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Marvel Team-Up #104: Review

Apr 1981
Roger McKenzie, Jerry Bingham

Story Name:

MODOK Must Triumph!

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Marvel Team-Up #104 Review by (November 1, 2023)

Review: Disappointing issue takes forever to get to the real plot (Hulk versus dinosaurs!) that it’s all over in a couple of pages. And the Ka-Zar versus a T-Rex and Ka-Zar versus intruders are cliché, as is Hulk’s encounter on the Golden Gate Bridge. Writing and art are pedestrian all the way through.

Comments: Title from cover. Unsubtle joke: Bruce uses “David Banner” as a pseudonym; that the name given to the character in the INCREDIBLE HULK TV series (1977-1982). Hulk’s next appearance is in HULK! (1978) #26 where he is in New York City with no explanation.  






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Marvel Team-Up #104 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

In the Savage Land, Ka-Zar hunts and kills a marauding dinosaur. He then encounters a bunch of armed invaders and he and Zabu drive them off but not before one secretly drops a homing device into a river….

In San Francisco, the police try to talk down the Hulk who is atop one of the towers od f the Golden Gate Bridge with a little girl who has befriended him. Police Captain Taggart walks up a cable to talk to Hulk calmly. Hulk does not trust Taggart’s assurance that they will not try to harm him but the girl asks Hulk to let her go down with Taggart. But Taggart slips and Hulk lunges to steady him, which the police sharpshooters interpret as an act of aggression and open fire. Enraged, Hulk jumps through the bridge to land in the water and swims away. Hulk comes up near a dock where he sits peacefully and transforms back to Bruce Banner. Bruce goes to the Salvation Army for free clothing and meals. A sailor who has decided to retire offers Bruce the papers he needs to ship out. He joins the crew of a tramp steamer and does manual labor and learns there is a part of the ship where the crew is forbidden to go. A fellow crewman, Scott, points out the Bruce that the ship is heading south, not west as they were told. They break into the forbidden area and discover advanced military craft and munitions. They also encounter the group’s chairman, MODOK. Bruce and Scott are overpowered and imprisoned; MODOK has recognized Bruce Banner and orders him sedated. The ship sheds its disguise, revealing a sleek craft which heads to the Savage Land….

MODOK and his gang arrive in the Savage Land and they spray somna-gas to put the wildlife to sleep. Ka-Zar gets wind of this and dashes to the scene and takes on the guards but the gas soon subdues him and Zabu….

He awakens to discover that the dinosaurs are being loaded onto the ship; MODOK’s scheme is to use the process that mutated him to create an army of monsters to conquer the world. But the situation so scares Bruce Banner that, despite the sedatives, he transforms into the Hulk and goes berserk. Ka-Zar wraps his chains around Hulk’s neck so that the behemoth snaps them. Ka-Zar then persuades Hulk that the dinosaurs are the enemy. Jade Jaws fights his way through them and takes on MODOK who employs his mental blasts. But Hulk keeps bouncing back from the blasts until Zabu leaps on the villain. Ka-Zar calls him off….

Epilogue: The bad guys are drugged with their own somna-gas and held for the authorities. Ka-Zar offers Hulk sanctuary in the Savage Land but Hulk declines and leaps away….




Jerry Bingham
Mike Esposito
Christie Scheele
Al Milgrom (Cover Penciler)
Al Milgrom (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Diana Albers.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Hulk
Hulk

(Bruce Banner)



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