Issue(s): Hulk #361
Cover Date: Nov 89
Title: "Iron tears"
Credits:
Peter David - Writer
Jeff Purves - Penciler
Marie Severin - Inker
James DiGiovanna - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
The Hulk is in Los Angeles as a result of the events of Iron Man #247, and he bursts in on a Maggia meeting, attacking them in response to their attacks on him while he was an enforcer in Las Vegas.

Luckily for the Maggia, Iron Man happens upon the scene and blasts the Hulk away.

The Maggia then try to hire Iron Man to take out the Hulk permanently. Iron Man scoffs at the idea, saying that if he knew who the Hulk was attacking, he would have never stopped to respond to the Hulk's rampage in the first place. But when they offer to give him information on who killed Whitney Frost, he considers it, and tells them to contact him the next day if they can meet his price.

The whole thing turns out to be a clever ruse, though. The Hulk and Iron Man are actually working together.

We jump back in time a bit to see Bruce Banner showing up at Stark Enterprises...

...and Bruce and Tony exchanging sob stories for a bit.

Tony agrees to use his resources to help look for Betty, who Bruce thinks must have given birth by now. Tony also has an idea about how they can "aim that loose cannon of yours" by going after the Maggia. As Bruce and the Hulk debate the idea of helping Iron Man, we see Bruce physically transforming back and forth, in a particularly gruesome scene.

The transformations end with the Hulk in charge. He tells Iron Man that his dialogues with Bruce are only physical like that "when I got a lot on my mind".

We jump forward again to see Iron Man having received the Maggia's communication and agreeing to meet, and the Hulk springing the trap.

AIM and Hydra show up too.

So Iron Man doesn't get to capture Madame Masque, but he and the Hulk do bust a lot of bad guys.

In the end, Tony doesn't tell Bruce about the miscarriage.

We're kind of in a transitional period for the Hulk book now that the Vegas status quo is over, and a crossover with Iron Man is a fun way to spend that period. But it's not all fun: the visualization of the back-and-forth between Hulk and Banner is bizarre (in a good way), and there's also the implied instability that Tony sees in Bruce, since he's withholding the info on his baby. I continue to have mixed feelings about Jeff Purves' art. I love his Hulk but i love his human characters a lot less.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place soon after Iron Man #247.

References:

• This issue opens with the Maggia talking about how they lost Las Vegas and Mr. Cloot, a reference to Hulk #357-359.
  
• The Maggia think they can hire Iron Man in part because he helped rescue Madame Masque in Iron Man #247. Also because they've heard that Iron Man's "boss" Tony Stark has been paralyzed and is giving up control of Stark Enterprises.
  
• Tony Stark was paralyzed in Iron Man #243 (no footnote).
  
• Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that, "I knew when Iron Man told me that the Hulk turned up alive during that whole Evolutionary Thing... that it was only a matter of time until you surfaced". Hulk "turned up" in Avengers annual #17, which Iron Man wasn't a part of, but i guess he heard about it (even though he wasn't an active Avenger at the time and only recently started hanging around with the West Coast team again). Iron Man also already knew that Hulk was alive thanks to the continuity insert Hulk Smash Avengers #4, but maybe Tony is ignoring that to preserve the lie that it's currently a new guy in the Iron Man suit.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This issue confirms that the Maggia had Cloot on call whenever they needed him. This raises the question of why they never used him against the heroes before Vegas arc. It's irrelevant, since later writers ignored the idea that there was a supernatural aspect to the Maggia, which was probably for the best.
This issue doesn't fit at all with Hulk Smash Avengers 4- there's no evidence that Hulk knows that Tony was/is Iron Man.

was reading this in real-time as a 10 year old kid and just loved it.. the grey Hulk was "my Hulk" and I remember loving that splash page. Marie Severin inking Jeff Purves did wonders for Purve's art, I think.

I agree, George - Marie really made Purves' Hulk work. Terry Austin also did a great job with Joe as well as the Thing in #350.

Cloot was probably a recent hire for the Maggia, and given his nature a fair-weather one at that.