Incredible Hulk #318

[iamrman]

In which everybody sucks at their jobs.

Samson was responsible for separating Banner from the Hulk in the first place. He also seems to be operating under the assumption that Banner and the Hulk are separate entities. I guess he never heard of heard of dissasociative identity disorder, and completely forgot what happened the last time a mindless Hulk got loose.

Sure enough, the Hulk immediately got loose and caused untold destruction. Various Avengers heavy hitters tried to step in, but Samson fought them off because he is the only one to stop the Hulk.

All the psychologists in the Marvel Universe seem to be incompetent or evil. I’m starting to wonder if somebody at Marvel had an issue with the profession.

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

Oh, it definitely was not just Marvel.

Watchmen. Arkham Asylum. Mad Love. The Dark Knight Returns. Plus Professor Hugo Strange. I'm...trying to think of more Batman-unrelated examples of bad psychologists, but I sure can't think of any good ones at DC Comics. (Not still practicing, anyway. Harley Quinn sometimes manages to put her degree to some constructive use.) At least Doc Samson has had some fairly long stretches in his history where he got to be a helpful and stabilizing influence. This just wasn't one of 'em.

[tcampbell1000]

In some respects, comics from this far back reflect our changing understanding of some mental issues. "Dissociative identity disorder" was not made the official term until the publication of the DSM-IV, in 1994; this is a comic from 1985. Its predecessor "multiple personality disorder" started getting used in the comics a few years after this, especially once the gray, crafty Hulk and the big dumb green Hulk started interacting.

[scorntx]

No-one comes out of this incident looking pretty.
And of course Laroquette there develops a need for VENGEANCE on Samson and Bruce, and eventually becomes a supervillain. (Called the Rock, because of course.)
His last major appearance was in Doomwar.

Now, Bruce wasn't in his right mind at the time, but you'd think he'd maybe have gone for some slightly more stringent hiring policies, just to avoid that sort of thing happening.

[john_drake1964]

So, who thought using an ED-209 to fight a Hulk or similar individual was a good idea? They got defeated by stairs in the first movie, pretty sure up against a Gamma-individual that whole "tip-over" thing is kind of a big weakness.

[shadur]

So let me get this straight:

They had a robo-Hulk stomping around in a "testing ground" that didn't have a secure airspace to warn off people;

Samson, passing through, sees "the Hulk" apparently on a rampage and decides the obvious thing to do is to try and take him down before he reaches anything fragile that people would miss;

The "Hulkbuster" team doesn't feel it's necessary to radio him or otherwise warn him off until *after* he's put the elbow piledriver into the bot;

... Said team then decides, rather than to call off the excercise due to outside interference, pick a fight with Samson instead;

... The fight goes badly, with a combination of poor tactics, overconfidence and experimental equipment not living up to expectations, and part of the thing crashes; Samson tries to save the occupants but doesn't get to the second one in time to save her.

... The team blames Samson for the woman's death and swears revenge.


Does that sum it up or did I miss some part that makes it not spectacularly dumb?

[iamrman]

Nope, that's pretty much it.

[raspberryrain]

Not Byrne's best script.