Issue(s): Hulk #384
Cover Date: Aug 91
Title: "Small talk"
Credits:
Peter David - Writer
Dale Keown - Penciler
Mark Farmer - Inker
Chris Cooper - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
The Hulk was shrunk by Thanos during Infinity Gauntlet, and he's been returned to the sewer where he fought the Abomination last issue. It takes him a while to realize that he's on Earth but just tiny, though.

The Hulk re-locates the Abomination, but there isn't much he can do about him at his current size.

Abomination is basically playing Beauty and the Beast with his former wife, Nadia. And we're talking the 1987 TV show version of Beauty and the Beast, with a society of people living in the sewer.

It's very well done, with Peter David exploring a tragic side of the Abomination that we've never seen before.

But Nadia, unaware that the Abomination is her former husband, is terrified of the Abomination and doesn't want to be with him in the sewer. Since the Hulk can't do anything physically about it, he tries a different tact.

Since the Abomination was looking for a "sign" last issue, the idea of the Hulk pretending to be "the Lord" and the Abomination buying it isn't so far fetched.

The bit with someone pretending to be God and giving someone messages comes from the movie Real Genius. The Hulk thinks to himself that it was actually something he and his friends did in college first and it was then used in the movie. That steps right up to the line of being a rip-off, at least, but i've actually never seen Real Genius so it doesn't matter too much to me.

The Hulk convinces the Abomination that it's better to leave Nadia with the memory of her former husband than reveal that he's become a monster.

It's worth remembering where the Hulk is in his relationship with Betty at this moment, after what we saw last issue. The Hulk might have given different advice in other circumstances.

Somewhere along the way, the Abomination realizes that he's talking to the Hulk.

Really strong stuff. Humanizing a villain does always run the risk of making the character not a villain any more, and he will be treated sympathetically going forward in Peter David's Hulk run, and he'll even get his own miniseries. But there's nothing to say that we can't understand the Abomination as a tragic figure while still allowing him to become self-serving because of what he's been through.

Also in this issue, Marlo passes out while talking on the phone to her mom when she learns that Rick was among those that disappeared.

And Betty picks the right moment to get a job working at a crisis hotline service, despite a lack of credentials.

Quality Rating: A

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place after the Hulk is shrunk in Infinity Gauntlet #4. We see Hulk getting teleported away again at the end of this issue. We'll see him next in Doctor Strange #35.

References:

The Hulk was shrunk by Thanos in Infinity Gauntlet #4.

Crossover: Infinity Gauntlet

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Easily the best of all the IG tie-ins. David took the Hulk getting shrunk and, rather than do the tired cliche of a tiny-hero-fighting-giant-sized-stuff story, turned it into something unique.

One of the single best issues of Hulk, both in the writing and the art. Amazing when you realize it's a tie-in comic and PAD's notorious spite of those.

To be fair, most of the people and some of the events in Real Genius were based on real people at Caltech, which I know, because my brother knew several of them when he went there, so it's not really ripping it off to claim to be the inspiration when that's how the film really was inspired. Kudos to David for knowing that, since they don't call it Caltech in the film.

Maybe the best tie in ever?