Ever since Bruce Banner got hit by a gamma bomb, he’s had the worst luck in the Marvel Universe. Other Marvel characters, particularly Spider-Man, might claim to be hard-luck heroes, but Hulk usually has it much worse. At least Peter Parker generally has a home and friends to go back to – Hulk always has to keep on the move while the army and his enemies constantly try to kill him.
In one comic, however, Hulk showed he was basically Marvel’s version of Charlie Brown. Although the round-headed kid doesn’t look like he’d have a lot in common with a giant green rage monster, Hulk showed this wasn’t the case when he started quoting lines directly out of It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
The hilarious scene happened in The Incredible Hulk Annual #17, shortly after the superhuman psychiatrist Doc Samson merged Banner’s multiple personalities together into a single being, popularly called “Professor Hulk.” Although Bruce was now more in control of his monstrous green form than ever, bad luck continued to plague him. For one thing, although Bruce now loved being the Hulk all the time, his wife Betty Banner was terrified of his permanent green form and began distancing herself from him. Upset, but too rational to go on a rampage, Hulk decided to work out his aggression by playing with toys (yes, really). While staying with his friend Rick Jones, Hulk found some of Rick’s prized Marvel action figures and began reenacting some old battles with his Hulk toy and a Doctor Doom figurine.
Rick found the entire scenario extremely funny and quickly began pointing out the cool accessories the toys came with – mentioning how the Punisher figure had a bunch of toy guns, the Silver Surfer had a surfboard/skateboard, and Captain America had a shield launcher. However, this only annoyed the Hulk when he realized that while all the other heroes had cool accessories, his action figure just came with a plastic rock. Muttering, “I got a rock,” over and over again, the Hulk basically quoted Charlie Brown’s famous line from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! In this classic Halloween special, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang go trick-or-treating. While the other kids get pop corn balls, gum, and all sorts of cool candy, Charlie Brown receives nothing but rocks from the adults. By the end of the night, the poor blockhead returns home with nothing to show for his trouble but a pillowcase full of rocks.
Considering the real Hulk action figure did just come with a rock, Hulk’s annoyance at getting the short end of the stick even in his merchandising deal makes the scene even funnier. Frankly, since the Hulk is a real person in the Marvel Universe (and a pretty intimidating one at that), one would think the toy companies of his world would have given him a cooler accessory. They certainly wouldn’t want to make him angry…