Tales To Astonish #90-91

TALES TO ASTONISH #90 (1967)
by Stan Lee & Gil Kane

The Hulk is still sharing the title with Namor (for just ten issues before it’s retitled “The Incredible Hulk”), meaning the Jolly Green Giant doesn’t get the cover this time.
Also he’s not particularly jolly.

The Hulk is on a rampage thanks to the Stranger, who in the previous issue messed with his mind.

The Stranger is a weird one. His entire point is that basically nobody knows WTF he is or why he does anything; even the few times we get any sort of explanation, it soon gets retconned.
And since he’s immensely powerful, he’s extremely useful when you want to throw something unexpected to the heroes and you don’t want to explain anything.

But he’s also very frustrating because his actions can feel VERY random. For example, the reason why he’s unleashed the Hulk is to destroy Earth’s weapons… and then he just leaves!
Why does he want to do that? Why didn’t he do it himself since he’s cosmically powerful? With the Stranger, the only explanation is always ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

To be fair, going back to the previous issue, he did give us SOME explanation: he wants the Hulk to destroy everything on Earth in order to somehow make peace.

You know what, maybe keeping the Stranger vague is a better idea, since whenever we do learn his plans they turn out to be pretty stupid.

Also if he stuck around he would’ve seen the Hulk turning back into Bruce Banner, which makes the entire thing pointless.

Bruce Banner turning suicidal is a constant theme throughout the years.

So let me get this straight: the Hulk was created with gamma rays, so the way to kill him is to throw MORE gamma rays at him?

Sounds legit.

In shocking news, General Ross is angry for reasons unrelated to the Hulk: there’s a spy on his base!

There’s something that bothers me with Betty: why is she always, and I mean ALWAYS at the base!? She doesn’t even work there in any capacity, she’s just the General’s daughter!
Even if she was allowed on the base, shouldn’t there be SOME restrictions on where she’s allowed to go? Why exactly was she present in a meeting with the security officers!?!?

But the spy brings us to the whole reason I’m reviewing this. Since he’ll be referred as a communist spy in future stories I assumed he was working for Russia, but considering his reference to the “bamboo curtain” apparently he’s working for China.

How good can the base’s security be if Banner can sneak inside THIS easily?

I don’t care if he’s caught before turning on his machine. How did he get inside the base!?

While security takes Banner, the spy takes the opportunity to turn on the machine on himself.

And so the spy gets turned into Ugly Hulk!

Better known as Abomination, as we are informed by a caption.

Although in-story, Betty takes credit for the name.

This results in, of course, a big dumb fight.

Turns out Abomination is even stronger than Hulk (!!!!), possibly because Banner was going to use the machine to give himself a higher dose of gamma rays than that which created Hulk.
Nice move, Banner.

Despite boasting he’s the most powerful being on the planet, Abomination is still unsure whether he can survive nuclear missiles… so he takes Betty hostage and leaves.

Oh no, not a normal intelligence! That would make him… checking my notes… probably the smartest person in the series, now that I think about it.

---

TALES TO ASTONISH #91 (1967)
by Stan Lee & Gil Kane

Not a bad cover, but both characters seems a little too stiff.

Now that’s something you don’t see every day: the military helping Hulk.

I swear this base has the worst security ever.

Hulk is revived thanks to some tech that Banner keeps in his lab.
At this point I’m convinced he’s not working on anything specific, the Army just likes to keep around a mad scientist so that they can pick up whatever he leaves behind.

Dude, he just moved one arm! How do you jump from THAT to “he’s stronger than ever”!?

Hulk’s friendship with the Army didn’t last long.

Rick Jones is kind of annoying in this story, but he has a point: this is the Hulk’s best hope to prove that he’s actually a hero. Sometimes.

And the Hulk is like, nope!

But then he remembers he’s contractually obligated to save Betty, so he turns back into Banner.

Banner is actually going to be the one to defeat Abomination, thanks to the Infinite Weapon Ray™ that the Army keeps around.
Preeeeetty sure there’s some rule that says a General can’t just give full and complete authority over what is essentially a nuclear weapon to a civilian. At least I HOPE that’s a rule!!!

Also the Infinite Weapon Ray™ … sorry the Infinate Gamma Ray™ (WTF!?)… is pulling the Abomination towards the base. SOMEHOW.

So let me get this straight. The Army has a super-weapon that can de-power gamma monsters… AND THEY NEVER USED IT ON THE HULK!?!?!

This makes Abomination weak enough to be beaten up by the Hulk and sound effects.

Wait, what happened to the Stranger wanting the Hulk to get rid of Earth’s weapons? If Abomination is better at this job, why does he takes him to space!?

I swear the Stranger never makes any sense.

---

Bonus: issue #90 has a letter by future Hulk writer Bill Mantlo.

---

Historical significance: 8/10
Abomination will take a lot of time before becoming a major Hulk villain (more on that soon), but it’s still significant.

 Silver Age-ness: 8/10
The Stranger’s shenanigans and the absurdities of Gamma Base.

Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
We are well past the days when the Hulk serial was an underrated gem. Stan doesn’t seem to have much passion for the series, jumping from plot point to plot point without much thought.
Abomination feels incredibly generic, Hulk has lost any semblance of a personality, and everyone else is just a wreck. You’d expect at least the action to be fun, but the action is rather stiff and gets interrupted constantly.

---

How close is this to the modern character? 4/10
Abomination was just a big dumb monster for decades. You can basically replace his pre-Peter David version with any other superstrong guy and it wouldn’t make much difference.

He’ll return in 1970 to fight Silver Surfer (of all people), were we learn that the Stranger didn’t go through with his plan to use him as a pawn.
Does the Stranger has Cosmic ADHD or something?

The same year the Stranger remembers he HAS Abomination, so he sends him to fight Thor… only to be defeated WITH ONE PUNCH.

After a rematch in space with Hulk in 1971, he returns to Earth in 1972.
Despite not knowing it’s 1972 because, and I’m not kidding, he spent 2 years in a coma.

That was during the period when General Ross was downright insane.

That was the first glimpse of Abomination’s eventual sad side.

He has a couple more runs with the Hulk, in 1975 (where he’s grey and calls himself a mutant? What?) and 1979 (when he’s revived by Doc Samson to fight the Hulk, planting a bomb in his head to keep him under control…WTF!?)

He wouldn’t show up again until 1982 during the Mantlo run, where he’s back in space and back being stronger than Hulk… until he gets angry, of course.

Speaking of the Mantlo run, his return in 1983 is probably the Abomination at his most pathetic.

Abomination has his mind switched with Tyrannus of all people in 1986, and wouldn’t get switched back until 1989 (in a Spider-Man annual, of all places).

So up to this point Abomination has been less of a character and more of a generic monster used whenever you need someone that can go a few rounds against the Hulk.
Thankfully Peter David is in charge of many of his following appearances, where he’s turned into a very tragic character that is even sometimes sympathetic.

Since then he’s gone back a couple of times to being a somewhat generic supervillain, but the complexity introduced by Peter David seems to have stuck to the character.