Issue(s): Hulk #179
Cover Date: Sep 74
Title: "Re-enter: The Missing Link!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Jack Abel - Inker

Review/plot:
Len Wein's run on the Hulk begins with the return of a very minor villain, the Missing Link. Before that, though, we've got to get him back from his outer space visit to Counter-Earth.

The army blasts Hulk's rocket out of the sky as it enters "True-Earth's" atmosphere, but they don't bother to go see what it was they shot down. Instead, Bruce Banner is found by an Appalachian family in a coal mining town.

And among the coal miners lives the Missing Link.

So you can see that he's not really a bad guy. The problem is that in his first appearance he was caught in a nuclear explosion, and in this story he continues to absorb latent radiation, making him not a good person for children to climb all over.

Banner figures this out (using a Geiger counter purchased with traveler's checks that he had sewn inside his purple pants) and tries to explain it to the Missing Link, but "Lincoln" becomes angry, which makes Banner angry, and soon the Hulk is battling the Link.

It's not really depicted in the art, but supposedly when the Hulk smashes the Missing Link, his body quickly reforms.

The two monsters' fight results in a cave-in caused by the Link's build-up of radioactive energy, and the Hulk is saddened when the villagers come to rescue the Missing Link but not him. So he leaves feeling hurt. The implication is that the explosion has gotten rid of the radiation that was making the Link a danger to the town, but of course there's no reason why he wouldn't just start absorbing radiation all over again, and this will be explored in the character's next appearance (which isn't until 1982).

Also in this issue, Glenn Talbot gets home from being rescued, but there's a hint that something's wrong when his touch damages Col. Armbruster's watch.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Hulk returns from Counter-Earth at the beginning of this issue and so shouldn't appear elsewhere between this issue and the previous arc. He next appears in Giant-Size Super-Stars #1.

References:

• The Missing Link previously appeared in Hulk #105-106.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A