What if…? #23
Reading the current Dark Son storyline reminded me of a similar Hulk story written in the first volume of Marvel’s What If. The title on the cover says ‘What if the Hulk became a Barbarian?’ The inside title however is ‘What if the Hulk’s girlfriend, Jarella had lived?’. This story was written by Peter B. Gillis and pencilled by long time Hulk artist Herb Trimpe. It is interesting to see how this story mirrors the current Dark Son storyline.
Warning Spoilers Ahead
The timeline of the story diverges from regular Marvel continuity at the point in Hulk 205 where Jarella sees a little boy about to be crushed by a falling wall. As the story begins Jarella sees the boy disappear and in her confusion does not act. Jarella therefore is not killed in this timeline. The Watcher explains the unknown figure who sent the crypto-man was a worshipper of the Dark Gods who was attacking Jarella because they wanted him to do so. This was never established as fact in the original story or later stories since this one. It is hard to say if this explanation is considered cannon.
The entry on this story in the Marvel appendix website is critical of retcon. In fairness however the very first story to show Psyklops in Avengers 88 showed there were humans who worshipped the Dark Gods. Amazingly,this plot thread has not been mentioned,let alone covered in any Marvel comic that I know in the last 40 years. This is by no means a unreasonable retcon on Peter Gillis’ part.
As the story goes on Henry Pym sends the Clay Quartermain find the Hulk and Jarella. He has discovered a way to send the Hulk and Jarella back to the microverse and her home planet of Kai. On their journey they pass through several worlds of the microverse. They is even one panel of the Micronauts homeworld. Peter Gillis,ironically enough would take over writing the Micronauts a few years later after Bill Mantlo left.
Something seems to be holding Jarella and the Hulk back but they make it home to Kai.
Once on Kai Bruce Banner once again has control of the Hulk’s body. This is due to a spell cast on him by the magicians of Kai. The Hulk and Jarella immediately get married so that he can officially become king. However soon things get worse. Jarella is attacked by a strange tentacle creature whom the Hulk destroys. He asks the magicians of Kai for help in figuring out what is going on. One of the magicians,a telepathy traces the source to a hidden underground room that has been sealed off. It appears there are some people on this planet who are worshipping the Dark Gods. The magician explains some members of Kai had worshipped the Dark Gods in the past. Once again this has not been established as part of official continuity. The Hulk confronts the worshipper who cast the spell that cast on Jarella. He warns the Hulk that the Dark Gods want to destroy him and Jarella. He then melts away and dies.
Jarella and the Hulk hold a conference about the threat with their advisors. It appears that Kai also has super-powered creatures. They are recruited to help the Hulk fight the Dark Gods. The magicians have found that the source of the worshippers come from the mountain of Wol Ulrai. The Hulk takes his fellow superheroes to the mountain with him.
It these last few pages of this story that simiarlity to the Dark Son story are most obvious. Once they arrive at the mountain they meet soldiers of Kai brought back from the dead to fight Hulk and the other heroes. This is very similar to what we saw have seen the world mind of Kai do with Hiro in the current storyline. There is no war mind or world mind in this story but the method is the same. After they finish fighting the soldiers the next thing that happens exactly mirrors what happened in Enigma Force 2. The corpse of Lord Visis whom the Hulk fought before appears to meet the Hulk. He is controlled by the Dark Gods. Just as Visis is shown part of the war mind in issue 2 of Enigma Force. Visis reveals that the little boy was a illusion meant to trick Jarella. If she was dead it was believed that the Hulk would not returned to her world. He also explains the Dark Gods exist on a plane parallel to Kai. Visis uses the technology seen in Hulk 156 to try to defeat the Hulk. It produces a physical embodiment of what the person fears the most. In his case,becoming his other self again. The Hulk learns to accept the other side of himself and defeats the machine produced Hulk. The mountain crumbles and Visis’ corpse is destroyed. The story ends with threat of the Dark Gods still a possibility. But the Hulk will be ready for any attacks in the future knowing he has overcome his fear of his own rage.
End of Spoilers
In my final analysis this is decent story. It is wrapped a bit too quickly and if it could have gone into more detail but Gillis and Trimpe only had 20 pages to work with. The first 2 or 3 were needed just to explain the original story to new readers. With 18 pages you can only cover so much ground. It is worth buying if you find it in the back issue boxes.
The ideas in this story are very similar to what as been shown in both Incredible Hulks and the Enigma Force limited series. Interestingly the Dark Gods and their worshippers control the ancient technology of the planet. Something that has been hinted at about the war mind in current stories. One could simply replace the war mind with the Dark Gods in this story. This makes me wonder if the War Mind itself will be revealed to work for or be controlled by the Dark Gods.
Also note that the name of the story is Dark Son. This may be because Hiro is working with the Dark Gods through the War Mind,if he knows it or not.
One problem with this story applying to continuity is that it contradicts the events of Hulk 245-248 that Bill Mantlo was writing that same year. In those issues we learned the planet fell into chaos from the Hulk was teleported back to earth in 205. This is not what we saw in this issue. It is still possible that certain ideas about this issue will applied to this series even if the story itself is not. The last issue of the Enigma Force showed the idea of the Spiral Path that surrounds the Micornauts portion of the Microverse and separates it of the rest is now part of continuity. Despite the fact other things from the New Voyages series,especially the death of the Micronauts are ignored. The New Voyages was also written by Peter Gillis.
We learn tomorrow when the Enigma Force limited series and the Dark Son storyline both conclude.
Cover to Incredible Hulks #612
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