E204: Recruiting for Strength (Avengers #17) -- June 1965 What If Marvel was Real?

In this episode:
Mike and Ed discuss the Avengers’ public search for a fifth member: the Hulk. What are they thinking? Is strength the only requirement for membership? How bad is “rampaging” before you decide not to let someone on the team? Should someone take Captain America’s license away?
Behind the issue:
Stan Lee is leaning into the idea that the team is under-powered after losing the original Avengers. The team feels the same way until they discover that when they work together as a team they can defeat powerful villains — maybe they don’t need the Hulk after all?
In this issue:
The new Avengers meet for the first time. Rick Jones - teenage sidekick with no discernible powers or abilities - is jealous that the three new members - Scarlet Witch, who can warp reality; Quicksilver, who can run at the speed of thought; and Hawkeye, who has an uncanny martial abilities - are members and he is not. Anyways, Captain AAmerica announces to the fledgling team that their first mission is to find the Hulk to see if he will join their team. They then go to train, and a giant robot sent by the Mole Man breaks in and attacks them while informing them that they can find the Hulk in the desert. It’s a trap, obviously, but the Avengers still set out for the desert and battle the Mole Man’s Minotaur underground. Meanwhile, the Hulk chases down his foe, the Leader. The issue ends with the Avengers realizing that they are quite formidable on their own and do not really need the Hulk.
Assumed before the next episode:
People are still wondering what the deal is with this odd team of Avengers.
This episode takes place:
While the public considers whether the Hulk would be a good addition to the Avengers or not.
Full transcript:
Edward: All right, Mike, we know who the fifth member of the Avengers is or not. Is, is going to be, is going to be
Michael: wild man. It's actually crazy. It's actually crazy. How do we get here?
Edward: You thought given the fact that The Thing is leaving the fantastic f. For, they'd bring him in. Mm-hmm. As the big strong man. And they said, no, no, no. That's not crazy enough, Mike. That's not crazy enough. We're no, we're gonna go back to our roots and find the most powerful man in the world and bring him onto the Avengers cuz the Avengers are not the second best mark. They're not the second strongest person in the world. They're going for the strongest.
Michael: Yeah so they're out there trying to find the Hulk because the Hulk is the strongest one there is. And it's like, hold on a second. He's caused a lot of damage. He's fought you guys.
Edward: Of course, of course. He's caused damage. He's the strongest man in the world. How can the strongest person in the world not cause damage?
Michael: He, he, He's a, well, I dunno if he's a man, he's a monster.
Edward: They're, they're calling, they're, they're calling him a man. They're calling him, man.
Michael: Okay. And I shouldn't be, so I don't want to be negative towards him. I don't wanna use pejorative terms.
Edward: You're like monstrous. Is that a word?
Michael: But he has acted monstrously, you know what I mean? Like, so he, he has,
Edward: he's a person who acts like a monster. He's not a monster himself.
Michael: Well, yeah, sure. That's right. And he's out there causing terror and mayhem and. Battling the Avengers.
Edward: Fair enough. And so then, not just Avengers, he's fought the Avengers, he's fought the fantastic F, he's f the Avengers more. I think he's fought the Avengers more than he's been on the Avengers in terms of like Right. Which side he's been on. He's been anti Avenger more times than he's been Avenger.
Michael: So, I should say, gee whiz, you know, I'd like to get married. I'm gonna marry my, the worst girlfriend I've ever had because, you know, Because she's been my girlfriend in the past and she was a great girlfriend for like a week and then a terrible girlfriend for like a month. And so,
Edward: yeah. But Mike is this g