In Volume 3 of the "Essential Hulk," Stan Lee gives over the writing reigns to Roy Thomas who invites Harlan Ellison to write one of the more memorable stories of Ol' Greenskin and Herb Trimpe finds the perfect inker for his pencils in John Severin. Collected within this trade paperback are issues #118-142 of "The Incredible Hulk" along with "Captain Marvel" #20-21 and "Avengers" #88 in the name of providing crossover continuity (which makes sense since "The Incredible Hulk" #140 was includes in Volume 4 of "Essential Avengers," which shows this is going both way just like it should). Understand going in that I always found the Hulk to be one of the least interesting Marvel characters because he was always caught in the same cycle. Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk (or the other way around or both). The Hulk smashes things. The army tries to track down the Hulk. The Hulk smashes things. Villains smarter than the Hulk try to get him. The Hulk smashes them. Villains who think they are strong try to get him. The Hulk smashes them too. At the end of this collection we get to the creation of Doc Sampson, the man Banner could have been if the gamma rays had been nice. Guess what the Hulk does to him. Bruce Banner loves Betty Ross, but the Hulk takes care of that romance and every other relationship he tried to have (e.g., Rick Jones). There is certainly an inherent pathos to the Hulk, who was intended to bring together key elements from "Frankenstein" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," but you can only go through the same basic story so many times before it wears thin.
That is why "The Brute That Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom" (#140) was such a surprise. Ellison's story worked because it found the best of all possible worlds for the Hulk. Shrunk to sub-atomic level, the Hulk ended up in a world where everybody was green and where the princess Jarella had her court magicians work some mojo that put Bruce Banner's brain in the Hulk's body. The only problem is that, of course, it does not last. We do not even get to explore this brand new world for the Hulk for a story arc lasting several issues before the Hulk is untimely ripped from his happiness. Ironically, the artwork for the issues is different because Trimpe did the layouts and Sam Grainger the finished art (as opposed to Granger doing just the inking as in #138-139).
Consequently, I am put in the position of saying that it was a good thing that Severin was not doing the inking for that issue because that look did not really fit the story, but overall Trimpe's pencils never looked better than when Severin did the inking (another irony is that if you look at when Trimpe did his own inks, as in issues #118-123, it looked a lot like Marie Severin's artwork). Trimpe & Severin did some of my favorite Hulk covers as well (I really liked #135 for some reason).
The Ellison story is really the key one here, setting up as it does the creation of Doc Sampson in #141 and being presaged by the idea the Hulk is the Golem in #134 and when the Hulk fights Banner (#130) who almost marries Betty (almost being the operative word). Otherwise the Hulk goes toe to toe with Namor, the Sub-Mariner (#118), Maximus of the Inhumans (#119-120), the Glob (#121 & #129), the Leader (#123, 139), the Rhino (#124), the Absorbing Man (#125), the Night-Crawler (#126), Mogol (#127), Hydra (#132), Draxon the Dictator (#133), Kang the Conquereor (#135), Xeron the Star-Slayer (#136), the Abomination (#137), the Sandman (#138), and the Valkyrie (#142), as we find out whether or not the Hulk smashes women. There are crossovers with the Fantastic Four (#122), the Avengers (#128), Iron Man (#131) for a chance of pace, because superheroes always want to help Hulk rather than smash Hulk before Hulk smash them. By the time you read all of these, plus the Captain Marvel two-parter, you will understand why Ellison's Hulk story stands out.
