The Incredible Hulk #379
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Incredible Hulk #379 is a pivotal hinge point in Peter David's celebrated run on the title, serving as the first full, active deployment of the newly merged 'Professor Hulk' persona in an action context — showing readers, for the first time in the book's ongoing story, what the integrated Bruce Banner/green Hulk/gray Hulk entity could do in the world beyond the hypnotherapy session of issue #377. More critically, it marks the moment the Pantheon — a team of half-human, half-Asgardian warriors who would anchor the book's supporting cast from this issue through #426 — make their forceful entrance into the Hulk's life, delivering the first appearances of members Achilles, Ajax (in his full debut), Delphi, Hector, and Ulysses. The issue's title, 'Hit and Myth,' neatly announces David's signature approach: classical mythological architecture wrapped around psychologically grounded superhero conflict. That combination of the merged-Hulk status quo and the Pantheon's introduction set the narrative direction for the most thematically ambitious stretch of the book's entire Copper Age run.
In "Hit and Myth," the Hulk, Doc Samson, and the Ringmaster find themselves in the aftermath of a pivotal moment—the successful fusion of the Hulk's fractured personas—only to be abruptly targeted by the mysterious Pantheon. Written by Peter David and illustrated by Dale Keown, with inks by M. Farmer and colors by Glynis Oliver, this 1991 issue captures a tense, high-stakes turning point in the Hulk's ongoing struggle, all framed by Dale Keown and Bob McLeod's dynamic cover.
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Peter David was roughly a third of the way through what would ultimately become a twelve-year run on the title when he and penciller Dale Keown produced this issue, with inks by Mark Farmer and colors by Glynis Oliver, under editor Bobbie Chase and editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco. The Pantheon itself had been seeded as far back as issue #368 (April 1990) and quietly built through background appearances, but #379 was the issue where David and Keown brought the group into direct, physical collision with the Hulk — a confrontation that had been methodically foreshadowed over nearly a year of storytelling. The issue follows directly from the personality-integration arc completed in #377, meaning Keown was tasked with visually establishing not only a roster of new characters but also demonstrating the personality and physical bearing of a Hulk readers had never quite seen before.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published March 1991 by Marvel Comics; story titled 'Hit and Myth'; written by Peter David, pencilled by Dale Keown, inked by Mark Farmer, colored by Glynis Oliver, lettered by Joe Rosen.
- First appearances of Pantheon members Achilles, Ajax, Delphi, Hector, and Ulysses — all half-human, half-Asgardian descendants of the immortal Agamemnon, each bearing a name from Greek mythology.
- The issue is the first action-forward story starring the newly merged 'Professor Hulk' persona, the integrated identity combining Bruce Banner's intellect, the gray Hulk's cunning, and the green Hulk's raw power — a transformation completed in issue #377.
- The Pantheon, created by Peter David and introduced incrementally starting in issue #368, becomes the book's central supporting organization from this issue (#379) through issue #426, representing one of the longest-running team affiliations in Hulk history.
- The story's framing device — a bar celebration in Reno with Doc Samson and the reformed villain Ringmaster (Maynard Tiboldt) — allows David to establish the new Hulk's changed demeanor (calm, reasoned, self-aware) immediately before the Pantheon's ambush forces a test of that change.
- Rick Jones is shot during the ensuing confrontation, and Betty Banner's emotional struggle to reconcile her love for the quiet intellectual Bruce with the massive new integrated Hulk is a key subplot — with Marlo Chandler serving as her confidante.
- The issue has been reprinted multiple times, including in Hulk Visionaries: Peter David Vol. 6 (2009), The Incredible Hulk Poster Magazine #1 (1992), and the Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus Vol. 2 (2020), as well as in Spanish and French editions.
- The Pantheon storyline introduced in this issue was later adapted as the basis for the 1997 Sega Saturn/PlayStation video game The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga, making #379 the narrative ground zero for that media adaptation.
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Reprinted in Der unglaubliche Hulk #34 (1992), Hulk #1 (1992), The Incredible Hulk Poster Magazine #1 (1992), Devil & Hulk #1 (1994), Libros Grandes Sagas Marvel #2 (1994), Spider-Man #5 (1997), Hulk Visionaries: Peter David #6 (2009), Hulk : L'intégrale #1991 (2015), Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus #2 (2020), Marvel Héroes #112 (2022)
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