Marvel Comics Silver Age DisContinuity 007
Incredible Hulk #2

One of the greatest guides to the concept of continuity in a specific series is The DisContinuity Guide: The Unofficial Doctor Who Companion by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, first put out in 1995.

From my point of view the genius of this work is in the way the authors peel back the layers of a complex text like Doctor Who, and start back at the beginning, when we didn’t know anything about the series or what it would eventually evolve into.

This allows us to see the ways in which the universe was expanded,
sometimes carefully, often times not. We get to see undeveloped themes
and the earliest examples of new themes.

Like an evolutionary biologist studying our small, brown furred
burrowing human ancestors, we get a look at the way things were without
the baggage of the way things are.

Toad Men technology is primarily “magnetic” in nature. Using their magnetic tech, the Toad Men locate the most brilliant scientific mind on the planet, Dr. Bruce Banner!

Hulk makes quick work of the Toad Men, but then conceives of using the weapons and the technology of the Toad men to conquer the world himself.

The Hulk doesn’t get to think about conquering the world for too long before General Thunderbolt Ross shoots the Toad man ship down. Ross becomes convinced that Banner somehow operated the alien invasion ship by himself.

(Awesome panel of the Toad Men using Magnetic disintegrator guns to escape their downed spacecraft.)

After taking control of the skies the Armada focuses its magnetic rays
on the Moon, drawing it ever closer to the Earth, wreaking terrible
havoc, until the world is destroyed in a massive collision. The only way
to stop it is to surrender to the Toad Men.

Somehow, all thought of the destruction of the Earth is forgotten as Betty, the Hulk, General Ros and Rick Jones have some sort of dramatic confrontation.  Hey guys, the Moon is about to collide with the Earth, killing everyone! Fortunately Banner holds it together long enough to pull a scientific miracle out of his but and save the world.

Links:
Incredible Hulk 001 origin recounted

Ad for Fantastic Four 005:

Location:
Southwestern American desert where Banner has his lab, Earth orbit

Retcon:
The Hulk is now green instead of gray, and no mention is made of the color change.

From Wikipedia:

“In the debut, Lee chose gray for the Hulk because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, had problems with the gray coloring, resulting in different shades of gray, and even green, in the issue. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the skin color to green. Green was used in retellings of the origin, with even reprints of the original story being recolored for the next two decades, until The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #302 (December 1984) reintroduced the gray Hulk in flashbacks set close to the origin story. Since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original gray coloring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Hulk’s skin had initially been gray. An exception is the early trade paperback, Origins of Marvel Comics, from 1974, which explains the difficulties in keeping the gray color consistent in a Stan Lee written prologue, and reprints the origin story keeping the gray coloration.”

Bottom Line:                   
From a continuity perspective, this comic presents an interesting dilemma.  When the Toad Men attack the planet Earth, their spaceships hover in the air for all to see, worldwide. Yet, if the Marvel Universe is one large consistent whole, why did the Fantastic Four not get involved? Why, in the continuity of the FF, does the invasion of the Toad men not even rate a mention?

Further, when the Toad Men scan the Earth for the smartest man on the planet, they immediately zero in on Bruce Banner, not Reed Richards. Let’s assume Banner is smarter than Richards. If he is, it’s not by much. When Reed Richards and Bruce Banner meet, in Fantastic Four 012, there is no indication that one is necessarily smarter than the other, but there is also little time for scientific discussion.

My feeling is that Stan Lee originally thought to keep the Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk continuities separate. That’s why Johnny Storm is reading the Hulk comic in Fantastic Four 005 (featuring a purple, not green Hulk) and why the FF have no knowledge of the Toad Man invasion in their book. It’s only after fans ask for a meet-up between the characters and the Hulk comic is canceled after issue six that the merging the continuities occurs.

From the point of view of the art, this issue is amazing. Ditko inks on Kirby art really brings out the Boris Karloff in the Hulk.

The early Hulk is not a hero at all. His first thought is not to save the Earth from the Toad men, but to use the Toad men technology to destroy the Earth himself. It’s the brilliance of Banner that defeats the Toad Men, not the strength of the Hulk. In fact, the Hulk is more interested in settling scores with General Ross (by going after Betty Ross) than in dealing with the Toad Men at all, who are dealt with  in the last few pages.

The downside of this is that the alien invasion is dealt with almost as an afterthought, which diminishes the story.

I’d love additional insights and comments.