A lot of aspects of the story naturally come straight from The Incredible Hulk #1. With the Cold War still in full effect in the early 80s, the ultimate cause of Banner's transformation into the Hulk remains the Gamma Bomb as in the comics. Although in this version, the focus is on the far more palatable threat of alien invasion. Despite these changes, many scenes still come straight from the original comic, and it's very hard to top anything original from Lee and Kirby! I find it interesting that when the Hulk first appears, he's pretty much silent apart from his familiar growls, making him an even more effective mystery to the soldiers at Gamma Base. When the Hulk finally confronts Carlson (the equivalent of the nefarious Igor from the original comic), the story takes an even more original turn when Carlson fights the Hulk, revealing himself to be an android. Betty's kidnap by the alien commander veers towards schlock territory, but at least it's a good set-up for Hulk versus that alien's machine. There are a couple of problems with the end however. The alien's exact reasons for coming to Earth are naturally left unexplained - a follow-up episode would have been welcome if the series had continued. Also most of the destruction is clearly caused by the alien machine, which the Hulk destroys - to me that's not enough motivation for Talbot to dedicate himself to getting rid of the Hulk. Otherwise however, this is a fairly good update of the original origin story.


This is a well done episode. It has much of the same tone as "Prisoner of the Monster" in that it feels more like a Sci-Fi drama than it does a Saturday morning cartoon. There are certain moments that are so out-of-the-ordinary for a cartoon of this era that I just love them. For example, after the Gamma Bomb explosion, Bruce and Rick are trapped in a hospital room. Bruce is talking then suddenly stops. He puts his hand to his head and sits there in a long silence. In that silence a moment is created...and because of it you know something has gone horribly wrong.
     Obviously some changes had to be made to Hulk's origin from the comic book because it was very much a product of the 60s. I think using an alien (instead of a Russian spy) allowed the writer to keep the comic's origin as intact as possible. Not only that but it gives the Hulk somebody to battle.  I didn't really have a problem with the end because I felt that leaving the alien's intentions unexplained gave it some mystery.  This episode deserves some pretty high praise. I certainly wish the 2003 movie had been as much fun.