O Incrível Hulk #4

History

Distri Editora — Sociedade Editora, Lda. operated a small cluster of Marvel reprint titles in Portugal in 1983, running parallel to (but distinct from) the larger Brazilian Editora Abril line that launched the same year. The Grand Comics Database records the Distri Editora O Incrível Hulk series as comprising exactly four issues, with this May 1983 number serving as the final installment. The lead story reprints The Incredible Hulk #4 (Marvel, September 1962, cover-dated November 1962), originally written and edited by Stan Lee, pencilled by Jack Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers, and lettered by Art Simek — a creative team at the absolute height of Marvel's foundational Silver Age output.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published Maio (May) 1983 by Distri Editora — Sociedade Editora, Lda. (Portugal); the fourth and last issue of the series, which ran for exactly 4 issues per the Grand Comics Database.
• Lead reprint is The Incredible Hulk #4 (Marvel, 1962), written and edited by Stan Lee, pencilled by Jack Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers — featuring the two stories 'The Monster and the Machine!' and 'Mongu!! Gladiator from Space!'
• First appearance of Mongu (Boris Monguski), a Soviet agent operating inside a battle exoskeleton, who challenges the Hulk to combat under the pretense of being an alien gladiator — the character's Portuguese-language debut occurs in this issue.
• The 1962 source issue contains the first use of the Hulk's thunderclap — the concussive shockwave generated by clapping his hands together — a power that became a permanent part of the character's arsenal.
• The source issue also depicts the Hulk retaining traces of Bruce Banner's intelligence during his transformed state, an early exploration of the Banner/Hulk dual-consciousness dynamic central to the character.
• The character index for this issue includes Asgardian figures (Loki, Thor, Odin, Balder, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg) and X-Men (Cyclops/Scott Summers, Wolverine/James Howlett, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Banshee, Professor X), strongly indicating the issue reprints additional stories beyond the 1962 Hulk #4 — likely an Asgard-set Hulk story and an X-Men crossover story — consistent with the anthology 'mix' format common to Portuguese and Brazilian Marvel reprint editions of the era.
• The 1962 Hulk #4 source material was later collected in Marvel Masterworks #8 (September 1989), confirming its recognized place in Hulk publication history.
• Distri Editora's O Incrível Hulk is distinct from the longer-running Brazilian Editora Abril series (165 issues, July 1983–March 1997); the Portuguese Distri line was a separate, much shorter publishing venture targeting readers in Portugal.

Cast · 30 characters

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