"The End" Week: The Hulk #27!

I rarely saw any of the Marvel magazines when they came out, except Savage Sword of Conan or the occasional Super Special: the cover of Rampaging Hulk #9 is an outlier, but a memorable one. This issue I bought at a convention specifically for now. From 1981, the Hulk #27, featuring "Feudin'" Written by Lora Byrne, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Dave Simons; and "One for My Baby-- and One More for the Hulk!" Written by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by John Tartaglione.

Looking it up, Rampaging Hulk #9 was the last issue as Rampaging, before going on as just the Hulk. I could be wrong, but I think there was a change in focus, from traditional super-hero Hulk action, to more like the TV show: Bruce Banner gets involved with some drama, then it's up to the Hulk to get him out of it, lessons learned, etc. (Unlike the TV show, though, the Hulk still talks here, usually to underline how he doesn't like much of anything.) There's a pin-up congratulating Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby on a fourth season of the Incredible Hulk; it would go on for a fifth, but that didn't help here. Actually, an editorial piece complains about the format's problems, getting it shelved and so forth: back in the days of newsstand distribution, this book would've been neither fish nor fowl.

Anyway, two stories this issue: "Feudin'" starts with a truck hijacking, then goes to a hillbilly clan and a love-crazy girl trying to escape it. "One for My Baby-- and One More for the Hulk!" is a great title; in Vegas Bruce gets wrapped up with a Dean Martin-esque lounge singer who wants out from under the thumb of the mob, who then tries to use the Hulk as a weapon. He realizes that's a bad idea soon enough. The first story doesn't really end with the sad walking away music, but the second definitely does...