HULK #144 (1971)
Written by Roy Thomas & Gary Friedrich
Pencils by Dick Ayers
Cover by Herb Trimpe
Second part of the original Hulk/Doom fight, and the second cover is much better.
Bruce Banner has been completely brainwashed by Doctor Doom and put in charge of the defense plans for Latveria, which include building a gamma bomb.
Surprisingly, Banner is not the only guest of honor: this is a rare appearance of Doom’s love Valeria, returning from Marvel Super-Heroes #20.
No clue on what the hell she’s wearing.
They squabble a bit about whether she’s a guest or a prisoner.
Allowing Valeria to get anywhere near Banner wasn’t exactly Doom’s brightest idea.
Banner gets so upset that he transforms into the Hulk, but Doom is ready with a Tranquilizer Ray ™ that turns him back into Banner. (!!!)
Despite the fact that Valeria was smart enough to be skeptical about Banner willingly working for Doom, she readily swallows Doom’s typical “I’m actually the good guy here” routine.
It’s pretty clear that, despite Doom talking about his plans to take over the world, the REAL reason why he’s doing all of this is to impress Valeria enough to love him again.
Things turn for the worst for the doctor, however, because the Hulk has escaped the castle, taking the gamma bomb with him.
However it’s actually good for Doom: he promised Valeria that he wouldn’t use the gamma bomb to attack the enemy, but since he can use it to kill the Hulk in an unpopulated area he can TECHNICALLY keep his promise.
But… it turns out that the bomb was activated prematurely and that Valeria sabotaged Doom’s plan!
She de-programmed Banner, allowing him to regain control of the Hulk (to a certain degree) and escape with the bomb, which would’ve been too dangerous in the hands of Doctor Doom.
Why, when Doctor Doom would gladly conquer the world for her? EXACTLY because Doom would conquer the world for her!
Doom, in typical Doom fashion, absolutely can’t understand why anyone WOULDN’T want to conquer the world.
The Hulk returns to the castle, and he’s after Doctor Doom.
Doom tries one of his forcefields, which is typically enough to stop even the Thing…
…but come on. IT’S THE HULK.
The fight itself is unfortunately rather underwhelming.
With the Hulk smashing the castle, Doom has to protect Valeria with his Force Umbrella ™.
The Hulk is not impressed by it.
The Hulk clearly wins the fight, and when Doctor Doom refuses to concede he does something even worse to him… he ignores him.
Valeria pleads the Hulk to stop the fight, which makes the Hulk sad and Doom mad.
And so the story ends, very abruptly.
Valeria will appear again in multiple flashbacks, but technically speaking this is her last “real” apperence until Fantastic Four Vol.3 #67 in 2003.
Hulk significance: 0/10
Not surprising, since this is more a Doctor Doom story than a Hulk story.
Doom significance: 1/10
This has SOME significance because of Valeria. But honestly you can basically ignore this story when considering their relationship.
You would imagine Doom would take his feud with the Hulk more seriously after this, but he won’t fight the Hulk again for several years.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Relatively minor in the Marvel scale, but can you imagine detonating a gamma bomb so casually in a modern story?
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
A mixed bag. There’s some nuance in Valeria’s characterization, but she bounces back quickly between clueles and smart; some of it is implied to be an act, but it’s still jarring. Doom not understanding the idea that she doesn’t want him to conquer the world is easily the best part.
The art is serviceable but not nothing spectacular.
And again, what the hell is Valeria wearing!?
It was a Doombot all along
No indication one way or the other.
Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
Just like the first part, Doom is trying to use the Hulk to take over the world.
Crazy tech
The Tranquilizer Ray ™ that can rapidly change the Hulk into Banner. I guess Doom didn’t use it again because he wanted to impress Valeria?