Incredible Hulk vol. 3 #5Incredible Hulk vol. 3 #5
Title: “Yes, I saw the Hulk!”
Writer: John Byrne
Images: Dan Jurgen and Scott Koblish, Sal Buscema, Mark Texiera, Mike Miller and Scott Koblish
Colors: Steve Buccellato
Editor: Tom Brevoort
(the following stories take place after Bruce goes to sleep in Mrs. Hopper’s house) Mary Jo Patterson, a sixth grader from Faulkner Elementary School, begins her story by saying that she and her friends were walking to school when all of a sudden the sun was blocked out. Hulk lands right next to the girls. Hulk rips up a tree and throws it into the school. Hulk leaps off and Mary Jo says that he didn’t seem all that interested in smashing the school, but that it got smashed while he was smashing other things. Mary Jo and her friends look through the rubble to find Miss Trainer trapped. She asks the girls to go get help for her.
The girls flagged down Mister Jenkins. He says that he was afraid of this as he almost just hit the Hulk with his truck and saw him leaping in this direction. Mister Jenkins is about to use his truck to pull some of the rubble off Miss trainer when a gas main explodes. The school catches fire and Miss Trainer is caught near the fire. Mr. Miller arrives with the fire truck. He puts his facemask on and has the other firemen hose him as he walks into the fire to save Miss Trainer. Mr. Miller is in there for a long time when suddenly a wall falls over. The rest of the school blows up, but then suddenly Mr. Miller emerges from the fire with a wrapped up Miss Trainer. The paramedics arrive and take Miss Trainer away in an ambulance.
Mr. Miller confirms Mary Jo’s story, but then adds what he had seen earlier in the day. Miller was woken up by the ringing of the fire bell. The fire department was used to dealing with paramedics, but everyone realized quickly that this was going to be worse.
Miller says that he imagines that the inferno resembled what Hell might look like on a bad day. From within the flames the Hulk walks out. Hulk smashes into one of the fire engines and sends it flying away. Hulk keeps crushing the fire engine as Miller and the others spot their buddy Ed Hendricks still in the cab. They try to get to Ed, but the Hulk just growls at them. Miller and the others open a fire hydrant to full pressure and hit the Hulk with it. While Hulk was distracted with the water one of the fireman pulled out Ed. Hulk sees what they were doing and gets angry. He walks to the spouting hose and pinches the end. They try to shut the hydrant off, but it only takes two seconds for the hose and hydrant to rupture. The whipping hose hits Hulk in the face and Miller figures that pretty much meant that they were all gonna die. Suddenly Hulk had decided that he didn’t feel like hanging around and leaps off. The fireman try to put out the fire, but as soon as they finish with one somebody tells them that the school is on fire.
Mister Jenkins says that it is funny that they should ask him last because he was the first one to spot the Hulk in Faulkner. He says that he was just returning home after a long combine meeting at the county seat. He says that it was three am when “this idjit” steps in front of his truck. Mister Jenkins manages to stop before he hits the man, and then starts cussing him out. Mister Jenkins realizes that the man “wasn’t all there”. Jenkins gets the man in the truck figuring that he would take him over to the hospital. Jenkins tries to talk to the man, but he didn’t even respond. Suddenly the man looked over at him with a wicked smile. The man reached over and grabbed the wheel while Jenkins was driving. The fought for control, but as the truck is careening out of control Mister Jenkins leaps out of his truck. Suddenly the truck stops and the man gets out. As the man walks towards him he seems to get larger and greener. By the time he made his way to the man he was entirely the Hulk. Hulk throws Mister Jenkins around a bit and leaves. A few hours later Jenkins makes it back into town, but he finds Faulkner destroyed. The Hulk looked back at Mister Jenkins and then leaped away.
Jenkins says that he could tell that Hulk was leaping towards the elementary school, and so he hurried over. Mister Jenkins hopes he has been of some help. Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Iron Man say that they realizes that his own insanity is controlling the Hulk and that they have to stop him even if it means destroying him.
No Excuses Rating: 3 out of 10
Some problem on the creative end forced this issue to become a filler issue instead of “furthering” the story. The only problem with this is that the first three issues all pretty much took place over the same period of time and had been carved up to bits. Well this issue is more of it. The only viewpoint missing now is what the household dogs might have thought of the Hulk attack, or perhaps how the vegetation surrounding Faulkner was affected.
Great to see Sal Buscema doing artwork though I really wish it had more to do with the Hulk, and less to do with Mary Jo, Cletus, and Goober. The second and third scenes are well done as well (even if the third seems to have a bit of a scale problem), but the boring and useless story actually detracts points from the artwork.
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