Call Me Stormy

Ain’t He Unglamour-ace?

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Before he got CGI’d into the AVENGERS movies that drew all the money in the known universe at the box office… Before his somewhat less impressive CGI incarnation was featured in Ang Lee’s ‘meh’ film… Even before they slathered Mr. Universe Lou Ferrigno in green paint for the hit TV series… The Not-So-Jolly Green Giant made his first screen appearance (just a few years after his print debut) on the MARVEL SUPER HEROES, a wheel show featuring the comic book company’s more popular characters.

It doesn’t get much truer to the source material than this, with stories and art lifted directly from the comics. Animation was more than a little limited. But, in those days, we were watching standard def, analog, over-the-air broadcasts subject to static and fading, rendered on small, black and white screens. So this was good enough!

You may note that, this being at the dawn of his career, the Hulk is far from the gigantic, unstoppable force he would become. They also re-colored him green to match his usual appearance, despite the fact he was originally gray skinned in his origin story. For reasons I cannot determine, the villain was renamed from “Gargoyle” to “Gorgon” for TV. Confusing, since the latter name was used for at least two other Marvel bad guys.

Of course, the most memorable thing about the series is the theme song! They could’ve skipped the origin story, as it is brilliantly and hilariously encapsulated in a few seconds. Here is the original 1966 cartoon The Origin of the Hulk that aired in September 1966. More from the OldHorseman.

P.S. We took a one-week breather from Saturday Morning Cartoons last week, owing to there being too much news to report. We won’t try to preempt the cartoons again anytime soon. Higher priorities!