Issue(s): Hulk #291
Cover Date: Jan 84
Title: "Old soldiers never die!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Gerry Talaoc - Inker

Review/plot:
Issue #291 was an Assistant Editors' Month story. This means that in a framing sequence, the Hulk shows up at Marvel's office looking for someone to talk to.

(Interesting that there's a piece of paper that says Long Shot hanging on the wall in that second image. Nocenti will eventually write a Longshot mini-series, but that's cover-dated Sept 1985, and this is Jan 1984.)

He's trying to decide what to do about General Ross' alliance with MODOK in the previous arc. After talking it out with Ann Nocenti, he decides to leave it up to Ross to decide whether he can handle being a traitor.

The majority of the book focuses on Ross himself, who is contemplating suicide. There's a retrospective of his career, including scenes from many Hulk comics (no footnotes, but i'll do my best with references below). In the end, he decides against suicide but he does strip off his medals and stripes, presumably resigning from the military.

A good use of the Assistant Editors' Month event to do a more character focused story, although the numerous flashbacks feel like filler.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - General Ross resigns from the military.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• In Ross' flashbacks, we have, of course, Hulk #1.
  
• Ross learned that Bruce Banner is the Hulk in Tales To Astonish #77.
  
• Banner gained control of the Hulk's body in Hulk #123.
  
• He almost married Betty in Hulk #124, with General Ross' consent.
  
• Betty married Glenn Talbot in Hulk #158.
  
• Talbot was mind-warped by the Gremlin in Hulk #187-188.
  
• Banner/Hulk saved Talbot's life in Hulk #200.
  
• Talbot died fighting the Hulk in Hulk #260.
  
• Banner gained control of the Hulk's body again in Hulk #272.
  
• The Hulk was granted amnesty in Hulk #278-279.

Crossover: Assistant Editors' Month

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It very well could be a reference to the Longshot limited series; that character went through a LOT of delays(his announced ongoing series never got published).

Longshot did exist long before the series. Per Arthur Adams in Modern Masters Volume 6: Arthur Adams "At that time I think Marvel had a policy that if you were going to become an editor at Marvel, you had to have written something for them, or possibly even created a character for them Don't hold me to that, that's just what I recall. So she'd made up this character, Longshot, apparently about a year before she'd come across my samples. And as I recall her telling me, everyone she'd shown her script to had turned her down. They said they didn't have time, or they just could not possibly understand the character. And so they went in and took a chance on me doing it."

It should be noted that Art started drawing the Longshot series in 1983, according to Wikipeida- it took him 8 months to draw the first issue. So Art was already working on the series when this issue came out.

They're must have been some major crushing on Nocenti in the Marvel offices back then. She's front and center in most of the Asst Editor's Month spots, more so than the other staff, and Adams completely drew Ricochet Rita as her in Longshot.