Issue(s): Hulk #214, Hulk #215, Hulk #216, Hulk #217
Cover Date: Aug-Nov 77
Title: "The Jack of Hearts is wild!" / "Home is where the hurt is" / " Countdown To Catastrophe!" / "The Circus of Lost Souls!"
Credits:
Len Wein - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Ernie Chan - Inker

Review/plot:
Banner and Jim return to Banner's apartment to find the previous occupant, a bombastic stage magician named Kroptokin the Great.

A fight breaks out between Banner, the landlady April, and Kroptokin, and Bruce jumps out the window to avoid turning into the Hulk in front of them.

The Jack of Hearts, goaded by a policeman into going after the Hulk, tracks him down and attacks him.

The pointless (and i don't mean that as a criticism of the story; it's the point of the story that it's pointless) battle that ensues ends when the fight moves to an abandoned freighter, which subsequently explodes. The Jack of Hearts manages to swim back to shore, but he assumes the Hulk is dead. This is his first appearance outside the black & white Deadly Hands of Kung Fu series.

The Hulk pulls himself out of the water at the beginning of the next issue.

Then the Hulk is beamed up to the SHIELD helicarrier, which has been taken over by the Bi-Beast. General Ross and SHIELD are hoping that the Hulk will take care of the Bi-Beast for them.

The Hulk obviously doesn't like to be tortured, but he's not predisposed to liking General Ross, either.

Luckily SHIELD's "Gaffer" is able to convince the Hulk that General Ross just needs his help, and so they're able to convince the Hulk to disable the helicarrier's weapons and fight the Bi-Beast.

The Hulk and Bi-Beast fall from the Helicarrier and are presumed dead. But the Hulk, at least, is not, and he wakes up on a beach and meets some circus freaks.

They are on the run from the Circus of Crime, having been part of their crew but deciding to leave after the Ringmaster found a mermaid and they didn't like the way he was treating her.

The CoC show up and the Ringmaster hypnotizes the Hulk.

But that doesn't last long and soon there's a fight.

When i saw that scene above, my first thought was, "These nobody upstart freaks are defeating the experienced Circus of Crime?! Why, that's outrageous!". Then i realized i was defending the Circus of Crime.

Of course what we really want to see is the Ringmaster getting his comeuppance for daring to hypnotize the Hulk, so here it is.

The Hulk returns the mermaid to the sea.

I always like Sal Buscema on Hulk, but the art is especially nice with Ernie Chan's inks. Plots like the mermaid story and a rather generic use of the Bi-Beast are balanced by the fact that Wein is good at making the characters dialogue and motivations seem somewhat more realistic than previous writers. And i'm not sure whether it's Wein or Buscema that would have come up with this scene, but it's cool.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - 1st appearance of the 2nd Bi-Beast, 1st Kroptokin the Great. 1st color appearance of Jack of Hearts.

Chronological Placement Considerations: This arc starts with Hulk arriving in New York City holding Jim Wilson, presumably soon after his battle with the Quintronic Man last issue. The Jack of Hearts appears here before his appearance in Iron Man #102. The Hulk is presumed dead by the end of this arc, but that doesn't preclude non-high profile appearances in other books.

References:

• The original Bi-Beast was killed by MODOK in Hulk #169.
  
• The Ringmaster last met the Hulk in Hulk #3. The Hulk doesn't give any indication that he recognizes him.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

FOOM#17 announced that the Falcon would appear here soon and he'd be revealed as related to Jim Wilson.

funny, i thought only Bill Mantlo used Jack of hearts. well, im often wrong.

The problem with Jack of Hearts was that nobody wanted to draw him.

Actually, the Hulk was beamed up to the Helicarrier not by the Bi-Beast, who was surprised to see him, but by Ross and S.H.I.E.L.D. for the express purpose of maneuvering him into fighting the Bi-Beast.

Thanks Matthew.