The Incredible Hulk #135
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIncredible Hulk #135 marks the first time Kang the Conqueror crossed over from his Avengers stomping grounds to battle the Hulk solo, broadening the time-manipulating villain's footprint across the Marvel Universe and cementing him as a genuine universe-wide threat rather than merely an Avengers antagonist. The issue is notable for its early-Bronze Age deployment of a retcons-by-time-travel plot engine — Kang attempts to erase both the Hulk and the Avengers from existence by altering WWI history — a storytelling device that Marvel and DC would return to repeatedly for decades. It also brings back the Phantom Eagle, Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe's WWI flying-ace hero who had debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #16 (1968), giving that obscure character his most prominent appearance and connecting two otherwise separate corners of the Marvel line. The issue's events were later considered significant enough to be recapped in Thor Annual #17, Avengers Annual #21, and Avengers Forever #9, showing its lasting resonance within Kang's sprawling continuity.
In "Descent into the Time-Storm!", the Hulk is torn from the present and hurled into World War I by the time-traveling conqueror Kang, who forces him to stop the Phantom Eagle from completing a mission that could erase the Avengers—and even the Hulk himself—from existence. Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Herb Trimpe, with inks by Sal Buscema and letters by Sam Rosen, this 1971 classic features a cover by Herb Trimpe that captures the chaos of a battle across time.
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The story, titled 'Descent Into the Time-Storm!', was written by Roy Thomas and penciled by Herb Trimpe, with inks by Sal Buscema and lettering by Sam Rosen. It carried a cover date of January 1971 and went on sale October 13, 1970. Trimpe had a personal attachment to aviation subjects — he co-created the Phantom Eagle partly out of a lifelong love of airplanes — making his reunion with that character in this issue a natural fit. Thomas, who would soon become Marvel's Editor-in-Chief after Stan Lee stepped back from that role, was at this point crafting dense, continuity-rich scripts that wove together previously disparate Marvel characters, a hallmark of the emerging Bronze Age style.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date January 1971 (on-sale October 13, 1970); part of The Incredible Hulk vol. 1 (1968 series), issue #135.
- Written by Roy Thomas; penciled by Herb Trimpe; inked by Sal Buscema; lettered by Sam Rosen; cover art by Herb Trimpe.
- Features the first meeting of Kang the Conqueror and the Hulk — Kang's first significant solo clash with a non-Avengers hero.
- Second published appearance of the Phantom Eagle (Karl Kaufman), the WWI flying ace co-created by Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe in Marvel Super-Heroes #16 (September 1968); the Phantom Eagle's next appearance after this issue is in Ghost Rider #12.
- Story title: 'Descent Into the Time-Storm!' — Kang abducts the Hulk to the 41st century and sends him back to WWI to prevent Phantom Eagle from destroying a German super-cannon, a mission designed to erase Bruce Banner's ancestor — and thus the Hulk and Avengers — from existence.
- The plot exploits the Hulk's unique ability to survive a temporal 'Time Storm' that Kang's own Chronosphere cannot penetrate, a creative justification for using the Hulk as an unwilling pawn.
- Kang receives an apparent death/limbo fate at the issue's end, a development later explained and recapped in Thor Annual #17, Avengers Annual #21, and Avengers Forever #9.
- Reprinted multiple times: in Marvel Super-Heroes #87 (March 1980); collected in Avengers: Kang — Time and Time Again TPB (2005); Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 7 (2013); Incredible Hulk Epic Collection Vol. 4 — In the Hands of Hydra (2019); and Incredible Hulk Omnibus Vol. 3 (2025).
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Mighty World of Marvel #100 (1974), Spindelmannen #4/1975 (1975), Hulk #6 (1977), Marvel Super-Heroes #87 (1980), Hulk el Hombre Increíble #27 (1981), Biblioteca Marvel: Hulk #14 (2004), Essential Hulk #3 (2005), Avengers: Kang - Time and Time Again #[nn] (2005), Essential Hulk #3 [Second Edition] (2012), Incredible Hulk Epic Collection #4 (2019), The Incredible Hulk Omnibus #3 (2025), Hulk E I Difensori #12, O Incrível Hulk #14
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