Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

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newtron
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Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by newtron »

This is a promo issue that was given out with the Columbus Dispatch in 1979. If you don't count such things as canon, feel free to ignore this. If you are interested, read on...

Chaos on Campus!
Originally published: 1979

Characters: Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Dr. Robert Bruce Banner (Hulk)
A little girl named Lucy, a cop named Jerry, ESU Professor Warner, Cindy Sayers, unnamed dock workers, cops, students and military

Page 1: Flashbacks to Pete getting bitten by the spider (no new info) and Spidey hanging out on the exterior of a building. Floating-head bit of Banner changing to the Hulk (not a real scene). Exterior shot of ESU.

Page 2: Banner is at the New York docks, looking for directions to ESU. A school girl (Lucy) slips off the dock and falls towards the water.

Page 3: As the girl struggles in the water, Banner hulks out and rips a lamppost out of the ground

Page 4: Hulk saves the girl, but her dad freaks out at his monstrosity. Hulks knocks him flying. Some cops drive by and call for reinforcements, but the Hulk leaps away.

Page 5: Spider-Man beats up some crooks, refuses to pay a shop owner for the damages. Later, Peter arrives 10 minutes late for Professor Warner's class at ESU. Cindy Sayers, "E.S.U.'s sexiest dish", talks to Pete.

Page 6: After class, Pete asks Cindy out and she agrees. The Hulk watches from the bushes. Pete's spider-sense goes off and he takes off, pissing off Cindy. After changing into Spidey, he spots the Hulk and moves in for an attack

Page 7: Spider-Man and the Hulk fight. Meanwhile, elsewhere, a student protest is going on. It is interrupted by the Hulk crashing through a wall. Somebody that might be Flash Thompson is there, but it could just as easily not be him.

Page 8: Spider-Man and Hulk fight. A dorm starts to crash down.

Page 9: Spidey is crushed by the falling debris, but is still alive.

Page 10: Spidey frees himself. He fights the Hulk, then notices Cindy Sayers trapped under some rubble. Stupidly, he calls out her name, possibly risking his secret identity.

Page 11: Spider-Man and the Hulk lift the debris off Cindy and leave her with some cops. The military shows up.

Page 12: Spider-Man stops the military and cops long enough for the Hulk to escape. Spider-Man tries to convince the cops and military that the Hulk is an alright guy.

Placement Clues:

- Peter's in university
- It's the first day of school for Peter Parker. Also, a dock worker tells his daughter that he'll walk her to school, so we know it's during the school year.
- Pete "wanted to get a date with [Cindy Sayers] all last semester but...always chickened out". Is there ever a full semester during which Pete isn't dating anyone?
- A student comments that Spidey is wanted by the police.
- Banner doesn't know where ESU is and needs to ask for directions, so must be his first (or one of his first) visit(s) there.
- The Hulk seems to be wanted by the cops and military.
- Spidey thinks of the Hulk as a "monster", so I'm guessing he doesn't know that Hulk is Bruce Banner.

Problems:

- Bruce Banner is referred to in the narration as "Dr. R.B. 'David' Banner", and later "Dr. David Banner"
- The whole Cindy Sayers thing is weird and seems like it would be hard to fit in anywhere
- The Hulk doesn't talk, only grunts and growls, like in the TV show

Clearly the David Banner stuff is meant to remind people of the TV show. However, on the show Banner's name was David Bruce Banner. Here, his name is clearly given as "R.B. Banner", with David as a nickname. It's easy to treat this as topical, IMO. Same with the lack of dialogue -- perhaps the Hulk was just having a quiet day.

Any ideas on how to work in Cindy Sayers? Any placement suggestions?
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by cweed4 »

newtron wrote:- The whole Cindy Sayers thing is weird and seems like it would be hard to fit in anywhere
Spidey has plenty of openings in his "social calendar" before dropping out of school in ASM 243. There's plenty of room to fit in a new gal pal if you assume the classes are for his graduate program. By issue 195 he has broken up with MJ and dissed Betty Brant. He goes on a few dates w/ Cissy Ironwood around MTU 79 but that never turns into much. His subsequent relationship with Deb Whitman never goes beyond just being friends. He doesn't start seeing Black Cat until after PPTSS 74. So it doesn't seem like much of a hinderance for placement to me.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by newtron »

cweed4 wrote:Spidey has plenty of openings in his "social calendar" before dropping out of school in ASM 243. There's plenty of room to fit in a new gal pal if you assume the classes are for his graduate program. By issue 195 he has broken up with MJ and dissed Betty Brant. He goes on a few dates w/ Cissy Ironwood around MTU 79 but that never turns into much. His subsequent relationship with Deb Whitman never goes beyond just being friends. He doesn't start seeing Black Cat until after PPTSS 74. So it doesn't seem like much of a hinderance for placement to me.
it's more of a problem if Spidey doesn't know that Hulk is Banner, which means it has to come at least before m/tu 53. I guess it never comes up explicitly, though, so maybe it would be easier to assume that he does know. fitting it in during gwen/mj stuff in his undergrad might just be too hard.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by Enda80 »

Actually, the Official Handbook has listed "David Banner" as an alias for the Earth-616 Hulk.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by newtron »

ok, i think i've found a good place for this. the esu boat cruise in pptss 42 is described as a celebration for their trimester break (which i assume means the end of the semester). pete started his graduate year in/around pptss 32 and, as cweed4 mentions, he's done with mj and betty by asm 195. he's pretty much alone for that whole semester, so i think putting this shortly before pptss 42 makes sense for spidey's chronology.

can anybody comment how this works out for the hulk, and what he's up to at this time?

SPIDER-MAN/PETER BENJAMIN PARKER
...
ASM 203
DAZZ 1
DAZZ 2
SMVH:BOTC
PPTSS 42
...

DAZZ 1 and 2 are in there now, but I think they should be moved -- see this thread.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by Paul Bourcier »

newtron wrote:
can anybody comment how this works out for the hulk, and what he's up to at this time?
H@ 9 occurs at this time (December of Year 10). At the end of that annual, Banner ends up in...New York City! He then appears in NYC (in January of Year 11) in DD 163 and IM 131-133, in which he finds the help he's looking for at the end of H@ 9. So I suppose Hulk could appear in Battle of the Century between H@ 9 and DD 163.

The beginning of the new semester could easily be January of Year 11. That would place Spider-Man in Battle of the Century between DD 160 and PPSS 44.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by newtron »

did Spidey's listing recently change for this time? in my notes i had PPTSS 44 and DD 160 adjacent as well, but Spidey's page is now showing the following:

SPIDER-MAN/PETER BENJAMIN PARKER
...
ASM 207
PPTSS 44
PPTSS 45
PPTSS 46
M/TU 79
M/TU 82
M/TU 83
M/TU 84
M/TU 85
S-W 26
DD 160
M/TE 25
...

i'm getting very confused about this particular winter.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by Paul Bourcier »

My mileage varies. I'm looking at my notes for this particular period of time and they don't reconcile with the MCP listing for Spidey. I'll need to check on this when I have some time...
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by newtron »

i'm going to be going over this period for spidey fairly carefully this weekend, and i'll post my conclusions/questions. any input you have will be very much appreciated.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by cweed4 »

newtron wrote:did Spidey's listing recently change for this time?
I might be to be blame for the not-so-recent shift. This same question was asked back in June. My suggested change was made in January '07 so I think the listing was updated over a year ago. What's curious is that you both have DD 160 & PPTSS 44 adjacent to each other. That was the part of my move that didn't get accepted for Spidey's listing.
newtron wrote:i'm going to be going over this period for spidey fairly carefully this weekend, and i'll post my conclusions/questions. any input you have will be very much appreciated.
Not sure how broad of a range you are going to look at there but I'd be interested to know if that includes the timeframe from MTU 80-ASM 200. My very first post here :mrgreen: was regarding that section. I didn't make a very complete argument but that period still bothers me with its current listing.
Spoiler:
Check the Dec '06 archives under the heading MTU w/ Spider-man & Cissy Ironwood if interested. :wink:
.
Last edited by Somebody on Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by newtron »

cweed4 wrote:I might be to be blame for the not-so-recent shift. This same question was asked back in June. My suggested change was made in January '07 so I think the listing was updated over a year ago. What's curious is that you both have DD 160 & PPTSS 44 adjacent to each other. That was the part of my move that didn't get accepted for Spidey's listing.
ah yeah, i think your posts are where i got my info from. thanks for bringing those back to my attention.
cweed4 wrote:Not sure how broad of a range you are going to look at there but I'd be interested to know if that includes the timeframe from MTU 80-ASM 200. My very first post here :mrgreen: was regarding that section. I didn't make a very complete argument but that period still bothers me with its current listing.
Spoiler:
Check the Dec '06 archives under the heading MTU w/ Spider-man & Cissy Ironwood if interested. :wink:
hmmm...i hadn't planned on it, but now that i go look at my notes for those issues, i'm seeing a lot of question marks about placement. shoot. this might be more intensive than i had originally intended. :) i think i'll start with asm 203 to s-w 29 initially and see how that goes, then maybe go back and look at those other ones.
.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by Paul Bourcier »

A while back, cweed4 wrote:
The bigger shift that I would suggest involves the return of jolly JJJ to the Daily Bugle. He is not running the paper thru ASM 206, but is in charge during M/TU 79. This return is seen in ASM 207 which would place it between those 2 issues. For JJJ's (& Joe Robertson's) MCP listing those panels are designated as flashbacks. Page 14 of ASM 207 begins with Spidey swinging off to the Brooklyn bridge before leading into the event in question. The caption to start that scene states "AT THAT MOMENT". Since that would eliminate the possible flashback designation of those specific panels the entire issue would need to be relisted.

That move then requires PPTSS 46 to change as well since it specifically references Pete's missed date with Deb Whitman having taken place "last night in ASM 207". I would think PPTSS 44+45 would also move to maintain sequential order.
I should have spoken up back then, but it somehow slipped past me. The Official Marvel Index to the Amazing Spider-Man #9 specifically grapples with this issue, under the comments for ASM 207:
This story takes place a day before the story in PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #46, as noted therein, and thus it follows the stories in PETER PARKER #44 and 45, which take place during the Chinese New Year in early February. But Jameson is known to be back at the Daily Bugle before Christmas, as seen in MARVEL TEAM-UP #79. Thus Jameson's return to the Bugle, seen in panels 2-6 page 6 of this story, is actually a flashback to about three months ago (Marvel time), told for the sake of simplicity as if it were taking place at the same time as the rest of this story, which actually occurs during acrainy spell in early March (Marvel time).
What we need to do is figure out who appears in that four-panel flashback and include ASM 207-FB in the appropriate spots in those characters' chronologies.

Thus, Spidey's chronology would be:
ASM 206
**ASM 207-FB (if he is indeed here)
M/TU 79
M/TU 82
M/TU 83
M/TU 84
M/TU 85
S-W 26
DD 160
**SMVH:BOTC (the subject of this thread!)
PPTSS 44
PPTSS 45
M/TE 25
ASM 207
PPTSS 46
S-W 28
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by cweed4 »

Paul Bourcier wrote:**ASM 207-FB (if he is indeed here)
He is not.
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by Paul Bourcier »

Who is in ASM 207-FB?
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Re: Spider-Man vs. The Hulk: The Battle of the Century!

Post by cweed4 »

JJJ & Robbie.
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