Issue(s): Hulk #183
Cover Date: Jan 75
Title: "Fury at 50,000 volts!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Herb Trimpe - Inker

Review/plot:
The Hulk makes his way to Chicago and Banner quickly finds himself a job as a janitor at a science facility where they are trying to... well, i'll let them try to explain it.

Banner helps them with their machine, but all they manage to do is restore Zzzax.

The Hulk fights Zzzax...

...but one of the scientists is killed and the story then goes into a King Kong tribute...

...that ends with Zzzax being defeated when the army shoots a metal spear through the creature, draining its electricity.

In a subplot, Colonel Jack Armbruster has a scientist send a device to do a scan of Glenn Talbot while he is sleeping.

I always have mixed feelings about Herb Trimpe. Stiff, but often Kirby-ish. And at least it is clean and detailed.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: When the Hulk first transforms back into Bruce Banner, he says that his head is pounding like someone hit it with a hammer, and a footnote makes a jokey reference to Hammer & Anvil from last issue, so Hulk shouldn't appear in other books (like Defenders #15) until after this issue.

References:

• Banner checks his money belt but finds he spent the last of it in Appalachia in Hulk #179.
  
• Zzzax previously appeared in Hulk #166.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I thought the title was a reference to the 1953 monster movie "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", but it's more likely from the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet."

50,000 volts is only as much voltage as your average Taser, so Zzzax actually shouldn't have been much of a challenge for the Hulk. I guess we really need to know how many amps he is.

The Hulk never really defeats Zzzaxx himself until he gets Banner's intellect, though perhaps defeating the duplicate of the alien Blip in Annual #5 is close enough.

Also, this is the story that establishes that ol' Sparky can be influenced by strong personalities if her absorbs them, something that will become a plot point in some of the last few Al Milgrom Hulk issues before Peter David comes aboard the title.