Issue(s): Inhumans #12
Cover Date: Aug 77
Title: "A berserker called Hulk!"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Keith Pollard - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker

Review/plot:
The Inhumans are in disguise in New York. Medusa has just checked in on the Baxter Building and finds that the FF are not home, so she uses her hair like a parachute to return to the ground. Note that Karnak's disguise is the same as the last time the Royal Family were hiding in the US; i guess he's got a really giant head if he's got to cover it up with that turban.

With the FF not available, the Royal Family make their way to the UN building. But Gorgon dumbly causes a disturbance along the way, and the police show up and things get out of hand. Bruce Banner, eating at a nearby diner, gets upset at the way the police are misunderstanding the Inhumans, and he hulks out.

The Hulk attempts to "help" by attacking the Inhumans, but the Inhumans try to stop him so he turns on them.

Black Bolt is able to stop the Hulk...

...and the Inhumans are able to convince him that they are his friends.

A nice resolution to a Hulk encounter.

Note the AD billboard in that final Hulk panel. A similar ad appears earlier in the story.

Also in this issue, Crystal and Quicksilver are suspicious of an Inhuman named Thraxon who is leading the efforts to rebuild the Great Refuge.

And the Pursuer wakes up.

For better or worse, though, this is the last issue of the Inhumans series and these plot threads will be wrapped up in other issues, beginning in Captain Marvel #52.

The series started off pretty well but declined in the middle. I think these last two issues were showing improvement, maybe because of the simpler single-issue stories, maybe because of Keith Pollard's consistent art, or maybe because they featured an awesome Cockroach Man and then the Hulk.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This has to take place before Captain Marvel #53, where the "War with the Three Galaxies" is concluded. Thanks to that, the Hulk appears in a gap between Hulk #208-209 along with a number of other Hulk guest appearances, annuals, and Defenders issues.

References:

• Hulk identifies Black Bolt as "only one who ever hurt Hulk bad -- when you talked into Hulk's ear" in Hulk annual #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Masterworks: The Inhumans vol. 2

The "AD" billboard could refer to an art studio that Bob Wiacek was part of. RW=Bob Wiacek, AB=probably Aubrey Bradford, who inked the cover to #9; AMJ=?

"How would you describe the Hulk's powers, Karnak?"
"Well, he's not as weak as an elephant."

Love that first panel and Medusa's "hairachute"!

AMJ could be Keith Pollard's buddy Arvell Malcolm Jones.

AMJ is Arvell Jones, AB is Aubrey Bradford, RW is Ron Wilson. Alternative Designs was the art cooperative they had created, along with Pollard and a few others.