[Disguise Week] Throwback: Incredible Hulk Comic # 5 (January 1963)

Four years ago, on Halloween, I listed fictional characters from pop culture that aren't yeti but chose at one point to dress up like one.

One of them was the "Incredible" Hulk. He disguised himself as a yeti in only the fifth issue of his introductory comic book series back in 1963. 

Here's the story of why he did such a heroic thing (source /editorializing is all mine). 

Psst: it's the real reason they call him "Incredible". And now you know...

-----

The villain General Fang took an army to the peaceful principality of Llhasa to conquer it for his Communist regime. Dr. Bruce Banner received Llhasa's distress call and journeyed there as the Hulk to fight Fang.  Those are the facts.

Because he desperately wanted to be a hero and have the epithet "Incredible" applied to him, Hulk decided to disguise himself as "the abominable snowman" so as to take advantage of the superstitions of Fang's soldiers.   Fang was not fooled, however... He did not believe in the legends of the Yeti, and so "using a 3-D projection of a dragon", he set up a trap for Hulk.

Hulk was an idiot and jumped at the dragon, thinking it real (I guess Hulk has his own superstitions about dragons?) , and so Hulk fell into an electronically-charged cage.  Like he does. On weekly basises.

I will end the story there.

Here's the bit of the comic where Hulk is a hero (by disguising himself as a yeti). Interesting factoid of note: this is the only instance in the entire history of Hulk where he acts as a hero.  I use the term "hero" loosely here.

Hey, this was # 6 on my Wish List for 2015! Thanks, Santa!

[Marvel Week] Hulk vs. Yeti

---

Source

---

Source

Hulk vs. Yeti (Yeti Arcade: Hulk Roundup)

No one deserves to get beaten to within an inch of his life by the yeti more than Hulk.

I am actually A-OK with fighting between the Green and the White.

Luckily, thanks to magic techno-wizards, we can enjoy simulations of this on our home electronic viewing-windows.

In the mobile game Avengers Initiative (2012), you get to play Hulk (why anyone would want this is beyond this author's understanding).   And you get to fight what a lot of you are going to tell me is the super-villain named Wendigo.  But it's not. It's yeti.  Listen, when Hulk fights anything that looks like a yeti, it's a yeti.

This is not my opinion. It is the UNIVERSE'S.

If Wendigo fights Hulk, he stops being Wendigo and becomes yeti.  Look it up in the rule book, man. If I could make a fridge magnet that says that and put it on every metallic surface owned by every human being on earth (that lived between 1830 and 1955), I would.

I can't state it any simpler than that.

Just to illustrate my point further, here are a couple more examples of Hulk vs. YETI (yes, yeti):

---

you absolute purists, I present to you The Incredible Hulk (2008) for the Nintendo DS.  Hulk does contend with the Abominable Snowman and it is acknowledged as such by the game itself.  No misrepresentations!

This has been a lesson and I hope you have learned what I have taught.

Flanders Yeti... (with Hulk!)

On his blog, artist Scott Flanders shows the steps he went through to make this Hulk VS. Yeti.

This is one of many mock promotional posters he made up for his students at the Boys & Girls Club who worked on a comic book story project with him.

Winner of the Pathetic Award

Well, there's good figures (see last post) and there's pathetic ones...



The above is the South American knock-off of a Columbian knock-off of the Super Powers Collection of DC Comics' superhero action figures from the 1980's. The series' main star is El Capitan Ray, a cheap knock-off of Superman.

And what you are seeing here is an original creation of the knock-offers, not intended to imitate any specific DC superhero. It is Hombre de las Nieves, literally "The Man of the Snows" aka the Abominable Snowman, aka yeti!

It is actually just a recast Incredible Hulk figure painted white and gray.

And oddly enough, Hombre Increible is part of the same series. So maybe they are twins?

This is odd that they'd be part of the same super-team. Hulk and Yeti have a history of battling each other (see also here), and one time Hulk even disguised himself to look like the yeti in order to scare people. Frankly, I don't know which one is more pathetic, this action figure knock-off, or Mr. HULK bulk.

Get a job, Hulk! And quit with the smashing.



Source: Super Powers Archive

Associate to the Legion of Lunatics!

The Lunatic Legion was a group of supervillains in the Marvel comics universe.



There was an associate (not even a full member) of the Lunatic Legion named Yeti.

Little is know about him, but he apparently had good taste in utility belts.

According to The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe:

"He had no apparent powers, though he seemed to be an able hand-to-hand combatant."

Despite his prowess at the fisticuffs, Yeti was short-lived. He was apparently murdered in cold blood by the vile and wrathful Incredible Hulk.

Not Yeti Friday - The Brute

The Brute was a short-lived comic book in the 1970's.



It featured a blue-skinned Neanderthal monster named The Brute.

He was a lot like the yeti.

He was thawed from ice in 1975 and went on a rampage and killed people. That was basically the plot.





The Brute *loved* toy balls.



So it was really serendipitous that the super-villain's device to take over the world looked like a toy ball. The Brute went right for it, foiling his plans. Go The Brute!

Xemnu

Who is Xemnu?
Looks like a yeti to me.


(Above: John Byrne's illustration from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.)


He's not. He's a villain from the Marvel Comic Book Universe - an evil, psychic alien criminal from another planet.




Xemnu was originally known as The Hulk.




Then, he was The Living Titan (- to distinguish him from a dead one, I suppose).




He had to change his title when he battled The Actual Hulk. But he was always good ol' Xemnu.




He was clearly very powerful, though his plots were strange. For instance, one time he wanted to steal the Earth's children... Oookay.




When he went up against She-Hulk, they apparently performed ballet. Some kind of warthog-headed man was jealous. "I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I AM MEAN!!" was all Xemnu had to say on the subject.




Despite his lack of a mouth, the fans still love him. Someone made him into a cuddly plush doll.




Someone else made him into a micro-man.




And even an action figure.


Here's what I've learned about him from reading his Wikipedia page and another site about him:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He can project a "Mento-Blast" into his enemies.

At one point, he was the star of his own children's television show. It was called "The Astro-Nuts" and the kids loved it (probably because Xemnu hypnotized them). He played himself, an alien from the Magic Planet, and had an astronaut side-kick.

He's often in gaseous form between maniacal plots.

For a little while, he was a teddy bear in a giant alien's toy collection.

He can control billions of people with his mind.

He converted She-Hulk into "She-Xemnu" once.

He's obviously had quite a life!

The Abominable Green?!-man?

Can you picture yeti singing "It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green"?

Today I would like to explore the possibility that our Man-Beast is not just murderous, but verdurous.

It’s not as if I’ve never considered the notion. The Hulk, as everyone knows, is green, and readers might remember I have a tendency to confuse him with yeti (even though they are reportedly mortal enemies). I have also posted in the past about "yeti sanction", whatever that is.

So sure, the Emerald Ape Theory and I have crossed paths. I’ve been a skeptic though. Surely nothing that lives in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Tibetan Tundra would be colored green. Right? That would be thoroughly inane. But then I saw this:



Isn’t Dr. Seuss’ "Grinch"character basically a yeti? Besides living alone in an ice cave, they’re both furry, mean-tempered, naked, and have a pet dog. Could our man "Theo" be on to something?

Using Grinch as a starting place, I decided to take a pictorial look at where else the elusive yeti may be hiding, all verdant-hued and cowardly cowering, in that hallowed place called Popular Culture.



Invisible Green Yeti follows around old men with canes. How abominable.




Yeti is meticulously sculpted with this coloring. The Jade Beast of Bhutan?



And children are expected to make companions with plush versions. Is Oscar the Grouch (Grinch?) really just a Tibetan refugee?




For the "action figure" crowd, there are plastic toys with the chromatic theme.



And suits for the Halloween.



Finally, would it surprise you to know that the Jolly Green Giant is involved!?!

Didn’t think it would; that guy is everywhere.

But seriously, there actually is a connection. I’ll let mr. awesome-dude Loren Coleman* explain on his blog.


* Loren Coleman is responsible for getting this site on BoingBoing after posting about it himself. He notified me by email and signed it "Your Yeti Friend". Thanks, Loren Coleman!