Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #343Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #343
Title: “Beyond Redemption”
Writer: Peter David
Penciller: Todd McFarlane
Inker: Todd McFarlane
Colors: Petra Scotese
Editor: Bob Harras
The moon is full as Betty runs through the woods in tattered clothing. One of the Leader’s large robots chases after her. Betty runs and trips, but she gets up before the robot can reach her. Betty runs out in the street right in front of the van containing Bruce, Clay, and Rick. All of them yell, “Betty?” as Clay slams on the brakes. Rick’s head slams into the windshield because he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. Bruce runs out of the RV towards Betty while shouting her name. Betty and Clay were just both stunned. Rick tries to stop his nose from bleeding. Betty started to run to them when the giant robot grabbed her. Bruce started back to the RV, but then suddenly he snapped. He said, “No. Not this time.” Rick shouts at Bruce to get out of the way as Clay loads the weapons panel. Bruce really freaks. He dives at the robot’s leg and hits it while he tells it to put Betty down. Betty is stunned at Bruce’s reaction. The robot tosses Bruce aside. Suddenly, two more giant robots, “Moe” and “Larry”, come out to join their robot friend. Then the robots all use the jets in their feet to start flying away. Clay starts tracking them with the on-board radar. Bruce runs to the RV and says that they are getting away. Clay points to the radar and says that they aren’t. He says that this just feels wrong though. He says that they are closing in on the stockade where the gamma bombs are being kept and all of a sudden Betty appears. He starts saying that he thinks that this is just a distraction to slow them down, but Bruce gets up in Clay’s face. He says, “Don’t lecture me, Clay! I have ten times your brain power. I know all the possibilities. Bad enough that I let you talk me into delaying the search for Betty… now I’m supposed to ignore her when she’s right in front of me? Now drive after her or I’ll drive over you!” Clay puts it into gear, but sits there smoldering. Rick wonders to himself what got into Bruce, but then he looks at his watch and sees that the sun is going down. Rick thinks, “…it wasn’t what had gotten into him… it’s what was coming out of him.”
The three robots land in the middle of a construction site entitled, “Carter Estates”. Rick thinks that he hopes Carter is paid up on his insurance. “Curly” holds Betty while Larry charges forward. The RV blasts Larry and Rick leaps out to hit it with a rocket launcher. The blast blows Rick off his feet, but the impact has virtually no effect on Larry at all. Larry flips the RV over on its side. Bruce tells Clay that they are trapped. He begs him to do something. Clay says that now Bruce is Mr. Polite. Suddenly, Bruce starts to change into the Hulk. Bruce says, “No, it’s not fair! I wanted to do it myself! I wanted to rescue her! Don’t let him be the hero! Isn’t there anything left for me? If he’s the hero… who am I? Who am… arrrgh!”
Craig Saunders rests in state of suspended animation. Saunders wonders to himself, “Who am I?” When Saunders was a kid he liked to play with explosives, either for the noise, the pretty flash, or perhaps both. When he was in high school he tried to formulate and new explosive. He thought that he had failed until the threw it in the sink. Saunders joined the army as an explosives expert. He got to blow things up in war, defuse bombs, and get paid for it. One day at a national airport, a moron that was trying to smuggle a bomb on board was trying to pass them off as computer parts. Saunders wasn’t buying it. The man told everyone to stay back or he would set off the bomb. The terrorist turned Saunders’ stomach. Saunders pulled his gun and shot the man dead. He told everyone to relax and that he was a bomb expert. He told them that it probably wasn’t activated, but when he opened the suitcase there was only five seconds left on the countdown. Saunders had no time to defuse it. He could have thrown himself on the bomb, but he wasn’t interested in being a dead hero. Saunders slammed the case shut and threw it with all his might… right in front of a bathroom. A mother and her baby walked out of the restroom seconds later. The mother and baby were killed. Saunders felt that it wasn’t his fault, but all the blame was heaped on him and the army wanted no part of him after that. Saunders drifted aimlessly until he joined up with the Hulkbusters. He was trying to atone for his mistakes, but his every effort was met with failure. A voice tells Saunders that, “I hear your mind crying out, ‘I just want a chance.’ You say, ‘That’s all I ask!’ You’ll have your chance, Saunders. A chance to make up for your failures. You shall become… a Redeemer.”
Rick blasts Larry again and sees that the
robots are starting to strain. He knows that he is starting to
get to them, but then he realizes that they will probably get to
him first. Rick thinks about how Captain Mar-Vell used to fight
robots all the time. Rick tries to think of what he would do, but
then reminds himself that Marv is dead. Suddenly, two gray hands
reach out of the ground and pull Larry underground. Legs, arms, a
torso, and finally a head come up one at a time out of the hole. 
Hulk shreds
through the ground and asks, “Next?” Curly and Moe look
at one another. Moe says, “uh” and Curly says,
“oh”. Curly tosses Betty aside. Betty lands hard and
goes unconscious. Hulk shouts, “Betty!” Rick thinks to
himself that Bruce was acting like the Hulk and that now Hulk is
acting like Bruce. He can’t decide which is scarier. Hulk
says, “Whoever sent you two is dead!” Hulk leaps at
them, but he gets blasted in the face. Hulk hits the ground. Rick
thinks to himself that the old Hulk wouldn’t have even been
slowed down, but that this Hulk needed a second. Hulk punches one
of the robots. He says, “I hate fighting stupid robots! You
don’t scream or bleed or nothing! It’s no fun!”
Hulk slams one robot into another. One of the robots grabs Hulk
by the head and zaps him with electricity. It then grabs Hulk by
the arm and slams him to the ground. The robots start piling tons
of construction junk onto Hulk. Rick thinks to himself that he
was kind of glad when the Hulk’s strength was reduced
because he thought it would make him more controllable, but
suddenly Rick was feeling nostalgic for old greenskin.
Samuel John LaRoquette rests in a state of suspended animation. LaRoquette wonders to himself, “Who am I?” When he was a boy, his favorite toy was an old refrigerator with the door taken off. He would pretend that it was a submarine or a rocket ship. When he grew up the world became an array of challenges, and the only thing he enjoyed more than conquering his environment was bragging about it. LaRoquette became a college professor for “Man and His World”. The students were a captive audience. LaRoquette then fell in love with one of his students, Carolyn Parmenter. The dean warned LaRoquette about getting involved, but LaRoquette dismissed him. Together LaRoquette and Carolyn danced, went skin-diving, and went to the beach. They fell in love. The Dean of Students confronted LaRoquette and LaRoquette wound up punching the Dean. LaRoquette blew his tenure and his teaching career. The relationship with Carolyn turned ugly. They broke up and though they swore to keep in contact they lied. LaRoquette went to work for Argo Industries, but his hard attitude brought him into conflict with his superiors. LaRoquette’s last expedition ended when an earthquake hit and killed two of his men. His superiors blamed LaRoquette for the deaths, and even though he did too, but found that he couldn’t punch himself. LaRoquette wound up joining the Hulkbusters and was reunited with Carolyn. It had bode well until Carolyn’s death. Though LaRoquette still blames the Hulk and Doc Samson he feels that he should have saved her. A voice tells LaRoquette, “And now I hear your mind crying out, ‘Everyone always tried to beat me down, tell me what to do.’ But I’ve hung tough… and I have to use that toughness to make up for all the screw-ups I’ve made. And you shall, and you’ll be tougher, harder than ever. You’ll be a rock.”
Rick cradles Betty in his arms as the Hulk
rips through all the junk. Rick notices that Hulk is really
ticked. Rick realizes that it doesn’t matter how strong the
Hulk is… “as long as he was strong enough”. Hulk
charges Moe and just shreds him through his fingers. Hulk laughs
an ugly laugh. Hulk picks up Rick’s dropped rocket launcher
and asks Curly if he is hungry. Hulk punches Curly’s head
off his body. Hulk stuffs the launcher down its neck and fires.
Rick says that it is nice to see someone who enjoys his work as
Hulk blows the smoke off the top of the rocket launcher. Hulk
flips the RV back up. Rick waits for Hulk to ask how Betty is. He
thinks that he shouted for her and so he knows that Hulk cares.
Hulk just says that he wants to get some food and that he worked
up an appetite. Rick asks Hulk if he doesn’t want to see if
Betty is all right. Hulk says, “Get it straight, Jones…
I beat up some robots who thought they were tougher than me.
Period. I don’t care about Banner’s wife. 
Maybe
‘he’ has feelings, obligations towards her, but not me.
Never me, got it?” Rick thinks how he has feared the Hulk,
defended him, hidden him, healed him, escaped him, but that he
never hated him before that. Rick shouts a curse at Hulk. Hulk
turns surprised and Rick just starts yelling at Hulk. Rick thinks
to himself that he just made his last mistake, but instead Hulk
just gets real quiet and says, “Get her covered. Keep her
warm. I’ll get food for all of us.” And then Hulk left.
Leader says, “Perfect. Simply… perfect. It’s all exactly as I planned. I’ve slowed down the Hulk’s progress, and sown further seeds of dissent… by returning Betty Banner to him. And while she slows them down… you my two new creations will steal a gamma bomb for me. You shall help provide the building blocks of a new empire for me and get rid of the Hulk… You do want to get rid of the Hulk, don’t you?” A voice says, “Yes. Must get rid of him… make up for mistakes…” Leader says, “We all have mistakes to atone for. I, your Leader, for all the times the Hulk has beaten me… and you, for your personal failures that led to disgrace and death. But all of this shall be atoned for by you… my Rock… and my Redeemer!”
No Excuses rating: 10 out of 10
It’s hard to explain, but this 10 doesn’t mean quite as much as last issue’s 10. Sure the story is incredible. Leader’s creates two new opponents for the Hulk rogue’s gallery. Betty Banner is back in the book, pregnant with Bruce’s baby. Lines blur as Bruce acts like the Hulk and Hulk acts like Bruce… if only for a minute. The battle is cool, but as the Hulk says it is only robots and they’re no fun to fight. McFarlane does a great job with the art in this issue. He has great detail and style. Very impressive.
Review and pictures by The Leader