Issue(s): Fantastic Four #166, Fantastic Four #167
Cover Date: Jan-Feb 76
Title: "If it's Tuesday, this must be the Hulk!" / "Titans two!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
George Perez - Penciler
Vincent Colletta / Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
The Fantastic Four are asked to help track down the Hulk, after he accidentally destroys the commercial jet they were flying on. Luckily Mr. Fantastic had a very creative way of preventing the plane crash.

    

Instead of Thunderbolt Ross, there is a new, younger soldier in charge named Colonel Sellers, and he's cocky and not very wise. The FF manage to beat the Hulk using a new technique for Sue - choking off her opponent's air supply.

The Thing supplies the finishing punch, but he's not happy about the manner in which the Hulk was beaten. He becomes less happy after Reed changes the Hulk back into Bruce Banner but Sellers orders him taken into custody anyway, despite an agreement the FF had with him. The Thing rebels, and frees Banner, who turns back into the Hulk.

The Hulk and the Thing team-up over the next issue, fighting the army and the remainder of the FF.

However, the Thing keeps getting dizzy and Reed blames the Thing's proximity to the Hulk and his radiation. He says it never happened before because, while the Thing and Reed Hulk have obviously fought before, their fights were never very long. That doesn't jive with the Hulk/Thing fight in Fantastic Four #25, and plenty of other people (Rick Jones, the Defenders) have been exposed to the Hulk for long periods of time without ill effects. Anyway, the Thing switches sides when the Hulk gets too violent, and then he turns back into Ben Grimm (again, supposedly due to the Hulk's radiation).

The Hulk jumps away at this point, essentially forgotten.

Sue finds a number of new uses for her forcefield powers, which is very nice.

After nearly every usage, she complains about being "so weak" which is less nice.

George Perez draws these issues. They're mainly Marvel house style, but you can see elements of his not-fully-developed signature style as well.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: From Hulk's perspective, this works well taking place before the Hulk winds up in the nature preserve where he sees the hunters kill "Bambi's mom" in Defenders #31. A footnote places this between Hulk #194 and #195 as well.

References:

• Reed used a "Psi-Amplifier" on the Hulk, which is a device he used previously in Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 (i.e. Giant-Size Fantastic Four#1).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Captain Fantastic and the Brown-Dirt Cowboy" was an early 1970s Elton John album.

The title to #166 refers to the 1950s(1960s?) movie "If it's Tuesday, it must be(Don't remember the location, sorry)".

Belgium

Other plays on the popular film's title would occur when (for instance)journalists wrote about rebellious actress Tuesday Weld: "If It's Tuesday, It Must be Bedlam." :)

As for FF #166: in that fourth panel fnord12 has up, how could Roy Thomas, the former English teacher, misuse the word "penultimate" as in his caption about Reed's "penultimate elasticity?"

Maybe Mr Fantastic only has penultimate elasticity because the ultimate elasticity belongs to Plastic Man?

What a contrast in inkers for these 2 issues! From the ridiculous to the sublime...

I'll all for shutting that Veil of Secrecy closed again, thank anyway ...

In regards to a separate thread about Ben's love life, there's a scene in 166 where Ben puckers up his orange rock "lips" to kiss a stewardess. I don't know his mouth can be so flexible. I also don't know whether he's kidding himself about his desirability or whether fame and power really are the ultimate aphrodisiacs, to paraphrase Henry Kissinger.

The unsigned 1975 cover for #167 has pencils by Jack Kirby under Joe Sinnott inks. I had read somewhere that Kirby refused to pencil the FF after his return to Marvel, but I guess that didn't include cover jobs.

It shows the FF fighting the Hulk on the top of the St. Louis Gateway Arch of some strange alternate Kirby Marvel reality. To be fair, the Perez Marvel version of the arch on the inside pages doesn't look much like the one in my reality either.

https://www.comics.org/issue/29552/cover/4/