The stories in
The Rampaging Hulk were set between the end of his original, short-lived solo title and the beginning of his feature in
Tales to Astonish. A problem with this was pointed out by fans in the
letter columns. Despite the stories being placed in the past, they depicted the Hulk's character as he was contemporaneously, e.g. speaking in his "Hulk smash!"
pidgin English, changing to and from Bruce Banner based on his emotions, and wearing tattered purple trousers; whereas in the claimed time frame, he should have spoken fluent, if gangsterish, English, transformed via a gamma ray machine, and wore neat purple trunks. With its re-titling to
The Hulk!, the series turned to using stories set contemporaneously with the majority of Marvel publications (including its sister title
The Incredible Hulk). It also adopted the same formula of the popular
Incredible Hulk TV series: human interest-driven, with no supporting cast, no supervillains, and no guest stars. Although
The Rampaging Hulk /
The Hulk! was intended to feature stand-alone stories, some characters (such as the extraterrestrial
Bereet) crossed over into the
Incredible Hulk title. Bereet appeared in issue #269 (March 1982) of the regular series to explain away the
Rampaging Hulk series as fictions she created for the entertainment of her homeworld's residents. This changed the
Rampaging Hulk stories into
metafiction. Other Marvel mainstays also appeared, with the
X-Men making an appearance in issue #2 and the
Avengers in issue #9. ==Collected editions==