Issue(s): Hulk #263
Cover Date: Sep 81
Title: "I feel the earth move under my feet, and the sky come tumbling down!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Sal Buscema - Inker

Review/plot:
A weird note at the beginning of this story: "Author's note: Despite the near destruction of an airliner and Los Angeles International Airport, this story was not written by Kamikaze Chris Claremont."

The Hulk winds up at the Los Angeles airport. Avalanche is there.

He says that he came out west to get away from the whole superhero scene after having been beaten by the X-Men and engage in some honest blackmail. He's attacked by a guy named Landslide who has similar powers.

The Hulk gets in the middle of the fight.

Betty and Rick show up (actually, their plane crashed at the airport), and urge the Hulk to take them away, back to "where it all began".

Landslide is an extremely obscure character (from the Winter Olympics special). He's been living in Subterranea with the Mole Man until Avalanche's powers put them in danger. This whole story seems like a stupid way to say "Look, these two guys have the same powers!". And Avalanche is terribly written, with a lame motivation that Mystique surely wouldn't approve of. The Hulk breaks both of Avalanche's arms this issue. But not in a cool "The Hulk grabs him by the arms and crushes them" sort of way. Avalanche's vibrational attack somehow bounces back off the Hulk and shakes his arms up.

This issue ends with two panels of a shadowed Corruptor talking to the bizarre Jack Kirby character Night Flyer as a set-up for next issue.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Pushed back in publishing time to make room for the Hulk's return to the Defenders in Defenders #98. Hulk's arrival at the Los Angeles airport is not as straightforward as it may seem, considering that he was in LA in Hulk #262. No, he was abducted from LA to the Savage Land in Marvel Team-Up #104, returned to the east coast in Dazzler #6, headed west to the desert for Marvel Team-Up #105, and is only now re-arriving in LA. Surely not what Mantlo intended (there's references to the Hulk still being angry about being called a monster when he tried to attack the Dire Wraith last issue), but we have to fit these other appearances somewhere. Lastly, Avalanche's arms break this issue, and they'll still be broken in Rom #31. That means that Avengers annual #10 has to appear prior to his appearance here. It's awkward because there's a scene where Rick Jones threatens to call the Avengers, and Avalanche says, "The Avengers? Last time I went up against a super-team, they laid me out cold!" with a reference to Uncanny X-Men #142, not Avengers #10, but you can't argue with a pair of broken arms.

References:

• Avalanche was defeated by the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #142.
  
• Landslide previously appeared in Marvel Treasury Edition #25: Spider-Man and the Hulk at the Winter Olympics.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I think Chris Claremont may have done something dumb on a plane headed to LAX that became a joke around the Marvel offices.

The title refers to lyrics from a 1970s disco song(don't remember the title).

The title's a reference to great American songwriter Carole King, and the first song off her smash album "Tapestry" which was once on the Billboard album charts for ten straight years. (I love rock history as well as comics history.)
They could've went with "Till the Landslide'll bring you down!" in homage to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which scored a similar feat.

I dunno about Claremont at LX, but Claremont really liked having big fight sequences trash airfields in his stories in the late 70s and early 80s; Claremont himself even notes this in his introduction to one of the marvel Masterworks editions of his X-Men run. Marvel Team-Up #58 and Uncanny X-Men #97 are among the examples I can think of off the top of my head.

Yep, there are a lot more Claremont airfield battles. Alpha Flight first attacks the X-Men at an airfield in Calgary. Iron Fist encounters Radion at one in London. And Captain Britain battles Hurricane at one (or maybe just a military hangar). There are probably many more I'm forgetting. Claremont was an aviation buff, which is also why characters are often named after planes (Corsair, Lockheed, Silver Saber, etc.).