Monday, May 23, 2016

THE WRANGLING OF WRESTLEFEST

TALES FROM THE TOY CHEST

Stories of Childhood Toy Triumph and Tragedy




By
John "THE MEGO STRETCH HULK" Cimino



CASE NUMBER: GA-82-1992
THE WRANGLING OF WRESTLEFEST



CHAPTER 1
"WRESTLING AND ME" 

Wrestling today is a barren wasteland IMHO. I couldn’t name 10 new wrestlers that have come from the 2000s on and couldn’t care too. As for the old veterans that still get into the ring and try to keep the dream alive? They do nothing but embarrass their legacy. It just doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. But despite wrestling’s current shape, there was a time during my youth when it was a pop culture phenomenon, and everybody was talking about it. All the kids that wanted to emulate a real life, living and breathing superhero would do it by watching wrasslin’ on the tube after Saturday morning cartoons concluded at 12:00 PM. For me, this historical period in time was the 10 years from 1982 to 1992 (with 1987 being its peak year). After that, the industry started to shift and eventually issued in the "Attitude" era where wrestling had begun to take a more provocative turn (yuck!) and it has never recovered since.

During that decade, my favorite wrestlers were the Road Warriors: Hawk & Animal, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. Besides them, there were still so many other colorful and charismatic characters that captivated the youth of America that all my friends had favorites. It was so big that the whole industry of wrestling came out of the doldrums of cult and into the mass media of television, toys, cartoons, magazines, posters, dolls, food products, movies and music. It became more of an entertainment carnival show on steroids and many of the purists who first scoffed at such blasphemy would soon join in once they got a taste of the excitement from the "rock n' wrestling connection." Yes, wrestling had changed into more of a “cartoonish” look but millions of kids gravited to it. How could they not? Wrestling was comic book characters coming to life! This period came to be known as the “Golden Age of Wrestling" and it truly was. 


 Doing my best Road Warrior Hawk impression on the beach during the "rock n' wrestling connection" days at 12 years old.

"The Golden Age of Wrestling": 1982-1992

I was so into wrestling that I loved all the territories; WWF, NWA, AWA, and WCCW and watched all their programs on TV religiously. They all put on a bunch of pay-per-view mega-events like; WrestleMania, The Great American Bash, The Survivor Series and Starrcade (just to name a few) as well as my two favorite events put on by the WWF called Saturday Night's Main Event and the Royal Rumble! I can still remember the thrill I got from watching them. 

I would gather with friends after school and weekends and set up bed mattresses on the front lawn and have wrestling matches all day long. During this time, I have to give props to my friend Brian. I convinced him to help me steal two football pads from our middle school locker room. Once we did the dastardly deed and got back to the safety of his house; we spray painted the pads black, put six-inch steel nails through them, painted our faces with make-up and shaved our heads (my mom was pissed about that). Why? To emulate the mighty Road Warriors (I was Hawk) and it wasn't even Halloween! We just wanted to do it. Yup, we were obsessed.


CHAPTER 2
"WRESTLING INVADES THE ARCADE" 
 
During the '80s arcades were also a big deal. For a quarter you got to play some of your favorite video and pinball games to see how high you could score before you had to beg your parents for more money to keep adding to it. I can fondly remember the first wrestling arcade game I ever saw; Tag Team Wrestling from Technos Japan (1983). Today, this arcade game may look like complete crap to the video games of the day. But back then it was something totally new and totally exciting -- especially for someone who was obsessed with wrestling like I was. Little did I know, the company of Technos Japan would continue to create more wrestling video games and continually feed my addiction.

Tag Team Wrestling (1983) by Technos Japan. This was the first wrestling video game I ever saw and it totally blew my mind.

While I had an Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 at home to play video games on, they were like dinosaurs when compared to the total awesomeness of video games at the arcade. And when the Nintendo Entertainment System (also called NES) was released in America in 1985 and brought in-home video games to another level, it still paled in comparison to the graphics, sounds and gameplay of the arcade consoles. But truth be told, NES games got better with time and solid wrestling games came out for it that I loved like; Pro Wrestling, Tecmo World Wrestling and the extremely awesome WCW Wrestling (where you could actually be the Road Warriors and Ric Flair and perform their signature moves). I would play those games for hours on end. But once I walked into the arcade and saw the magical WWF Superstars from Technos Japan in 1989 -- all bets were off.

 The incredible WCW Wrestling was released for the NES in 1990 by FCI...


...and first released in Japan in 1989 under the name Super Star Pro Wrestling (which still had the Road Warriors in it as playable characters). It was truly a great game due to its vast selection of wrestlers and stylistic gameplay.

But it paled in comparison to the graphics and excitement of the arcade game WWF Superstars from Technos Japan (1989). This was the first wrestling video game that took all the others to the next level.

WWF Superstars really pushed the boundaries in wrestling video games and my friends and I loved every minute of it. We played it for hours once we got past the crowds that surrounded it. I would always be the Ultimate Warrior and "Gorilla Press" my opponent and team-up with Hulk Hogan and "Leg Drop" my way to victory. Besides being the tag team duo of my two favorite wrestlers, the best part was watching them enter the ring. Never before did a wrestling video game present such an exciting build up before you actually fought it out. Now this may seem insignificant by today's wrestling video game standards, but back in 1989 it was truly groundbreaking. 


The tag team of the Ultimate Warrior and Randy Savage enter into the ring in glorious WrestleMania-like fashion. This was truly innovative for a wrestling video game at the time.

Sadly, for all the excitement WWF Superstars presented with innovations and graphics came a sudden backlash in replay value. After you beat the tag team bosses of Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase and then defended the belts, you basically did everything you could do and the game was over. The best way to play was always against a friend, but even that grew a little tiresome after a while from lack of character selection and moves (only 6 playable characters in all). This game eventually faded into obscurity after playing it for a few days and I went back to my NES and played WCW Wrestling. It wasn't as flashy or exciting as WWF Superstars, but it sure did have better replay value. That would all change in the next two years...


CHAPTER 3
"A DAY UNLIKE ANY OTHER"

No one can deny the importance of WWF Superstars despite its flaws. Technos Japan had been on the right track producing wrestling video games since they made Tag Team Wrestling back in 1983. But who would've guessed that the next wrestling arcade game they would soon release would become the standard of all other wrestling video games? All it took was the innovations they made with WWF Superstars, crank it up a hundred notches and inject the pure magic of the WWF into the JAMMA board (arcade purists will get that joke so don't judge)!

During a warm summer's day in August 1991, me and my friends made our Saturday afternoon pit-stop at the local Cumberland Farms and bought WWF Superstars Ice Cream Bars (and talked about the wrestler we were eating that was printed on the cookie part of the bar) before heading to the Dream Machine arcade. While this was our typical routine every Saturday, nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see when I walked into the arcade that day.


Me and my friends always got a WWF Superstars Ice Cream Bar before we went to the Dream Machine arcade on Saturdays.

Enter: WWF Wrestlefest. (If you want to learn all about playing this game read my article about it here; WWF Wrestlefest: A Complete Arcade Game Analysis.)

To this day I can remember a few magical moments in my life that impacted me so thoroughly that I was literally never the same. The birth of my daughter, getting the Mego Elastic Hulk toy figure, buying my first copy of The Incredible Hulk #1, celebrating Stan Lee's 90th birthday with him, becoming best buddies with my mentor Roy Thomas, the day when... (I'll stop there so I can keep this story "kid friendly") and the time I played WWF Wrestlefest!! 


The WWF Wrestlefest flyer that promoted the game to arcades across the country. (FRONT)

I worshiped every word of it. (BACK)

Yup, it was truly an incredible moment. This video game had everything I could ever want in it. All the wrestlers I loved as playable characters; Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Mr. Perfect, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Earthquake, Demolition: Smash & Crush, Ted "Million Dollar Man" Dibiase, Sgt. Slaughter and the Big Boss Man. And they all performed their signature moves and taunts! Not to mention the bosses of the game you had to beat in a championship tag team match; the Legion of Doom: Hawk & Animal (they were going by that name in the WWF at the time)!! They even performed their signature tag team finisher "The Doomsday Device" (mislabeled as the "Clothesline off the rope turnbuckle") that obliterated their opposition!! If that wasn't enough to send me into a tizzy, the game had two different playing options; the tag team championship mode with a steel cage match included called "Saturday Night's Main Event" and the 4 co-opt player "Royal Rumble" mode!!! My two favorite events right before my eyes!! And best of all -- the replay value was off the charts!!! It never grew stale with its smooth 4-player gameplay to go along with the incredible graphics and cabinet design. It was almost too much for my young mind to bare as I lost my breath just staring at this mechanical game from Heaven. 


When I saw this in the Dream Machine arcade in the summer of 1991 my life was never the same.

My two favorite wrestling events were included as gameplay options; Saturday Night's Main Event...

...and the Royal Rumble! My young mind almost cracked at the sheer awesomeness of this game.

Everybody I loved were playable characters!

Only Ric Flair was missing to round out my five greatest wrestlers ever... but I wasn't complaining.

The Tag Team Champions of Wrestlefest: The Legion of Doom aka the Road Warriors: Hawk and Animal!
Mean Gene: "It's time to fight with a powerful challenge."
Animal: "Heheha! We snack on danger, dine on death!"
Hawk: "To bury every gerbil-faced geek we face... Yaarrghhh!" 
 
And they actually perform their tag team finisher: The Doomsday Device!! How could anything be this incredible??

It's simple to say that we played the "shit" out of this video game and used up all the money we had or could scrounge up. Even in the end when we had nothing left, I didn't want to leave the arcade. I just stood there watching other people play and tried to come up with ways to drag this 350-pound arcade machine out the door and put it into my house so I could play it for the rest of my life. Sadly, that was just another one of my crazed fantasies not to become a reality. It took them a while, but my friends finally pulled me out of the arcade and eventually got sick of me constantly talking about it.


 CHAPTER 4
"MAKING GOOD ON A CHILDHOOD FANTASY"

 It's time to fast forward 25 years into the present.

 Like I said in the opening paragraph, wrestling today is a barren wasteland. I get my wrestling thrills by occasionally watching old matches on YouTube and DVD with my daughter Bryn. She has fallen in love with Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart and Dusty Rhodes and even cried one time when Dusty was eliminated from a Royal Rumble match. While this may seem a little sad, I must point out that she watched the match a few times and already knew he was going to get eliminated -- LOL! But she loves the classic stuff and today I realize how perfectly suited the "Golden Age of Wrestling" was for kids.


My daughter loved Dusty Rhodes, R.I.P. big guy...

One day I took Bryn to an old-time arcade and educated her on how they were such a big deal when I was her age. Needless to say she had a blast playing all the games with me, especially WWF Wrestlefest. When we were leaving, she said that it would be awesome if we could take the Wrestlefest console home with us to play. And just like that, the seed was planted. My baby girl said the exact same thing I did when I first saw the console in the Dream Machine back in 1991. Was that just a coincidence? I'm not sure, but why not get one? Today I have the financial means to do it and to be honest, I'm surprised I didn't think of it earlier. Whatever the reasons, the spark was lit. It was time to go looking for a Wrestlefest arcade machine console and bring it home! Just saying that made me all giddy inside.

 After looking on EBay and Craigslist I found a guy in New York that had one for sale. Unfortunately, it was only a 2-player version, but it was still in great condition and working (they are almost 30 years old). So I called the guy up and made the deal. Just like that, the game was going to be mine. A few days later when it came time for me to pick it up (an 8 hour drive both ways), I called the guy and told him what time I was going to be there. Unexpectedly, the guy told me he broke our deal and ended up selling it to a friend a few days earlier because he was offered more money for it... Aarraghh! Thank god I called because the coward didn't have the balls to call me and tell me! I was soooo furious at this that if the bastard didn't live so far from me, I might've been tempted to do something bad.

 Over the next week I found a few other consoles, but they were either run down or not working at all. I managed to find a classic arcade company in Philadelphia that refurbished consoles and sold them. They did have a 4-player Wrestlefest that was fixed up and ready to go. While it was tempting to get the game in perfect shape, their price was a little high (I'm not one to complain but they wanted almost 4 times more than the going retail price) and once you combined it with the shipping - it was brutal. Besides, the guy wasn't going to give me a break, so I put it in my back pocket and kept looking. I finally found another guy who had a nice one and he gave me a fantastic price. One problem. He lived in Oregon. I live in Boston. The shipping alone was a 3-day trip, so it would've cost me a fortune to get it. I might as well go to the company in Philly for the refurbished one... Arrrgghhh! After a while I was becoming frustrated and thinking to just shell the money over to them and get it.

Another week passed before my luck finally changed. I managed to locate a guy who had an arcade in his basement. On a whim, I gave him a call to see if he had a Wrestlefest game that he might want to sell. It turned out that he did and I somehow managed to call him at the perfect time. He was in the process of moving to a new house, but the basement was smaller than his previous one so he had to get rid of a few games. He wasn't planning on selling the Wrestlefest because he just refurbished it a few months ago with new controls, graphics, etc. WOW! I told him my story and how it was a surprise gift for my daughter. Plus, we would take good care of it. He loved the story and agreed to sell it to me at a great price. But the best part was that he actually worked for a shipping company! So he gave me his discount, on the delivery and made sure everything was packed right. How awesome is that?

 Within a week the console was delivered -- but not without a price. The guy driving the truck got lost and dropped it off a few hours late. And even with the assistance of my brother and a neighbor helping me bring this unbelievably heavy and awkward thing down a flight of stairs -- it was incredibly difficult. I'm serious when I say it was one of the hardest things I've ever moved in my life. Not to mention, the bezel glass fell to the floor and shattered into a million pieces when we were just inches from where it had to go (cleaning that up sucked and ordering another one from the glass shop wasn't cheap). I guess it was a nice coming home present... UGH! But despite all that, I managed to bring the WWF Wrestlefest arcade console home, clean it up and give my daughter the surprise of a lifetime. Playing the game with her made the little boy in me tear up. Little John could've never imagined that one day he would have this arcade game in his house like he fantasized about all those years ago and got to enjoy it with his baby girl. It was another incredible timeless moment in my life.


My daughter Bryn with our WWF Wrestlefest arcade console as the magic of youth lives on.


EPILOGUE
"OHHH, WHAT A RUSH!!!"

You would think that the story ends there -- but it doesn't. To take this celebration of wrangling the Wrestlefest arcade cabinet a step further, I wanted to do something to make this childhood dream come to a perfect conclusion. Yes, it was incredible to give it to my daughter, but what about the child within myself? Well, as luck would have it throughout the years, I've become a pretty big deal in the comic convention circuit. Besides being a dealer/writer/promoter, I'm also an agent. So, throughout the years I've come into contact with some pretty impressive characters and one of those characters that I've befriended is the one... and only... Road Warrior Animal!! So, of course, I had to get him to put his stamp of approval on my cabinet! Could anything be better than this? Animal even dedicated his signature on a video promo for my daughter. What a way to end the journey and fulfill a totally unfathomable, unbelievable childhood dream. Thanks, big guy and may you RIP!


The real Road Warriors? Me and the big guy in 2016.

What could be better than this to a little Mego Stretch Hulk???

Ooohhhhh, What a Rush... indeed.

Animal giving my daughter Bryn a video promo (RIP 1960-2020).


To be continued...


Other Tales From the Toy Chest:

THE HULK ROLLER SKATES DEBACLE

THE STEALING OF THE SUPERHERO STAND-UPS

MY TOP 15 GREATEST TOYS EVER

BATMAN COLORFORMS AND MY DAD

THE MANGLOR MESS UP

SUPER MARKET SKIRMISH: THE PDQ INCIDENT
HULK OR HOLOCAUST

MY TOP 10 GREATEST TOY LINES EVER


Posted by John Cimino at 5:39 AM 30 comments

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

THE COMING OF THE AVENGERS!


OUT OF THE BACK ISSUE BIN

Views and Reviews of Comic Books from the Past


By
John "THE MEGO STRETCH HULK" Cimino



THE COMING OF THE AVENGERS! 
MARVEL'S FIRST AND GREATEST CROSSOVER CLASSIC


Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inks by: Dick Ayers, Paul Reinman, George Roussos and Chic Stone


The mighty Avengers. Marvel Comics' greatest group of superheroes that banded together to protect mankind from the forces of evil. It sounds perfect and everything comic fans would want from reading comic-books back in 1963. But this new super-group that lived in this relatively young comic universe was unlike any that previously came before it. The characters were far more complex - full of personality and extremely volatile. So volatile in fact that one member quit the team at the end of the second issue - the second issue! Didn't heroes always get along? If that wasn't radical enough, this volatile member would come back to fight his former teammates again and again and cause a wave of destruction across the landscape (and throughout other comic titles) so devastating that the Avengers had to go looking for him and stop him - at all costs. Sound interesting? Well it was. And we can thank the masters Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for such a revolutionary concept in the world of superhero comic-books.

But despite this genius approach to storytelling: Did Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have this all planned out at the very beginning? That is the question that must be asked when talking about Marvel's very first and greatest multi-title crossover. Did they have the Hulk in the Avengers with the intention of having him quit to provide a recurring, unifying theme to the book? And did they have it in mind to bring Captain America in the story? If so, the comics involved seem too close to allow any other interpretation. Whatever the reasons might be, after Avengers #1 hit the newsstands in September of 1963 it brought forth Marvel's first long-ranged, in-house, crossover event that would become a staple for comics in later years and lay down the foundation of the entire Marvel Universe.

Looking closely at each classic issue and how the story flows, everything that made the Marvel characters distinguish themselves from the DC characters is prevalent. How they interacted and behaved with each other was light years ahead of anything any comic publisher ever thought of doing at the time. The Marvel characters had many layers to them. They were flawed, temperamental and all part of the same inherent universe. Regardless if this crossover was done by accident or not, Lee and Kirby took heroic storytelling to an entirely different level that set a precedence for all things to come and turned themselves into the greatest creative duo the medium had ever produced.

So after all this rambling, why is the origin of the Avengers the greatest crossover in Marvel history? Well, besides having Lee and Kirby at the helm at their creative peak, it had a great cast of characters involved. While just about every hero on Marvel earth at the time made an appearance, the stars of the story are as follows:

The Heroes: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man/Ant-Man, Wasp, Thing, Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch

The Outcasts: The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner

The Villains: Loki, the Space Phantom, D'Bari Alien and the Lava Men

The Sidekicks: Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade

Second, some of Marvel's most iconic moments are included; the origin and formation of the Avengers team, the Hulk quickly quits said team, the first time the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner meet up and form a hostile partnership that wages war against humanity, the remarkable return of Marvel's greatest hero - Captain America and the first meeting and team-up between the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

Lastly, the "scope" of the story itself was just massive - especially for the time. The Hulk rampages through eight total issues and three different titles; The Avengers, The Fantastic Four and Journey into Mystery. The events that unfolded during the brute's path of destruction are unprecedented and still vibrate through the Marvel Universe to this day. This had a lot to do with the legendary storytelling ability and unparalleled dynamism of Jack Kirby. Simply put, nobody could draw it better - nobody! Kirby's bold pencils perfectly depicted the Hulk's raw power against his opposition that set the standard in epic superhero confrontations. While there have been big superhero encounters before, never did they capture the imagination of readers like "Hulk vs Thing" in Fantastic Four #25 and "Hulk vs Thor" in Journey into Mystery #112. These slugfests have become so legendary that both are still talked about today.

The coming of the Avengers is an immortal tale within the history of comics that has paved the way for all the other big multi-issue crossovers that have come after it. It remains an historic event that helped lay down the foundation of the entire Marvel Universe and defined its cast of characters forever. Today, you can clearly see its influence on all the comics and blockbuster movies that rule pop culture. Whether this was a long ranged plan by Stan Lee or not, it still made magic on a level few stories or events ever did. And nobody can argue the fact that after this story finished, readers were forever chanting "Make Mine Marvel!!!" The rest is history...



THE AVENGERS #1 (1963)


"The Coming of the Avengers!"

Loki, having been previously captured by Thor, is being held prisoner at the Isle of Silence in Asgard. His physical form may be confined there, but by means of thought projection his disembodied self travels to Earth in search of revenge. He spots Thor in his human identity of Dr. Don Blake, but resists defeating him as it would be a hollow victory compared to defeating him as Thor. After hours of searching, Loki comes across the Hulk and devises a wicked plan to entice Blake to transform into Thor. He projects a mental image of dynamite on the tracks of a nearby railway bridge. The Hulk spots the dynamite and attempts to snuff it out, accidentally destroying the bridge. Suddenly, a train appears on the tracks traveling towards the wreckage. Valiantly, the Hulk manages to hold the tracks up long enough for the train to pass safely before allowing it to collapse. Unfortunately the damage has already been done and Loki's plan was successful. 

Hours later, newspapers print articles about the Hulk being on the rampage again and a manhunt begins. The Hulk's friend, Rick Jones, reads the article with disbelief and meets with members of the Teen Brigade in order to find help to track Hulk down to find the truth. They attempt to contact the Fantastic Four but Loki interferes with the radio signal, diverting it to Don Blake. He decides to transform into Thor to help the Teen Brigade. Unknown to Loki, the radio signal is also picked up by Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Iron Man, who also travel to assist. 

Later, the Teen Brigade are disappointed that the Fantastic Four hadn't responded to their message when they finally get a reply. They inform the Teen Brigade that they are too busy with another case but have a hunch that other heroes may have received their distress call. Suddenly Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp arrive. Loki realizes that the other heroes will only interfere with his plans and lures Thor away by creating a mental image of the Hulk. Upon catching up with this illusion of the Hulk, Thor attacks and realizes it isn't real, and immediately suspects Loki. He then returns to Asgard to face his brother. 

Meanwhile, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp track down the Hulk with the help of Ant-Man's ants. He is working at a circus pretending to be a robot called Mechano. They attempt to capture him but the Hulk escapes the circus by leaping away. Iron Man gives chase but the Hulk smashes his battery pack in his chest and escapes, while Iron Man repairs it.

Back in Asgard, Thor asks permission from Odin to meet Loki on the Isle of Silence to question him. Odin accepts but warns that he cannot interfere between the two brother's quarrel. As Thor sets out across the Sea of Mist he is attacked by Loki's traps. First, he narrowly escapes tangle roots that threaten to drag him down into the depths. Next, a volcano erupts releasing volcanic gas globules capable of sapping the strength of any god. Thor manages to evade these by diving into the sea. On the island, Loki spots Thor's empty boat and wonders with disbelief if Thor has already been defeated. Suddenly, a giant water spout appears in front of him as Thor emerges from the sea to face him. He throws his hammer at Loki, only to have it deflected by a hastily-made ice shield. Loki calls upon a Rock Troll, which begins to drag Thor beneath the ground. At the last moment, Thor uses his hammer to summon lightning which dazzles the troll, causing it to relinquish his hold. Thor angrily swings his hammer at Loki, who has created multiple mental images of himself to confuse him. Thor counters this by spinning his hammer fast enough to blow all the figures away, revealing the true Loki. Soaking up the magnetic flow from the earth with his hammer, he captures Loki via magnetic attraction and takes him back to Earth to clear the Hulk's name.

On Earth, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp continue to pursue the Hulk to an auto factory in Detroit. After battling back and forth Thor appears with Loki to clear Hulk's name. Suddenly Loki makes himself radioactive forcing the heroes to retreat. Luckily, Loki stands over a trapdoor and Ant-Man's ants trigger a switch, dropping him into a lead-lined tank. Upon celebrating their victory, Ant-Man and the Wasp point out how well they could work as a team, and that they should work together in future. The Wasp decides they should call themselves the Avengers, and everybody agrees.

And thus is born one of the greatest super hero teams of all time! Powerful! Unpredictable! Brought together by a strange quirk of fate, the Avengers are on the march, and a new dimension of is added to the Marvel Galaxy Of Stars!













THE AVENGERS #2 (1963)


"The Avengers Battle... the Space Phantom"

Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk are awaiting Ant-Man and the Wasp in Tony Stark's library so they can begin their meeting. There is already tension among the ranks of this new super-team as Thor and Hulk bicker. Before anything can come of it, Ant-Man and the Wasp make a sudden entrance, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. Ant-Man, (now using the name Giant-Man) explains by showing the team his new size-changing capsules.

Elsewhere, the Space Phantom arrives on Earth, under the guise of a fragment of meteorite. He plans to destroy the Avengers so that his race can invade the planet. He takes the appearance of a passerby, sending him to Limbo. 

Later, the Space Phantom (under the guise of the passerby) approaches the Avengers Mansion. He is spotted by the team and the Hulk goes to investigate. The man takes the Hulk off-guard and assumes his form, sending him to Limbo in place of the man. The Phantom (this time under the guise of the Hulk) returns to the team and taunts Iron Man and Thor, causing a small ruckus and heightening the tensions in the team before leaving. Outside, he spots the man he replaced earlier trying to warn everybody and decides to cause more havoc as the Hulk. The Space Phantom/Hulk is approached by his friend Rick Jones, who convinces him to escape before the police arrive. Rick realizes something is wrong with the way the Hulk is acting and the Phantom reveals himself. The Space Phantom/Hulk arrives at one of Tony Stark's operations plants and destroys a new experimental anti-missile defense weapon. Iron Man is told the news and faces off against the Hulk. Iron Man proves to be too much for him however and the Phantom flees by taking the form of a passing wasp, leaving a confused and dazed Hulk to appear. However, Iron Man and the Hulk continue to battle.

Meanwhile, Rick Jones communicates with Giant-Man and explains the situation to him and the Wasp. They catch up with Iron Man and Hulk and break up the fight. The Space Phantom, still in the form of a wasp, attacks the Wasp and flees to a nearby factory. After aiding the Wasp, Giant-Man is taken by surprise by the Space Phantom and sent to Limbo. This time the Wasp and the Hulk saw it happen and know this "Giant-Man" is fake. They battle and Iron Man eventually catches up only to be replaced and sent to Limbo. But the Hulk catches the Space Phantom in the act yet again and the newly-returned Giant-Man teams up with the Hulk to fight the fake "Iron Man."

Across town, it is revealed that the Wasp left to search for Thor. She finds him with the help of Dr. Donald Blake and the duo race back to the factory to assist the rest of the team. The Wasp shrinks down and damages the mechanism of the Iron Man suit and Thor creates a thunderstorm, causing the armor to rust. In a final desperate attempt to succeed, the Space Phantom decides to take Thor's form. Unfortunately for the Phantom his power only works on mortal beings and it backfires, sending him to Limbo instead. After the battle, the Hulk expresses his sadness at his recent treatment in the team and decides to quit.







THE AVENGERS #3 (1964)


"The Avengers meet the Sub-Mariner"

At their next meeting, the Avengers decide they need to find the Hulk before he causes more trouble. Iron Man uses his image projector device to communicate with the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the X-Men to ask if they have spotted him, but he has no luck. Thor comes up with the idea of asking Rick Jones to help find the Hulk. They contact him and Rick sets out into the desert to an area where he could be.

A short while later, Rick discovers the Hulk and coerces him to a cave they had used in the past as a refuge. There, Rick operates a machine that transforms the Hulk back into Bruce Banner. While asleep, stressful thoughts cause Banner to revert to his Hulk-state and escape. Rick Jones contacts the Avengers, alerting them to the situation and they travel to the desert to stop him. After a brief battle, the Hulk escapes onto a passing train. After laying low, he reaches the sea and is eventually taken onto a ship on the brink of exhaustion. 

Under the sea, Namor, the Sub-Mariner watches the scene. After the Hulk leaves the ship the Sub-Mariner meets him on a small island. After a short fight where the Hulk dominates on land and Namor in the sea, Namor suggests they team up and fight the humans together, as they each bear a grudge against humanity. They form an uneasy alliance and issue a challenge to the Avengers to battle at the Rock of Gibraltar!

The Hulk and Namor use old World War II weaponry to attack the Avengers, but Iron Man deflects the shells with his repulsor rays. Namor disables Iron Man by firing an emery dust pellet at him, clogging up the joints in his armor. Thor holds the savage duo at bay with Mjolnir while the Wasp finds a tank of oxygen, which is used to blow the dust away and bring Iron Man back into the fight. The Avengers chase their enemies through the tunnels. Namor plans to use an old air raid siren he has converted into a weapon, but is caught by Giant-Man and thrown at Iron Man. Namor will then smash Iron Man's battery pack and attack Thor. The Hulk joins the Sub-Mariner in his struggles with the Thunder God as he attempts to lift Thor's hammer but is unable to do so. At that moment, the stress causes the Hulk to change back into Bruce Banner when Namor needs his help the most, and is forced to flee. Namor, without help from the Hulk, is quickly outmatched and narrowly escapes into the ocean.

 




JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #112 (1965)


"The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!"

This issue is actually a retroactive chapter in this crossover event, appearing nearly a year after the conclusion to the story. This slugfest is widely considered an absolute masterpiece and easily one of the greatest in the history of the medium.

While flying through the city, Thor happens upon two groups of teenagers arguing over the who is the stronger between Thor and the Hulk. Interested in the debate, Thor lands to see what all the commotion is about, and they ask him if he knows who is the stronger of the two. Thor recounts for them his last encounter with the Hulk that had taken place in Avengers #3. He goes into a part of the story that was not previously recorded.

In Thor's recounting of the events, he and the Hulk are separated from the Avengers and the Sub-Mariner during their battle. Realizing the Hulk's great strength, Thor asks Odin to lift the enchantment that forces Thor to change to Donald Blake after being kept from his hammer for sixty seconds so he can pit his strength against the green-skinned brute. Odin grants Thor's wish, giving him five minutes free of the enchantment that binds his power to his hammer. However, it makes Thor's hammer vulnerable to damage and able to be picked up by anybody, which causes the Hulk to attempt to destroy it, keeping Thor on the defensive during the battle.

During their savage slugfest the integrity of the cavern the two Super-Heavyweights are fighting in caves in, covering the Hulk with tons of rock. About that time the five minutes Odin granted Thor are up. Thor smashes through the rubble to continue his fight but discovers that the Hulk had already escaped. Thor attempts to follow the brute but cannot find a trace of him. The test to see who is the strongest is inconclusive. Thor rejoins his comrades and battles Namor until the Hulk arrives again to resume their fight (and the story continues into the final moments of Avengers #3).

Thor stops his story there explaining that there is nothing more to tell, and explains that he has no proof that he is stronger than the Hulk and therefore won't make such a claim and flies off. Meanwhile elsewhere the Hulk turns his thoughts to Thor as well wondering when next they'll meet again.
 







THE AVENGERS #4 (1964)


"Captain America Joins... The Avengers!"

After escaping his battle with the Avengers in Avengers #3, Namor angrily continues his search for his missing people. He eventually finds his way to the North Sea, where he discovers a tribe of Eskimo people worshiping a dead man frozen in a block of ice. Still angry at humanity Namor approaches the Eskimos, causing them to flee as he throws the ice block into the water. It drifts away, slowly beginning to thaw.

By chance, the Avengers are in the area in their undersea craft. They spot the figure in the water and Giant-Man pulls him in on board. Upon inspection they notice that he wears the clothing of long-lost World War II hero Captain America. Suddenly, he awakens and in a fit of panic and confusion charges at the Avengers before realizing his surroundings and calming down. Iron Man asks the mystery man who he is and the Avengers are skeptical when they are told that the man is indeed Captain America. After a brief demonstration of his ability they quickly change their minds. 

Captain America explains his last memories: He speeds towards an experimental plane on a motorcycle with his sidekick Bucky. Unknown to the duo, the plane had been sabotaged by the Nazi agent Baron Zemo. Bucky manages to get on board while Cap slips and falls from the plane. The last thing he remembers is the plane exploding with Bucky on it as he falls through the sky into the frozen waters off Newfoundland. 

Back in the present day, the Avengers have docked in New York City and are greeted by a crowd of journalists looking for interviews about their recent battle with Sub-Mariner and the Hulk. Suddenly, a camera flash goes off and turns the team into stone. The journalists think it is a publicity stunt and leave. Aboard the sea craft Captain America awakens and exits onto the dock. He also spots the statues but dismisses them as statues made to honor the heroes. Cap finds the modern world very unusual and alien but manages to find his way to a hotel. 

Later, Cap is awoken by a vision of Bucky but it is revealed to be Rick Jones. He has been following Cap's trail across town looking for clues as to the Avenger's whereabouts. They team up to solve the mystery and begin by examining photos taken at the dock. Cap discovers one of the photographers carrying what looks more like a weapon than a camera, and Rick sends his Teen Brigade to search around the city to find the mystery man. Eventually Captain America finds the man in question and approaches him. His gang overhears his entrance and a fight breaks out. Cap easily defeats them despite being heavily outnumbered, and exposes the leader as an alien. The alien, a member of the race called the D'Bari alien species, explains that his spaceship crashed into the ocean and the Sub-Mariner promised to help him return to his planet if he turned the Avengers to stone. Captain America offers to help the D'Bari if they reverse the stone effect on the Avengers and he complies, freeing the Avengers once again. 

In his castle, the Sub-Mariner angrily observes the scene and plans another tactic to defeat the Avengers. As if by luck, a troop of his Atlantean Elite Guard pass nearby and Namor rallies them to his side.

Back on land, the D'Bari leads the Avengers to the area where his ship is stuck on the seabed below. After Giant-Man and Iron Man attach a camera to the ship's hull, Thor manipulates his hammer causing a torrent of magnetic waves that wrench the ship free.

Soon Giant-Man and Captain America are suddenly attacked by Namor and his elite guard, sending them into the water. Namor duels with Iron Man, slowly gaining the upper hand. The Wasp flies in to distract Namor, giving Iron Man time to recover. Namor's elite guard plead for aid against the mighty Thor, who is making short work of them. Thor deflects the Atlantean's weapons back at themselves, scattering the soldiers. Namor now battles one-on-one against Thor.

Meanwhile, under the water, Giant-Man is enslaved by a massive net. However, he manages to escape by taking a shrinking capsule before he suffocates. He emerges near to Iron Man, and they take care of the remaining Atlantean elite guard. Namor again attempts to take Thor's hammer from him, to no avail, and soon has to deal with Giant-Man and Iron Man as well. Captain America watches on, trying to get a feel of what sort of team the Avengers are. The fight is brought to a standstill when some of the Atlanteans reveal a hostage - Rick Jones! With his uncanny reflexes, Cap leaps in and frees Rick and the fight begins anew. Suddenly an earthquake strikes the island and the Sub-Mariner leaves, believing the Avengers to be consumed by it. Little does he know, the tremors were actually caused by the launching of the D'Bari spacecraft. The Avengers watch the D'Bari leave and then decide to officially offer Captain America a place on the team, and he readily accepts. Nearby, Rick looks out on the ocean deep in thought, torn between his loyalty to the Avengers, and his fear of knowing that the Hulk will be out for revenge since they replaced him. 










FANTASTIC FOUR #25 (1964)


"The Hulk Vs. the Thing"

This adventure now crossovers into another comic where the Hulk is now on the hunt for Rick Jones and his revenge against the Avengers. In this issue, Stan Lee billed the Hulk fighting the Thing as the battle of the century and he was right. This slugfest changed the face of comic-book battles forever and has become the standard of which all the others are measured by.

Reed Richards has once again created a formula he believes will cure the Thing. However this time Ben is uninterested in a cure because his girlfriend Alicia Masters loves him the way he is. When Reed presses the issue, the Thing destroys the beaker containing the cure, much to Reed's frustration. When Alicia later arrives she informs the group of the latest news about the Avengers manhunt for the Hulk. 

Meanwhile, in the New Mexico, the Hulk flees from the authorities. With a cordon surrounding the area the Hulk forces some truck drivers to stow him in the back of their truck. As he sleeps the Hulk reverts back to Bruce Banner and when the truck is later stopped at a check point Banner flees into the desert. Banner seeks shelter in a nearby cave, hoping that he can find Rick Jones and get some help. Unfortunately the stress causes him to transform into the Hulk once again who then seeks shelter in his cave. Elsewhere the Avengers and Rick Jones search nearby wreckage for clues to the Hulk's whereabouts. As their search turns up nothing, the Hulk learns that the Avengers have replaced him with Captain America and decides to get revenge against them; the Hulk then leaps off to New York City to face them.

Back at the Baxter Building, Reed suddenly collapses while working on an experiment and Johnny Storm is sent out in the Fantasticar to fetch a doctor. Along the way he spots the Hulk trashing the streets and flames on to face the Green Goliath. The Torch is no match for the Hulk, and is quickly defeated and his flame smothered. As the news of the Hulk reaches the Baxter Building, Reed tells Ben and Sue to deal with the Hulk instead of him, leaving them to worry that his sudden illness is grim and their leader might die. When they arrive at the scene Johnny is still fighting a losing battle against the Hulk. Sue protects her brother with her invisible force field, but soon passes out from the strain. That's when the Thing steps in for a rematch against the Hulk (they first locked horns in Fantastic Four #12). As the Thing and the Hulk battle it out throughout the city, Reed tries to leave his bed to help the team, but finds that his malady has made him too weak to do anything. Ben and the Hulk's battle take them out into the Hudson River and onto the George Washington Bridge. The ongoing battle exhausting him, Ben tries to get a reprieve by trying to bind the Hulk in one of the bridge's tension cables. 

Meanwhile, Sue returns to the Baxter Building with a doctor and the prognosis is grim: Reed has been afflicted by an unknown virus, likely from his own experiments and all the doctor can recommend is bed rest. Meanwhile, the Hulk breaks free from the cables and unmercifully pounds the Thing thus defeating him and moves on, seeking to get his revenge against the Avengers. Left behind, the Thing picks himself up and follows after the Hulk, intent on stopping him even if it kills him. 



 





FANTASTIC FOUR #26 (1964)


"The Avengers Take Over!"

Following his defeat while battling the Hulk, the Thing manages to pull himself back up and start the fight anew as an army of soldiers and reporters watch on. Watching this on television is Mr. Fantastic who tries to go into action but is still too weak from his illness to do anything. Out of concern Sue calls for an ambulance and hands over the formulas that Reed had been working on so the doctors can try to cure him. Also at the hospital is the Human Torch who has been patched up following his failed battle with the Hulk. Realizing that the Hulk is still out on a rampage, Johnny flames on and heads back out into battle despite the fact that his is injured.

He catches up to the Thing and the Hulk who are still brawling and tries to lend Ben a hand. When the Hulk swats the two away, the soldiers step in by firing a mortar shell at the Hulk, but he easily deflects the shot. Johnny is winded after the conflict and Ben tells him to stay put while he continues on after the Hulk. As he plods along, Ben shrugs off an attempt by reports to interview him. Meanwhile, the Hulk has retreated into the subway where he hijacks a subway train to ride it toward Avengers Mansion. When he arrives there, he finds that the Avengers are already home waiting for him and a battle breaks out. The Hulk steamrolls into the heroes and grabs Rick Jones and then flees the scene, unaware that the Wasp is following him.

Back at the hospital, the doctors have succeeded in formulating an antidote that instantly cures Reed. The Fantastic Four then regroup and head out to try and stop the Hulk once and for all. They spot the brute on the street as he is stunned by the Wasp who is using her Wasp's sting inside his ear. Distracted, the Hulk is ambushed by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four at the same time. However the two groups are uncoordinated and get into each others way. During the confusion, the Hulk manages to leap onto a nearby construction site. After a brief squabble about who is best suited for stopping the Hulk, both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four agree to work together. This time the two teams attack the Hulk and a battle royal for the ages breaks out. In the ensuing chaos, Rick manages to toss a gamma-ray treated capsule into the Hulk's mouth. This triggers a transformation back into his alter-ego as he falls into the Hudson River trying to get rid of the clusters of ants all over his body. It's Bruce Banner who surfaces from the water and is swept away by the current. 

In the aftermath of the battle Rick is commended for his bravery and the Avengers and Fantastic Four part ways as newfound allies. A happy ending, not quite...









THE AVENGERS #5 (1964)


"The Invasion of the Lava Men!"

The Avengers return to Tony Stark's home and assess the damage that the Hulk caused to it and reminisce about their previous battle with the brute. Soon each Avenger parts ways and goes back to their daily life. After a few days mysterious shock waves begin causing accidents all across the city. The Avengers gather together and discover the shock waves are coming from the Southwestern part of the country and they go to check it out.

It is discovered that the Lava Men are trying to push a giant 'living rock' to the surface of the earth, where it will explode and destroy all human life, leaving it free for the Lava Men to inhabit. General Ross and the U.S. Army are on the scene and try and decide what to do about it. Bruce Banner will show up still dazed at the previous events that have recently transpired when he was rampaging as the Hulk. Ross orders Banner to inspect the mountain and he discovers that it's radioactive. Just before Ross decides to ring it with missiles the Avengers intervene and handle the situation. As they crack into the mountain and travel underground, the Lava Men start to fight back. 

Back on the surface Bruce Banner begins to unexpectedly change back into the Hulk. While the brute surveys the area he can hear the Avengers - his sworn enemies. This causes him to go into the mountain and once the Avengers see him a fight breaks out. At this time Thor goes after the Lava Men and attacks them and eventually convinces them to go back into the center of the earth.

Knowing that the mountain will detonate at any second, the rest of the Avengers lure the Hulk to the only part of the rock that is safe to hit without it destroying everything. They trick the Hulk into hitting this portion of the rock and with his extreme power the rock is destroyed by an implosion which causes only minor damage to the surface of the earth. After the debris clears, Thor returns to the other Avengers as the Hulk is once again missing. Bruce Banner is seen nearly unconscious a short distance away being helped by Betty Ross and scurried away. The issue concludes when the Avengers receive a condition-red signal from the Teen Brigade - this adventure ends while another begins - such is the life of the Avengers.








HERO ENVY REPORT CARD
Story: 5
Art: 5
Action: 5
Flow: 5
Reread Factor: 5
Overall Grade: 5
(Grading numbers 1 thru 5, with 5 being the highest)


Agree, disagree? Let's hear it fanboys!


OTHER "OUT OF THE BACK ISSUE BIN" REVIEWS
AVENGERS #164, 165, 166 (1977)


John Cimino
John Cimino is a Silver and Bronze Age comic, cartoon and memorabilia expert that runs a business called "Saturday Morning Collectibles." He buys, sells, appraises and gives seminars on everything pop culture, so if you got something special, let him know about it. He contributes articles to ALTER EGO, RETROFAN, BACK ISSUE and THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR from TwoMorrows Publishing, runs the Roy Thomas Appreciation Board on Facebook and has appeared on the AMC reality show Comic Book Men. He also represents some of comicdoms biggest stars and brings them to a Comic Con near you. John likes to think he's the real Captain Marvel, people just don't have the heart to tell him he's just an obsessed fanboy that loves to play superheroes with his daughter Bryn. Contact him at johnstretch@live.com or follow him on Instagram at megostretchhulk.

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Posted by John Cimino at 5:10 AM 11 comments
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