"The Day The Earth New York Turned Green!"

 

The 1982 Incredible Hulk Annual is essentially an exercise in pure adventure, one that sees the mighty Avengers struggle to uncover a scheme which threatens to destroy or enslave the population of the entire world. And as we can assume from the book's masthead, there's one Avenger in particular who appears to be the key to the crisis--though it's his alter ego, Bruce Banner, whom we find is taking the first, desperate steps toward stopping a plan which has already been put in motion.

Producing this story is writer Bill Mantlo (who also scripted the monthly Hulk series) and artists Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott, with letterer Jim Novak and colorist Bob Sharen (whom we gather is going to have one particular color on hand, to be sure)--an ideal grouping of talent for a 32-page Hulk story which ends up featuring not only Earth's mightiest heroes but also guest appearances by other mainstream Marvel characters.

As we've learned from Page One, Mantlo is just about to initiate the period in the regular book where Bruce Banner finally succeeds in suppressing the Hulk's brutish mind and placing himself in control of not only his transformations but also the Hulk himself--a development which, among other things, will see him once more fighting alongside the Avengers (which Mantlo milks for all it's worth).  But it's the savage, uncontrollable Hulk who appears here and in one way or another ties together the various scenes playing out before us. As for the nature of the danger, the news media have the 411 for us, though it looks like they're in the same boat as the rest of New York City.

Which brings us to this tale's villain--none other than the Leader, who plans to make sure that this "green flu" epidemic that Mr. "Ratner" reports on will soon enough spread throughout the world. But even now, Bruce Banner, the Leader's prisoner, seeks to fight his foe with the only weapon he has available to him--none other than the Hulk, whom Banner hopes to subliminally influence with thoughts and images which his green-skinned raging persona can interpret and act on.

Yet Banner's presence is actually a crucial step in the Leader's plan--which brings us to Dr. Rikky Keegan, an unwitting accomplice who had only wished to cure Banner of his affliction but falls victim to the duplicity of her host and gives the Leader precisely what he needs in order to infect others to either do his bidding, or die in the process.

Yet when Banner's dreaded transformation takes place, the Hulk must first battle for his freedom against the forces under the control of one of his oldest enemies--even as Banner's plan for the Hulk begins to kick in, if only it isn't too late.

Meanwhile, the various guest star cameos appearances may be brief, but they're nevertheless a welcome exception to the usual practice of isolating the handling of a city-wide crisis to the title character(s) while making excuses for the absence of other heroes who "can't be reached" for whatever reason, or are off on a mission, or simply "unavailable." Here, we have a number of them pitching in, in their own way, though it's clear at the outset that most will be debilitated by the "green flu" malady--which, thanks to its method of transmission, has affected nearly all of the heroes based in New York.

Fortunately, the Hulk is too preoccupied with trying to piece together and make sense of the images that Banner has planted in his mind to focus on the provocation of Spider-Man's poor choice of words and tear into him. Instead, the wall-crawler only suffers a few glancing blows, after which, like most of the others, he succumbs to his own infection--while the same fate encroaches on the Avengers, even as they strive to pull themselves together to act on Henry Pym's lead on a possible connection between the green flu and the Hulk.

Back on the Leader's orbiting base, Dr. Keegan is discovering to her horror that her host's intentions for her extend beyond her access to Bruce Banner--even as we at last learn the details of this mutate's insidious plan for the human race.

As for the Hulk, he's taken advantage of the illness spreading through the Avengers' ranks and successfully resisted their attempts to subdue him--which, given his dogged persistence in tracking down and confronting the cause of his anguish, ultimately turns out to be in the Avengers' favor when the man-monster leads them to the answer they've been looking for.

So far, it wouldn't be surprising to learn that for some of you there hasn't been much substance to Mantlo's story beyond a plan that, realistically, should have been reduced in scope to successfully net the Leader control of, say, Manhattan. But even though the Leader wouldn't be the Leader if he didn't think big, how would he have the resources to extend this grand plan of his beyond the confines of a few cities, let alone entire states? Half the country? All of North America? For one thing, he would have to perform installations of his machinery in countless water purifying plants; but even more to the point, what makes him think that vast numbers of Hulks, Abominations, and other gamma-spawned beings of similar temperament are going to fall in line and follow his orders? Has Omnivac, his on-board A.I., actually reported to him that this plan is smooth sailing all the way?

It just so happens that the first of those mutated by the gamma gene extracted from the Hulk unexpectedly moves against him--which turns the tide for the Hulk and the Avengers, and brings a sudden end to the Leader's aspirations of conquest.

(No, I don't know how telekinesis could actually transport people from a space station to Earth without experiencing fatal consequences in transit--maybe Mr. Mantlo is thinking of teleportation? The most I would think telekinesis could achieve would be to simply move them down the hallway to one of the station's labs.)

Aside from never again wanting to see a villain of the Leader's caliber rave about the prospect of humans becoming green! Green! GREEN!, "The Day The Earth Turned Green!" (well, only New Yorkers in this case, but why ruin a snappy title) stores well enough on my comics shelf as a fairly entertaining Bill Mantlo story that, unfortunately, notches the Leader down a bit from his formidable and more ruthless days under Roy Thomas's guidance. There's also one important loose end that was never resolved--namely, who's the poor soul who had to let Dr. Strange know that he was called in for nothing?