Hulk vs. Kronak! “The Sword and the Sorcerer” is not a 1980s film but another episode of Sword & Sorcery superheroes from Marvel. The Incredible Hulk #201 (July 1976) was written by Len Wein and drawn by Sal Buscema and Joe Staton. The comic must have been Len’s way of giving Roy Thomas a fun poke in the ribs as it is so obviously a Conan/Kull parody of sorts. (It was going around. Giant-Size Man-Thing #5 (August 1975) and Howard the Duck #1 (January 1976) both have a little too.)
All the people who worked on this comic had some connection with Sword & Sorcery comics. Sal Buscema, brother of Conan artist, John Buscema, occasionally subbed in for his bro. Joe Staton’s inks preserve the Sal B. feel nicely. Joe did some S&S for Charton’s anthology comics. Len Wein wrote “Dragonseed” in Savage Tales #6 (September 1974). Even Rich Buckler, who penciled the cover has a history with the sub-genre.
Issue #200 did a Fantastic Voyage-esque story about reducing Hulk to a tiny size so he could go inside a man’s brain to save him. At the end of that tale, Hulk is accidentally shrunk again, passing into another realm.
Hulk appears in a medieval world where a wizard named Shamu-shan is trying to conjur supernatural help. Hulk doesn’t like being summoned but listens to the mage’s sad tale. The crown of the realm has been seized by a horrible tyrant, Kronak the Barbarian.
Kronak came from the cold north and hired himself as a mercenary, fighting in a war between the two warring city-states of Gurdun and Kammatet. During his warring he rises to the rank of Captain-of-the-Guard but also loses an eye to a battle axe. King Modrian rules partly by the power of a ruby he wears around his neck. This stone contains a terrible demon that he can summon. It doesn’t stop Kronak from killing him and taking the throne.
Hulk agrees to take on Kronak, mostly out of pride. Hulk says he is stronger than Kronak and goes off to the castle to prove it.
After tearing down the front door, he fights the guard, taking out all the soldiers. It is up to Dragonus, Kronak’s pet wizard to stop him. He throws a magic glass that buries the Hulk in masonry. He reverts to Bruce Banner and is captured.
Kronak is not impressed by Bruce Banner, a “flea to Kronak’s elephant”. Dragonus tells him he is the liberator the people have been waiting for. Kronak sends him to the arena to face the king’s sword.
Kronak boldly goes to the arena to kill the newcomer.
The two men duel. Kronak, an undefeated fighter, skillfully disarms Bruce. This, of course, angers him and the Hulk appears. Against the Hulk, Kronak’s sword is useless.
Losing his first fight, Kronak uses the ruby to summon a giant red demon. Hulk and the demon fight but the result is the same. Hulk defeats the creature.
Monster removed, Hulk takes out Kronak.
He throws him to the people who quickly deal with him.
Nation saved, Hulk sees Shamu-shan again. The wizard tells him that Dragonus has fled, seeing his master defeated. Hulk begins to shrink again, disappearing into his next adventure.
Wein gets plenty of S&S tropes into the story. Summoning of demons happens twice, a prophecy of a champion to free the city, a Northern barbarian, a fight in an arena, an usurped crown, even Kull’s eye scar. Kronak is an entirely unlikable version of Conan. We are quite happy to see him arrogantly attack Bruce Banner in the arena, knowing what will obviously happen.
It is interesting that Kronak’s sidekick is named Dragonus. Frank Brunner and Nick Cuti created a swordsman with that name back in 1970. A Dragonus appeared as a minotaur monster in the Marvel comic Werewolf By Night #3 (January 1973) and then Brunner’s barbarian was reprinted in Monsters Unleashed #2 (September 1973) but there is no real connection between the three except the name, which is an obvious play on the word “dragon”.
The concept of the man shrinking into a new realm is as old as the Pulps. Ray Cummings’ “The Girl in the Golden Atom” (All-Story, January 24-February 28, 1920) started others like S. P. Meek‘s “Submicroscopic” (Amazing Stories, August 1931) and “Awlo of Ulm” (Amazing Stories, September 1931). But the story most likely to have inspired Hulk’s dimensional traveling is Henry Hasse’s “He Who Shrank” (Amazing Stories, August 1936). In Hasse’s tale, the protagonist shrinks, goes to a strange realm, then shrinks again and again, visiting many worlds. Hulk is on a similar wagon train that will run until issue #203. I am glad that one of his stop-offs was a Sword & Sorcery destination.
This was a fantastic era for old Jade Jaws! (i.e. Hulk) Around the same time as the issues collected in HULK Marvel Masterworks #12 were some really far-out issues, like the one where Hulk goes back to Subatomica and fights giant wart-hogs. A race of green-skinned people make him a sort of messianic hero (in a precursor to what would happen on a distant planet a few decades later). I had issue #202 as a kid–which begins with Hulk falling through the subatomic starfields, but I’ve never read #201–going to remedy that with the aforementioned Masterworks on Kindle. The Buscema/Staton team has a real chemistry and these issues look superb.