Tim Sale — Er…That’s No Robot
Hulk Gray #4, February 2004
Welcome to the day two of “12 Days of Hulk.”
Tim Sale (with writer Jeph Loeb) creates a cool and dynamic page from an early clash between Gray Hulk and “Gold” Iron Man in the classic Hulk Gray mini-series.
The Hulk surprisingly didn’t battle with IM in the early years of the original Silver age, with the very notable exception of the first few issues of Avengers — which was the first team book that seemed to have more fighting within the group than without.
Of course, Loki helps manipulate their clash in issue #1, and the Space Phantom does the same in issue #2. By issue #3, Tony has switched into the first version of his now famous sleeker red and yellow model. (They duke it out there, too.) And by the end of issue #3, Hulk will disappear altogether from the book for quite a while.
As a side note, I miss hand-drawn sound effects even more than I miss traditional lettering. Thoom indeed.