives the sense of one giant, continuing story being told across separate comic magazines, which would go on to become a staple at Marvel and other publishers … but done so well, and for the first time, it must have been an exciting thing to see!”
So how do you top a book-length slugfest between the Thing and the Hulk? By dragging in Marvel’s new superhero team, the Avengers, for a massive melee in the next issue.
“When (the FF) attempt to stop the Green Goliath, he makes mincemeat out of them, leaving only the Thing left to continue the battle,” recalled comics historian Dan Greenfield. “But the Hulk’s former teammates, the Avengers, have been on his trail as well. However, they don’t mesh well with the FF and a melee ensues — allowing the Hulk to escape. Stan’s scripts do well to juggle the multiple characters and their distinct personalities.”
Marcus Bressler called the two issues “…the best one-two punch up to that time.”
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