The Incredible Hulk #141
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Incredible Hulk #141 (July 1971) is the origin issue of Dr. Leonard Samson — better known as Doc Samson — one of the most durable supporting characters in the Hulk's fifty-plus-year mythology. What makes the debut structurally interesting is that Samson enters the story not as a straightforward hero but as an ambiguous figure driven as much by personal ambition as by scientific altruism: he uses the siphoned gamma energy that was supposed to permanently cure Bruce Banner to transform himself into a gamma-powered strongman, instantly fracturing the Banner–Betty Ross relationship and giving the series a complicated new triangle. The issue also represents a maturation of the Bronze Age Hulk title, adding a psychiatrist-superhero who could engage Bruce Banner on psychological terms — a concept that would be revisited across decades of storytelling, from Peter David's run to Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk.
Find on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Writer Roy Thomas conceived Doc Samson specifically as a gamma-powered human antagonist for the Hulk, and in his own words showed artist Herb Trimpe copies of the vintage 'Captain Tootsie' promotional comic-strip ads — designed by Fawcett's C.C. Beck — as a visual starting point, asking Trimpe to add a lightning bolt and distinctive boots as a nod to the original Captain Marvel. The story was produced under the standard Marvel Method of the era, meaning Trimpe functioned as an uncredited co-plotter alongside Thomas; inks were handled by John Severin, with lettering by Artie Simek and Stan Lee serving as editor-in-chief. The issue arrived during Trimpe's long, nearly unbroken tenure as the title's regular penciler (roughly issues #106 through #193), a run during which he co-created the bulk of the Hulk's Bronze Age supporting cast.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Doc Samson (Dr. Leonard Samson, a.k.a. Leonard Skivorski Jr.) — issue titled 'His Name Is… Samson!'
- First appearance of the Cathexis Ray Generator, the device central to both Banner's temporary cure and Samson's gamma-powered transformation
- Creative team: writer Roy Thomas, pencils Herb Trimpe, inks John Severin, letters Artie Simek, editor Stan Lee; cover and interior art by Trimpe
- The story resolves a long-running subplot: Betty Ross had been transformed into a glass statue in Incredible Hulk #138 after a forced blood transfusion with the Sandman; the Cathexis Ray restores her to normal
- Bruce Banner is temporarily cured of his Hulk transformations within this issue — a cure that quickly unravels when Banner, jealous of Samson courting Betty, voluntarily re-exposes himself to gamma radiation
- Roy Thomas drew visual inspiration for Samson's design from C.C. Beck's 1940s 'Captain Tootsie' promotional strips, with Trimpe adding a lightning-bolt chest insignia as a tribute to the original Fawcett Captain Marvel
- Reprinted in Marvel Treasury Edition #5 (1975), Marvel Super-Heroes #92 (1980), Essential Hulk Vol. 3 (2005), Incredible Hulk Epic Collection Vol. 5: Who Will Judge the Hulk? (2020), and True Believers: King in Black – Gamma Flight's Doc Samson #1 (2021)
- Doc Samson has since appeared in the 1996 Incredible Hulk animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and was portrayed by Ty Burrell in the 2008 Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Incredible Hulk
Key issues in The Incredible Hulk
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.