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Incredible Hulk #162: Review

Apr 1973
Steve Englehart, Herb Trimpe

Story Name:

Spawn Of The Flesh-Eater

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Incredible Hulk #162 Review by (February 15, 2010)
First appearance of Wendigo in a Hulk's issue. A very good story; Wendigo doesn't return until Hulk #180 and 181, along with Wolverine (who then makes his first appearance in the Marvel Universe.)




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Incredible Hulk #162 Synopsis by Barry Harter
General Thunderbolt Ross is selling Mr. York, representative of Prime Minister Trudeau, on the idea of granting the Hulkbusters clearance to tackle the Hulk who has been rampaging north of the Canadian border (since the previous issue, Incredible Hulk #161). Impressed by Ross sales pitch, York tells the General he's confident the Canadian government will sit back and let the Hulkbusters do their job.

Cut to the Hulk, he's tromping through the woods looking for Betty Ross, yet unsure of the reason other than she is his friend (Betty married Glenn Talbot in Incredible Hulk #158, and the Hulk wanted to get her back).

Hulk is stopped on his tracks by a voice in his head calling for help. The voice identifies itself as Paul Cartier. But, while he pauses, a group of men level their rifles and open fire on the Hulk's back. Upset with the cowardly attack, Hulk begins to battle his adversaries.

Suddenly, a woman called Marie Cartier rushes forward to hit the Hulk with her own fists, accusing him of being the flesh eating monster who has taken her brother, Paul, from her. For the Hulk, his speech in which he tells Marie that he was innocent of any wrong doing involving her brother is nothing short of a Shakespearian soliloquy. As he places his hand on her bowed head, the Hulk promises to find the missing Paul and leaps off.

The search is interrupted for a page with a brief interlude of Glenn Talbot and Betty Ross (now Betty Talbot!) on their honeymoon skiing. The two are simply enjoying their vacation and each other, but a foreboding caption tells of Glenn's fear should Betty discover that the Hulk, and Bruce Banner, are still alive!

Life isn't as tender for the Hulk who finds the human-flesh eating monster, the Wendigo! After a short fight, the Hulk escapes with the man he found, believing to be Paul. But as he returns with Marie and the hunters, she discovers that the man brought by Hulk was someone else, Georges Baptiste, Paul's friend.

Georges relates what happened: While himself, Paul, and another man were hunting, they were attacked by a pack of ravenous wolves. The third member of their party, Henri Cluzot, was mortally wounded. They escaped to a cave, but Cluzot died. Georges and Paul began to slowly starve to death. On the fourth day, Georges woke up to find Paul dining on the corpse of their dead friend!

The Wendigo legend states that those who eat human flesh, are condemned to become the flesh-eater Wendigo monster. And such proved true for Paul!

Hulk leaps off to find Wendigo, whose path isn't hard to follow. Paul, speaking to the Hulk telepathically, begs for help realizing he is slowly losing his humanity with each passing minute. A great fight between the monsters ensues wrecking a logging camp and ending with Paul finally becoming 100% the Wendigo.

The white furred beast forgets about his match, and enters the forest as a dazzled Hulk stays back, realizing that all his might was useless to help Paul.

Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Herb Trimpe
Sal Trapani
Herb Trimpe (Cover Penciler)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Betty Ross
Betty Ross

(Elizabeth Ross)
Hulk
Hulk

(Bruce Banner)
Thunderbolt Ross
Thunderbolt Ross

(Thaddeus Ross)

Plus: Georges Baptiste, Henri Cluzot, Marie Cartier.

> Incredible Hulk: Book info and issue index

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