Lost and Found Lenses

Illustrator Jack Kirby diligently kept track of Bruce Banner's glasses during the original run of The Incredible Hulk. Panels of Banner transforming into the Hulk consistently pictured the character removing his glasses. During these early issues, sidekick Rick Jones routinely took it upon himself to retrieve Dr. Banner's glasses for him. Even if Banner kept the same pair of glasses, the disheveled scientist certainly went through a lot of shirts changing to and from the Hulk.

This image of Rick Jones handing Bruce Banner his glasses comes from The Incredible Hulk #2 (July 1962).

Neutral Good: Rick Jones

On a bet, young Rick Jones snuck past guards to drive into an off-limits military test area (Incredible Hulk #1). From this first impression, Rick's disregard for authority would seem Chaotic Neutral under the nine-alignment system of Dungeons & Dragons. But after Dr. Bruce Banner risked his life to shield Rick from a gamma bomb, the teenager had a change of heart. Rick would befriend Dr. Banner during his initial transformations into the Hulk.

In the years that followed, Rick would become a serial sidekick, training with Captain America and assisting the Avengers, teaming up with Captain Mar-vell, and then becoming an ally to Rom the Spacekight. Through this heroic adaptability, Rick Jones' true character would prove to be Neutral Good.

Lawful Good	Neutral Good	Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral	True Neutral	Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil	Neutral Evil	Chaotic Evil

This panel of Bruce Banner warning Rick Jones comes from The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962).

Featuring Jim Wilson

When the Defenders first battled the extraterrestrial Xemnu, they had a young ally in Jim Wilson, who alerted Dr. Strange to Xemnu's hypnotic power of children (Marvel Feature #3). By this time, Wilson had become a sidekick of sorts to the Incredible Hulk and his alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner. Hulk's original teen sidekick, Rick Jones, had moved on by this point, having trained with Captain America before working in tandem with Captain Mar-vell. Wilson would continue to assist Hulk on occasion, but this was his only appearance with the Defenders.

This panel of Jim Wilson and Dr. Strange watching Xemnu on TV comes from Marvel Feature #3.

Undercurrents

The first two issues of The Best Defense have little in common, yet they introduce a shared subplot that promises to tie the stories together. Immortal Hulk: The Best Defense #1 includes an interlude in which a figure in a ghostly white sheet stabs a four-armed purple alien. The murderer utters a few words in English, while the victim speaks a minor Rimworld dialect.

Namor: The Best Defense #1 takes place in Atlantis, except for one page that is set Elsewhere. There, a similar scene occurs; this time with the ghost-clad figure stabbing a reptilian alien. The primary story with Namor references the Defenders of the Deep, with no hints that he might join forces with Hulk or other members of the original Defenders.

Immortal Hulk: The Best Defense #1 focuses almost entirely on Bruce Banner while using a creative technique to peer into his subconscious. Intermixed throughout the main story are reprinted panels from Hulk's original series—including his volatile partnership with Rick Jones.

The accompanying image from Incredible Hulk #1 (1961) was reprinted in Immortal Hulk: The Best Defense #1.

The Original Gargoyle

Years before Isaac Christians became trapped in the body of a demon, a Soviet scientist briefly used the codename Gargoyle (The Incredible Hulk #1).

Like countless masterminds who would follow, the original Gargoyle was intent on enslaving the Hulk. After seeing that the subdued Hulk had reverted to the form of Dr. Bruce Banner, Gargoyle confessed that he longed to be rid of his own mutations—side effect of bomb research he had conducted for the Soviet government.

Lo and behold, Dr. Banner explained that through the selective use of radiation he could in fact return Gargoyle to an ordinary human being. Although this meant losing his superhuman intelligence, Gargoyle agreed to the procedure.

Dr. Banner, meanwhile, was just beginning to understand his own transformations into the Hulk, which resulted from exposure to gamma rays while risking his life to save teenager Rick Jones.

The Incredible Hulk. Vol. 1. No. 1. May 1962. By Stan Lee + J. Kirby.

Last Words

Captain Mar-vell turned down a chance to join the Defenders, but they didn't hold that against him (Defenders #62-63).

When the cosmic champion was on his deathbed with cancer, the non-team joined other heroes of Earth in paying their last respects to the Kree warrior in The Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel (1982).

While most everyone remained somber during Mar-vell's final hours, sidekick Rick Jones chastised other heroes for selfishly having invented their own super powers when they could have been searching for a cancer cure. Death in comic books had more significance then than it has today; heroes at that time did not readily return from the grave.

With no word balloons, we can only imagine what transpired between Hercules and Devil-Slayer in the moments leading up to this page from the Captain Marvel graphic novel.

Seems Like Old Times

The prophecy that forced the four earliest Defenders to leave the team in #125 turned out to be in err, allowing them to later join forces again as they routinely had done in the past. Why anyone believed the psychopathic Elf to begin with was never adequately explained.

Of all the attempts to bring back the non-team, my favorite was the four-part "Return of the Defenders" storyline that ran through the 1992 annuals of the Incredible Hulk, Namor, the Silver Surfer, and Dr. Strange.

These heroes had faced extra-dimensional entities countless times in the past. But for a welcome change of pace, throughout much of the cross-over adventure, Sub-Mariner's mind was trapped within the body of Rick Jones, adding room for humor and giving Hulk's first friend a well-deserved place among the Defenders. Meanwhile, Prince Namor's true form was under an evil magician's control.

What also made this reunion memorable was the way the characters interacted like old friends instead of reluctant allies. Their bickering bellied a level of comaraderie they'd seldom shown in the original series.

What if Rick Jones Had Become the Hulk?

In issue #12 of the classic What If…? series, Rick Jones became the Hulk instead of Dr. Banner, recasting the heroism both men displayed during the Hulk's early appearances.

In that alternate story from 1978, the green-skinned Rick Jones initially joined the Avengers (as the original Hulk had), then trained under Captain America and assisted Captain Mar-vell (much as Rick Jones had in the core Marvel Universe).

Notice how the art aptly depicts Jones-Hulk in bluejeans, while Banner wears his trademark purple pants.

Like many comic books of this period, #12 promoted the Hulk's live-action TV series on the cover. What also caught my attention was how a note on the opening page emphasized that the character from The Incredible Hulk TV show was not the same character from the comics.

You've read of DR. ROBERT BRUCE BANNER's career as the ever-incredible Hulk—and, more recently, you've savored one DAVID BANNER's stint as ol' greenskin in living color on TV. Now, here's the most OFFBEAT Hulk of all--!

Giant-Size Flashbacks

Five giant-size issues of the Defenders from the 1970s brought readers up to speed on the history of their favorite heroes. Along with new content, these 68-page issues reprinted solo stories that first appeared a decade or more before the Defenders formed.

Giant-Size Defenders #1 framed the reprinted pages within an original story. To help Valkyrie learn more about her teammates, Clea consulted an arcane book she had skimmed, then cast a spell to reveal the early exploits of Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, and Hulk.

Unbeknownst to Clea, the spell inadvertently sent the three men into their own pasts, requiring Dr. Strange's years of training to reverse the magic. In addition to demonstrating the sorcerer's extensive experience, the reprints gave context to other members of the group. Pages from The Incredible Hulk #3 showed how much Dr. Banner and his alter ego had relied on the friendship of teenager Rick Jones before meeting the Defenders. And a Sub-Mariner reprint traced the Atlantean's heroism back to World War II.

Subsequent giant-size issues each began with a new Defenders story, set within the regular series continuity. The reprinted content in those issues then simply ran as a bonus feature, without any magical window-dressing. Giant-Size Defenders #2 even reprinted a story from Black Knight #4 (originally published in 1955), unexplicitly acknowledging the medieval hero's tertiary connection to Valkyrie.

The image at the top appeared on the cover from Strange Tales #121, illustrating Dr. Strange's back-up story that issue. Giant-Size Defenders #4 reprinted that tale of "Witchcraft in the Wax Museum."