The Incredible Hulk #4

 "Wow, was that cat for real?"

These early issues of The Incredible Hulk are, while variable in quality, strangely thoughtful and philosophical at times. Yet it's also fascinating to see how they take so long to settle on the rationale for the Bruce Banner changing into the Hulk. It's no longer a day/night thing, but even by the end of the issue they're far from sure of what they ought to be doing.

After a nicely non-linear start we get back to Betty Ross and a nice character moment- she pines for Bruce, she's noticed he's been a bit off ever since the Hulk... and, more to the point, Bruce is missing. So Betty tells her rather dim father that, juuuuust perhaps, Rick Jones might have some connection to Bruce and the Hulk. So Thunderbolt Ross grabs Rick and demands answers- a tricky situation as Rick could find himself in trouble here.

 The format of the series at this point is so very interesting. Rick can command the Hulk. The Hulk seems stuck in that form, unable to change to Bruce. Rick ultimately uses the machine to change the Hulk to Bruce... and at this point there's no other mechanism for doing so.

Then we have another twist, as Bruce uses the machine to become the Hulk but keep his intellect... but there are interesting hints of personality changes. And these continue into the second story, which had me laughing out loud. So many of these early Marvel issues have throwaway one-off aliens or communists as villains, so of course we get an alien who is really a plane full of Soviet communists in disguise.

We end with some scenes of the Hulk saving people but still being feared and hunted, something I suspect won't be changing... and Bruce and the Hulk can still only change bodies via the machine!