Incredible Hulk #78, April 2005
Continuing a two-week series celebrating Halloween with the best in monsters, mystery and mayhem.
Lee Weeks drawing the Incredible Hulk? Excellent.
Lee Weeks drawing a Hulk splash in which our hero is about to be clobbered by Lee and Kirby’s Fin Fang Foom? Feels like a must-have page.
Weeks… Hulk…Fin Fang Foom… Monster Island. Not much more to add here about this cool and surreal page. It’s from the Peter David multi–issue story “Tempest Fugit”, that seems very influenced by the “Lost” television show, which was then in its first season.
This story arc, marking David’s return to the character, definitely has some detractors (spoiler alert — it’s essentially a dream story) but Weeks art, with inks by the amazing Tom Palmer, definitely transcends whatever story issues might exist.
Fin Fang Foom, one of the many great giant creatures created at the dawn of the silver age, appeared just shortly after the birth of Fantastic Four #1, whose debut would ironically herald the end of the age of Marvel Monsters.
He resurfaces from time to time — including a one-shot with the Hulk shortly after this story — but his appearances are too infrequent for my own taste.
Fun fact: His surname became the name of the Marvel -run fan club magazine in the 70s. Friends of ‘Ol Marvel indeed!
