Sunday, September 2, 2012

Make Love, Not Hulkbusting



Come on, people now--everybody get together for a


Marvel Trivia Question




What famous symbol of the '60s was featured in the hunt for the Hulk?





None other than the peace symbol, though not by name. You'd hardly choose such a symbol to describe Project Greenskin, otherwise known as the Hulkbuster Base--created to be a central military force for capturing and containing (and possibly curing) the rampaging Hulk.



Nor did the writer or artist (Len Wein and Herb Trimpe, respectively) ever refer to the symbol per se in the book. The only comment we got as to why the symbol was used in the basic design of the base was in a response to a letter writer who had pointed it out. Marvel responds (in its typically whimsical, gee-whiz letter response style at the time):
"Since Herb Trimpe's the artful designer of Project Greenskin Base, 'twould appear that he's the only one who could answer your query concerning the reason it resembles a giant peace symbol. Only thing is, happy Herbie isn't talking--so we'll just have to put it down to his offbeat sensahumor and let it go at that."
When the base transitioned to "Gamma Base" sometime later (after it became clear that the "Hulkbusters" concept was pretty much a wash), the landing strips/roads were redesigned to conform to a more standard military base style.


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