Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #318

Title: “Baptism of Fire”

Writer: John Byrne

Penciller: John Byrne

Inker: John Byrne

Background Inker: Keith Williams

Colors: Andy Yunchus

Editor: Denny O’Neil

Inside the new Gamma Base, Betty walks down the hallway toward Banner’s lab. The door opens and Betty’s eyes open wide. She shouts for Bruce as a gigantic Hulk looms over Banner. Banner turns shocked and asks her what is wrong. Betty says that the Hulk is right there, but then it dawns on her that he isn’t real. Bruce says that it is a computer generated holographic image. He says that he has been running some physiological scans on their target. Betty asks if that means what he looks like. Bruce says that is it more or less. He says that he has never had the chance to run a detailed study of the way the Hulk’s appearance has changed over the years. Banner shows her the Hulk as he is now: seven feet tall, half a ton in weight, and able to lift two hundred times that amount. Bruce changes the graphic and shows Betty what he looked like in the first few hours of existence. Bruce says that in addition to the gray color, this Hulk was smaller and less powerful. Bruce says that it was less human and more brutish. Betty says that it is strange to hear Bruce talking about the Hulk like he was another person. Bruce says that he has always referred to the Hulk as a separate entity, just as the Hulk always refers to him as someone else. Bruce says that now that Samson separated him from the Hulk that it seems natural to refer to him as the monster that he is. Betty asks Bruce not to talk like that and that he sounds like her father when he does it. Bruce says that he guesses that isn’t too surprising. Bruce says that Ross lost his career and his sanity trying to destroy the Hulk, and now the job has passed to him. He says that there is a fine line between focus and obsession, and that her father crossed it. Bruce asks Betty why she came to see him and asks if she has an answer to his marriage proposal. Betty says that she doesn’t have one yet, but that she wanted to show Bruce something that the automatic news monitor recorded a while ago. Betty puts it on. The anchorman says that the President announced that it was Doc Samson that released the Hulk from SHIELD custody. He says that Samson was convinced that the Hulk could be trained to serve mankind. Bruce says that Samson is a fool.

Samson descends in his stolen copter. He sees the Hulk there though he thinks to himself that he isn’t where he expected him to be. Samson places the copter on its automatic hover setting. He leaps from the copter and kicks the Hulk in the back. He nails the Hulk with a right, raises a left into Hulk’s jaw, and raises both fists into Hulk’s face. He then hits Hulk in the stomach doubling him over. Samson then swats both hands across Hulk’s face. Samson hits Hulk with a right and a left and knocks him onto his back. Suddenly Samson looks down at the Hulk and notices that his face is peeled off to reveal that he has been fighting a Hulk robot all along. A voice behind Samson tells him that it was their training robot. Samson turns and sees four of the new Hulkbusters in a walking construct. They fire on Samson. LaRoquette tells Saunders to ease up on the valance disruptor beam. Saunders says that there is no point mincing around with levels and that Samson is almost as powerful as the Hulk. LaRoquette uses the construct’s legs and steps on Samson. Samson says that he didn’t expect something that large to be so nimble. Samson says to remind him to be impressed later. Samson pushes the construct off. A ship detaches from the legs and flies off. Carolyn and Martel, in the flier, activate the “screamers”. The weapon just misses Samson. Samson says that the hyper-sonic disruptor was obviously intended against the Hulk’s almost impenetrable hide, and that since he is no where near as indestructible that it may very well kill him. Samson pulls up a large form of rock out of the ground and bowls over the walker’s legs. Carolyn says that he told Banner the walker mode would be too vulnerable. Martel starts to circle around to help LaRoquette and Saunders, but the two of them just fired at Samson. Samson leaps out of the way and towards the flier. LaRoquette asks Saunders what he is doing and says that their guns are tracking their skimmer. Saunders says that Samson can’t leap away up there and to just give him a second. Saunders fires, but Samson dodges and the skimmer is hit. The skimmer hits the ground on fire. Samson emerges from the wreckage and pulls Martel out of the craft. He heads back for Carolyn, but has to shield his face from the intense flames. The skimmer explodes. LaRoquette leaps out of the downed walker after Carolyn. Saunders tells LaRoquette to stop and that he can’t help her now. Saunders is holding LaRoquette back. He tells him not to be a fool and that he will die too. LaRoquette tells him to let him go. Samson’s hand comes out and pushes LaRoquette back. Samson tells LaRoquette to go easy. He says that Saunders is right and that the woman is beyond help. Laroquette starts swinging at Samson, but Samson just pushes him to the ground and says that he isn’t in his league. Samson says that he has to go find the real Hulk. He leaps back into the copter and takes off. Saunders says that Samson is obsessed. LaRoquette says that Saunders hasn’t seen obsessed yet. He says that Samson is responsible for the death of a woman he cared for very much. He says that their paths will cross again and that Samson is going to pay.

Hideko enters the exercise room and finds Betty there. She says that she is sorry and didn’t mean to intrude. Betty says that she was just thinking. She says that two weeks ago Bruce asked her to marry him. Hideko congratulates Betty and asks if this isn’t what she has been wanting for years. Betty says that it is, but that she isn’t sure how to respond. She says that she and Bruce were almost married once, but that the Hulk ruined their plans. Betty says that since then she has been through so much. She says that she went out to find herself without Bruce or her father, but that what she found she didn’t like. She says that now she has to make the most important decision of her life and that it has to be the right one. Hideko says that it will be.

Betty walks into Bruce’s lab. Bruce gets out of his chair and walks to her. Betty puts her hands on Bruce’s face and says, “Yes.”

No Excuses rating: 6.5 out of 10

Review and pictures by The Leader

RETURN TO HULK ISSUES

RETURN TO NO EXCUSES

RETURN TO LEADER'S LAIR