Since his evolution, it has been established that mere mortals are no match for the Hulk. And thank you for that, because we see Stan Lee’s creativity run wild with Bruce Banner and the Hulk. In this comic, we are introduced to The Toad Men.

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Right now, rick jones and Bruce Banner have made peace with their role in life. Rick has to make sure the Hulk does minimal damage when he returns every night, and make sure Banner survives the violence the Hulk is subjected to.

One day, the duo decide to set up their headquarters in a custom-made cave fort, and as they decide to simplify their life, an alien race, the frogmen, make your way to earth. The Toad Men of course seek to capture Earth, but before that they want to know how advanced or primitive the planet is.

To do this, they want to find out who is the smartest man in the world, and their investigation shows them to Bruce. They use a special magnetic power to capture Bruce and Rick.

Back in their spaceship making its way across Earth, they release Rick, because he’s not the person they want. Bruce turns into the Hulk and single-handedly defeats the Toad Men. On Earth, the military sees the alien ship and shoots it down, knocking over a disheveled Bruce, who has by then reverted to his natural form. The Toad Men escape from an underground passage, and thus Bruce is the suspected mastermind of what appears to be a plot to take over the world.

While Bruce is incarcerated, the leader of the Toad Men contacts General Ross, and after some threatening dialogue, Ross decides that they will fight to the last breath. Meanwhile, Bruce transformed into the Hulk and disappeared from the prison. Angry at General Ross for imprisoning him, he jumps off and flies to Ross’s house to confront him, but finds Betty, whom he kidnaps.

This is the second time that Betty has a confrontation with the Hulk. This time, she asks him why she hates humanity, and the Hulk answers with another question. Why shouldn’t he hate the civilization that has only tortured and imprisoned him?

In fact, the Hulk is about to destroy his only hope of a normal life when Rick walks in and tells him about the Toad Men. But any chance of conversation is dashed when the Toad Men attack Earth and there are a series of earthquakes during the night.

Finally, with daylight comes Bruce, the only person who knows the power of the gamma gun, which he uses to send the Toad Men and their spaceship to another galaxy.

Discussion:

Reading back issues of The Hulk, it seems impossible that the green monster could have had such a long career. All the other comics we see in those days are about some criminal or something small. But with the Hulk bringing in concepts like aliens, of course, like Superman, it was definitely an amazing change that made the comics more interesting.