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Tales to Astonish #91

May 1967
Stan Lee, Gil Kane

Story Name:

Whosoever Harms The Hulk..!


Synopsis

Tales to Astonish #91 synopsis by Julio Molina-Muscara
Rating: 5 stars

With the help of Rick Jones, men under the command of Thunderbolt Ross revive the Hulk using a dose of gamma rays.

Jones convinces the Hulk to rescue Betty Ross from the Abomination. Unwillingly, Hulk turns into Bruce Banner, who uses a new gamma device to attract the Abomination.

When the villain shows up, and releases Betty, Banner bathes the Abomination with a dose of gamma rays that weaken him. Tension turns Banner into Hulk. A new fight begins, but this time, it is the Hulk who conquers his opponent.

The Stranger shows up and takes the Abomination with him to proceed with his evil plans.

--



Story #2

Outside the Gates Waits…Death!

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Credits: Writer: Stan Lee. Pencils: Bill Everett. Inks: Dan Adkins. Colors: ? Letters: Sam Rosen.

Synopsis: After besting Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, in combat, Byrrah declares himself Ruler of Atlantis by the will of the people. Namor throws a hissy fit, smashing up his room while Lady Dorma and Lord Vashti try to calm him down. A couple of guards show up to arrest Namor in the name of the new ruler and they subdue him with an ionic force field. He is brought before Byrrah and is surprised to find seated with him Warlord Krang and Attuma. Byrrah sentences Namor to imprisonment on Inferno Island, from which no one has ever returned. Namor is placed in a capsule, stuffed into a giant gun, and shot over the waves to land on Inferno Island, aptly named because the first thing Subby sees is a giant flaming terror emerging from an active volcano. Namor decides that the best strategy is to dodge the burning beast….

Back in Atlantis, Dorma, suspecting some sort of trickery on Byrrah’s part, sneaks into his laboratory to search the place. She finds a huge projector ray; she is caught by some guards and when she turns the hypno-ray on them, they suddenly becomes docile and submissive. She shoots everyone in the streets with it and suddenly they are questioning their choice of Byrrah as ruler. A trio of generals enter the throne room and, zapped by the hypno-ray, proclaim their allegiance to Namor. Thinking they have been tricked by an idiot, Attuma and Krang abandon Byrrah, expressing their preference for Namor as an enemy….

Back on Inferno Island, Namor suspects that water may be the flaming terror’s one weakness. He coats his hands with mud so he can give the monster a good thrashing then he flies off; the monster leaps after him, lands in the ocean and immediately hardens into rock. Now free, Namor, still thinking his people have turned against him, returns to Atlantis…

…where Attuma has unleashed his supreme weapon to wreck the city by creating a giant undersea whirlwind; Namor arrives and smashes the machine to pieces. Attuma and Krang head for the hills. Dorma and Vashti explain about the hypno-ray, Namor feels a lot better about his rejection by the people, and Byrrah escapes to become a nomad and wanderer under the sea….



 

Review / Commentaries


Tales to Astonish #91 Review by (August 13, 2024)

Review: And be careful what you wish for, General Ross! You’ve wanted Hulk dead and now that you think he is, you want him back to catch the other giant green monster that has carted Betty away. Some people are never satisfied. So after some Frankenstein-inspired pages, Hulk is up and ready to go once more. Uhhhh, too bad he’s not the most cooperative of superheroes. Anyway, after some more destruction of the army base, Hulk is really ready to go—if only in the form of Bruce Banner. But it’s Bruce who devises the scheme to force Abomination back into their trap. The two antagonists biff each other for a page then the Stranger returns and, realizing his understanding of the human race is on the level of a comic book, decides to swap Bommy for Hulk and splits for parts unknown.

So Byrrah defeats Subby in combat and runs for election as king but here he simply cuts through all the formalities and declares himself supreme monarch without an election. And they say Atlantis has nothing to learn from the surface world. So Subby is exiled to Inferno Island with one big volcano and one big monster. He dunks the monster in water and leaves—though since he can fly there was nothing holding him to the island anyway. So the baddies are defeated, Byrrah should have had a better plan. It looked last issue like he was manipulating the people to support him over Namor with some actual talking points and all that. Now we learn he used a hypno-ray to turn everyone into his followers. Too bad, Namor might have actually had to make some changes to appease the populace dissatisfied with his rule. Now he can just shrug and return to business as usual, leaving the people no real recourse for grievances. Hey, maybe Namor can employ the hypno-ray to make the people forget they had grievances! Sure would explain a lot.

Comments: Hulk story: Part three of three parts. Abomination is next seen in SILVER SURFER #12, without the Stranger. The Stranger next appears in SILVER SURFER #5, without the Abomination. Then they appear together in THOR #178, presumably having missed one another. 

Subby story: Part two of two parts. When last seen (issue #87), Krang was sentenced to solitary confinement in the furthest deeps; no doubt Byrrah wrote him a pardon. 




> Tales to Astonish comic book info and issue index

Elektra

This comic is in the following collection:
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Collecting INCREDIBLE HULK (1962) #1-6, TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #100, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) #102, and material from TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #59-99 and #101.

Excelsioring your collection:
Statue Hulk (Battle of New York) 1/10 - Infinity Saga - BDS Art Scale - Iron Studios
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Gil Kane
Gil Kane
?
Gil Kane (Cover Penciler)
Gil Kane (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Art Simek.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Abomination
Abomination

(Emil Blonsky)
Betty Ross
Betty Ross

(Elizabeth Ross)
Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Thunderbolt Ross
Thunderbolt Ross

(Thaddeus Ross)

Plus: Byrrah.