The Incredible Hulk

The 1982 Incredible Hulk cartoon series was apart of the saturday morning "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends\Incredible Hulk hour" on NBC. The Hulk however, was more faithful to the comics than Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. The animation quality was great and on par with the other Marvel cartoons of that era (Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Transformers, GI.Joe, Defenders of the Earth, Inhumanoids, Visionaries, Gem, etc.). The art style and animation quality hold up well even today; and in my opinion is slightly better than the 1996 Hulk cartoon.

The story line was faithful to what was arguably the best years of the Hulk comics; the years before the Hulk had Banner's mind. The Hulk is supposed to be a savage monster and that's what makes the 1982 series more enjoyable than the 1996 cartoon. If you can find this cartoon, and your a fan of the Hulk, this one is worth checking out. It's the best Incredible Hulk cartoon so far.

I still remember the episode "Enter:She-Hulk" where they introduced us the cousin of our troubled gamma-genes doctor. I must say the 1996 series treated her better as the witty and extravertido character she was rather than "Ms. Broken Clothes". Yet that episode was powerful stuff. Jen could change at will, maintain her 'human' mind and regenerate her clothes too! While in the current cartoon Dr. Banner changed only one or two times into Hulk, Jen changed a total of FOUR times and do a lot of damage to their enemies, crippling whole bases of HYDRA in a matter of minutes! (I suggest strongly to see the fourth transformation where she reduces her own car to scraps in order to save her life and Bruce's). And better yet, Bruce looked at her as a way to cure him form being the Hulk. As well as I remember the Hulk gained a doses of intelligence in the chapter...hmmm, too bad she never got her own toon.

Out of all the Hulk series ever to hit television, this is the best one. This series usually followed up Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends on Saturday mornings, making for a fantastic viewing hour. It had quality animation, great music which I still remember by heart, and great stories. It was faithful to the comic, which the 70s live action series was not. The original 60s series contained animation which was an insult to the viewer. The 90s series has the unfortunate burden of following the comic's storyline of "Now he's the grey Hulk. Now he's Banner Hulk. Now Rick's the Hulk. Now he's the pink polka-dotted Hulk." The only good Hulk was the savage Hulk, and this series did a great job serving him up.

Though I found, the 1996 animated series the most visually superior, the 1982 series was visibly created with a lot of effort by its animators and it clearly shows a labor of love.

Make no mistake, each of the episodes(13 in all) have a captivating storyline. Incredibly in the pilot episode of the series, Hulk battles Dr. Octopus, who is normally linked to Spider-man.

And in the second episode, Bruce drinks an ancient potion that cures him completely! It is a shame that only 13 episodes were made.

Episode Guide: 1. "Tomb of the Unknown Hulk": When high cosmic ray activity triggers Bruce's transformations without him getting angry, he tries to lock himself in a cave to protect his friends, but the cosmic rays also block communications and allow Doctor Octopus an opening to stage an attack on Gamma Base.

2. "Prisoner of the Monster": Rick stumbles upon a map for a potion held by a lost tribe that can cure Bruce of the Hulk, but the cure becomes bitter sweet when the Spymaster kidnaps Betty and her father, stealing a deadly weapon from Gamma Base that only the Hulk can defeat.

3. "Origin of the Hulk": The retelling of the origin of the Hulk, with the original Russian Cold War spies replaced with aliens seeking the secrets of Bruce's Gamma Bomb.

4. "When Monsters Meet": Arriving in Paris for a scientific conference, Bruce is given a possible cure for his condition, but his chances of using it are threatened by the appearance of a descendant of Quasimodo who wreaks havoc in the city. (This episode was adapted in comic book format by Marvel, in the one-shot "The Incredible Hulk versus Quasimodo". A back-up, one-page comic featuring editor Al Milgrom disguised as the Hulk explained how this book fit into the animated cartoon continuity, and not current Marvel Comics continuity[1]) 5. "The Cyclops Project": Due to the inadvertent actions of the Hulk, Cyclops, the most world's powerful military defense computer malfunctions and seeks to take over the world, trying to obtain the aid of the Bruce Banner and Hulk to do so.

6. "Bruce Banner Unmasked": When the Puppet Master attempts gain control of the Hulk as a part of his plan to take over Mesa City and its surrounds, the army are finally able to defeat the creature and learn of Bruce Banner's secret identity.

7. "The Creature and the Cavegirl": Bruce learns of a colleague whose developed a working time projector, seeing it as a chance to go back and stop the creation of the Hulk, only for the device to malfunction and transport the entire lab and its occupants back to 1,000,000 B.C.

8. "It Lives! It Grows! It Destroys!": A rival scientist at Gamma Base develops a part plant, part animal lifeform which can eat almost anything in its path, but the creature escapes and threatens the planet as it grows uncontrollably.

9. "The Incredible Shrinking Hulk": After his latest gamma experiment malfunctions, Bruce is shrunk down until he is one inch tall, as two spies attempt to steal a new tank.

10. "Punks on Wheels": When a motorcycle gang kidnaps Rita, Bruce and his friend discover the gang is secretly working for the Leader, who seeks their aid in stealing a shipment of Vibranium.

11. "Enter: She-Hulk": Bruce and Rick travel to Los Angeles to visit Bruce's cousin Jennifer Walters to try and learn how she is able to maintain her intelligence when she changes into the She-Hulk, but their attempt is endangered thanks to the efforts of terrorist group HYDRA to take over the city.

12. "The Boy Who Saw Tomorrow": Betty's nephew Jonah arrives at Gamma Base to demonstrate his amazing psychic ability, able to predict the future with uncanny accuracy he has a vision of Betty's space shuttle crashing into a mountain, with the Hulk and a mysterious madman involved.

13. "The Hulk Destroys Bruce Banner": While testing his new Transmat teleporter on himself, Bruce transforms into the Hulk in mid-teleportation, convincing Betty that the Hulk interfered and leading the charge to capture the creature to attempt to save Bruce.

Verdict: BUY THIS PRICELESS COLLECTION, YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

I noticed that someone else who reviewed this said that this was the best Hulk cartoon. I totally agree with that comment.

The 1966 cartoon was cheezy and poor. The 1996 cartoon was average. This was the best show. I shall tell you the reasons why.

Firstly, I liked Dr. Banner in this cartoon. He was not a wimp like the comic book Dr. Banner. He was quite tough and not afraid of much.

The animation was also good. The Hulk looked awesome in this.

Betty Ross was in it too and she was also a lot more independent than her comic book counterpart. She was cute too.

The best thing about this series was the stories. Throughout the series we saw situations such as the Hulk getting shrunk, Banner's secret exposed, the Hulk battle Quasimodo, the Hulk meet the She-Hulk and many other fantastic adventures too.

If you like the Hulk then forget the other two cartoons and watch this one instead. It was very good-even if the Hulk did change back to Banner with clothes intact.