Essential the Rampaging Hulk, Volume 1

This collection of stories from the Marvel magazine-size blaxk & white format title The Rampaging Hulk is a real find. The Hulk is more ornery than the now happily defunct Comics Code Authority would allow, and the art is fascinating, reminiscent of original pencil art but less sketchy. The effect is quite different from mere black and white reprints of color comics, the usual fare in the Marvel Essentials series. The stories are great fun, especially the prequel to Avengers # 1, in which Iron Man, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Thor team up against the Hulk, finally enlisting his aid against alien invaders. Why didn't the others recall this when they (re)gathered in Avengers # 1 and its various retellings over the years? Simply because the last story in Rampaging Hulk retcons the adventures contained in this collection to the limbo of a set of CGI movies fabricated by one of the aliens for their equivalent of cable TV. So they never happened in official continuity. Well, to hell with that! This story, at least, ought to have been included on the "40 Years of Avengers" CD! But since it wasn't, it is certainly one's duty as an Avengers fan to add a copy of Essential Rampaging Hulk to one's library. Or, I suspect, Hulk will smash.