Issue(s): Hulk #189
Cover Date: Jul 75
Title: "None are so blind...!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Joe Staton - Inker

Review/plot:
Still wandering around Siberia, the Hulk befriends a blind girl. Her village's doctor has somehow found a cure for blindness and he plans on administering it to the girl, but the Mole Man wants it for himself.

The Hulk goes after the Mole Man and retrieves the potion, but leaves the village before the girl's eyesight is restored so that she doesn't see that he is a monster.

At one point in the story the Mole Man has captured the Hulk and holds him in a weird restraining device. The Hulk easily breaks out of it a few panels later.

The story is set up like an old fairy tale i once read, where a traveler and his pet bear stay the night at the house of a farmer that is constantly beset by goblins, and that night the goblins get a nasty surprise when they provoke the bear. I wonder if the parallel was deliberate.

As usual, i'm not clear on why the Hulk never turns into Banner in this story. There are several times where the Hulk feels happy and accepted in the Russian village, which usually triggers him to transform back into Bruce Banner. I guess we'll just have to say it's more complicated than that.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Hulk has been in Siberia since last issue and shouldn't appear in any other books in between his appearances there and here. Hulk #184-193 take place between Giant-Size Defenders #3-4.

References:

• The Hulk last met the Mole Man in Hulk #127
  
• The Mole Man last appeared and seemingly died in Marvel Team-Up #17.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A