Brain Swapping

 If you live in a comic book universe, then sooner or later your mind is going to be transfered into someone else's body. It's pretty much inevitable.

It happens to Ben Grimm and the Hulk in 1974's Giant-Size Super-Stars #1, written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Rich Buckler.  It really is a cliched plot device for any superhero universe. But the reason such cliches exist is often because they can be used as jumping-off points for entertaining stories. On this occasion, a fast pace combined with Buckler's great art and Conway's firm understanding of the characters' personalities make it work.

It starts with Bruce Banner arriving at the Baxter Building, hoping that Reed can help cure him of becoming the Hulk. Reed, though, is away. Only Ben is home at the moment. There's a brief but effective scene in which Ben's inate compassion is demonstrated by helping an exhausted Banner, following by Ben mentioning Reed's newest experiment to cure him of being the Thing.

Well, Bruce is a brilliant scientist in his own right and he immediately sees a possibility in Reed's experiment. He can use it to channel the gamma radiation that infuses him and the cosmic radiation that infuses Ben into each other, but in such a way that they will cancel each other out. What can possibly go wrong?

Naturally, something goes wrong. The device explodes and Bruce turns into the Hulk. This is topped off by the minds of the two super-strong men getting switched. So the Hulk's mind is in the Thing's body and visa versa.

We see an interesting take on the Hulk's psychology at this point. He's not the sharpest tack in the box and doesn't realize he's in a new body. And when he sees the "Hulk" standing nearby, he sees someone that tortures his dreams and that he wants to SMASH!

Ben, on the other hand, is in the stronger body now, but isn't quite used to it. He also wants to avoid a fight if possible. But that isn't possible and the Thing (that is--the Hulk in Thing's body) starts getting in some good licks.

The fight goes through a few walls and ends up in the streets of New York. Thundra--a super-strong woman from another dimension who had become a reoccuring character in the regular FF book, sees them and tries to help the person she quite reasonably thinks is the Thing. This gets her walooped a few times as the fight descends into the subway system and then breaks back onto the surface in the middle of a wrestling ring.

Reed and the rest of the FF finally show up, only to have Johnny knocked out when he tries to help the "Thing" as well. Fortunately, Reed "Sherlock Scans" the situation and quickly figures out there's been a body switch.

 Here we come to a minor glitch in this otherwise fun story. Reed quickly figures out that if the Hulk's body turns back into Banner, that will force the minds back into the correct bodies. That's perfectly reasonable Comic Book Science. To enact a plan to force the transition, Reed first rummages through the arena's first aid kit and fills a hypo with a tranqulizer.  Once again, this is reasonable. But Comic Book Science doesn't explain how a normal hypo needle can penetrate the skin of a being that regularly shrugs off bullets, bombs and the occasional nuke.

Oh, well. Who am I to question Reed Richards? The plan works and everything is okay other than Ben discovering his has to apologize to Thundra for Hulk's actions.

Despite that illogical "super needle" at the end, the story is indeed a fun one. It demonstrates quite effectively why some plot devices become cliched within a specific genre. If done well, it can lead to an entertainting tale. If done badly, you end up with the original Star Trek episode "Turnabout Intruder."

Next week, Lex Luthor drives Superman insane.