Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #393
Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #393
Title: “The Closing Circle”
Writer: Peter David
Penciller: Dale Keown
Inker: Mark Farmer
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Igor thinks about the recurring nightmare that drove his wife, his children, and nearly his sanity from him. It had gotten better since then… or at least he thought it had. Igor wakes up a bomb shelter floor. A voice tells Igor to get off the floor and asks if he doesn’t have any sense of priorities. Igor gets up and sees a Hulk sized Doctor Bruce Banner looking down at him. Igor thinks to himself that he seems to be having a relapse. Banner asks Igor if he is going to sit there slack jawed. He says that there is work to be done and that the countdown for the G-bomb has started. Igor mutters and asks what is going on. He says that he was somewhere else. Bruce shouts in Igor’s face and asks him what his problem is. Igor starts to mention Bruce’s appearance, but Bruce cuts him off and says that he just looks tired because he is overworked. He says that Igor hasn’t been working as diligently as he had hoped. He asks him to strive to do better. Bruce picks up the binoculars and says that in “seconds, we will finally learn what happens when the powerful gamma rays are released…” Bruce spots a boy out in the test area. Bruce tells Igor to delay the countdown until he can get to the boy. He tells him to hurry and that every second counts. Igor says “sure”, and thinks to himself that it is just like before… and like so many times since then. He thinks how Gamma Base was shining and new in his nightmares and not like this decrepit lifeless shell. He says that the events are the same. He thinks about how it was the day that Igor Drenkov held the fates of millions of people in his hands, but that he didn’t know it. He thinks that all he saw was a chance to get rid of a North American scientist. He thinks that he could have stopped it then… he thinks that he can stop it now. Stop the countdown… stop the Hulk, but he thinks that his mission was to eliminate Banner. He asks how he can betray his country. He thinks that his country is gone, but that the Hulk is still there. Igor thinks that he can’t abort and that he must fulfill the mission. His hand still above the “abort” button as the countdown hits “0”. The light blinds Igor. The sound of the explosion and the scream that followed it
Part 2: The Hulk Challenged!
As the People’s Protectorate fly to rescue Igor Drenkov, Fantasma screams. Crimson Dynamo asks why she is screaming like that. Vostok asks if that isn’t the way females scream. Perun asks Fantasma if she saw Drenkov. Fantasma says that the visual link she shares with him was just overwhelming. She say that for a moment there was just light. She says that he is being subjected to images from his past, but that she doesn’t know why. Guardian says that it doesn’t matter why. He says that all that matters is that an officer of the bodyguard service was kidnapped from the heart of Washington DC while a part of a diplomatic mission. He says that they have to get him back and that they can’t let the world think that the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the KGB has made them easy targets. Perun remarks that Red Guardian has made another speech and says that he doesn’t have his notebook. Guardian tells Fantasma that they will need guidance from her if they are going to find Drenkov. Fantasma says that she shook his hand and created the psychic link. She asks if she has to do everything. Perun looks out the window and shouts that there is someone on their wing. Hector spins his mace. He introduces himself and says that he is from the Pantheon. He welcomes them to the United States and smashes their wing. Guardian tells Crimson Dynamo to let him fly and that only he has the experience needed. Dynamo tells him to go ahead and that he is wearing armor and has a much less personal stake in the landing. The plane hits hard and someone sarcastically compliments Guardian’s landing. The People’s Protectorate come face to face with the Pantheon: Hector, Ulysses, Ajax and Atalanta. Ulysses says that they have delivered comrade Drenkov into the hands of one of their valued associates, but that he doesn’t recall them being invited. Guardian tells Ulysses that he is outnumbered. Ulysses tells Guardian that he is outclassed. As they run toward each other, the People’s Protectorate disappear. Hector asks what happened. Ulysses says that he isn’t sure.
Drenkov staggers around the base. He thinks that the dream is going on a lot longer than usual. He thinks that maybe he isn’t dreaming. He says that maybe he is dead. He says that maybe this is Purgatory, or worse, and that he is reliving his greatest sins. He remembers wanting the plans for the gamma bomb. Igor sees that he is at Banner’s cabin. Igor walks in. He thinks that the cabin isn’t as he remembers it either. He says that he has to complete his mission. He says that if he is dreaming, insane, or dead that it doesn’t matter what he does. He starts tossing papers around. He says that it does matter to him though. Igor hears a growling. He thinks that he was a proud man, and that whatever his country needed that he did. Igor turns.
Part 3: The Hulk Unleashed!
Igor
thinks that he has to be dead as he looks at Rick Jones hanging off the Hulk’s
arm. Igor thinks that the creature is bigger than he remembers. Igor thinks that
maybe he can hurt it this time. Igor draws his gun and shoots. The bullet
bounces off and Igor says, “You’re not human!” Hulk lifts Igor off his feet and
says, “Human? Why should I want to be human?” Rick shouts for Hulk to put him
down. Hulk says that he will put him down… “so!” Hulk tosses Igor into the
table. Rick tells Bruce that is enough. Bruce says that it isn’t nearly enough.
He shouts at Igor that he has no idea what he has done… what he has unleashed.
He talks about the destruction and misery that Igor’s act of sabotage forced
thousands and millions of people to go through. He says that he tried to kill
him, but that he couldn’t even do that right. He says that he turned him into a
monster and took away his chance at a normal life. Hulk asks if Igor went to
trial. He says that he didn’t and that six months later he was sent home as part
of a spy trade. He says that he was never held accountable… until now. Hulk
smashes Igor through the ceiling. Rick says that this is going too far. He says
that he agreed to his “head trip”, but that it is time to stop before… Hulk asks
if he was going to say before someone gets killed. Hulk shouts, “It’s his fault!
Don’t you get it? You always blamed yourself, Rick, but you were just a
teenager! But he was malicious and cold-blooded! And I’m going to make him pay!”
Crimson Dynamo rips the roof off Banner’s old cabin. He tells Hulk to release comrade Drenkov and to back away with his hands on his head. Rick asks Hulk if that is a friend of his. Hulk asks, “Who can remember?” Dynamo repeats to release Drenkov. Hulk says that if he wants him that he can have him. Hulk throws Drenkov into the air. Dynamo flies after him and says that he will settle with Hulk in a few moments. Hulk leaps at Dynamo and says that maybe he will settle with him sooner than he thinks. Hulk is hit with a blast from behind. As Hulk falls he thinks that he can’t see or hear anything as if someone threw a bag over his senses.
Fantasma says that she got Hulk and that he is all theirs. Guardian tries to tell the others to wait. He says that their mission was to find Drenkov. He says that they don’t have to battle with the Hulk if it can be avoided. He says that what he wants is to find out the reason for tall this. Perun asks why waste time with reasons when there is a foe worthy of his power waiting to be defeated. Perun hits Hulk with his hammer. Fantasma warns the others that the Pantheon has caught up with them. She says that last time she was generous making them think that they had just disappeared, but that this time she will do what she did to the Hulk. Atalanta fires off an arrow and says that she doesn’t need her eyes to hit her target. The plasma energy hits Fantasma.
Perun says that he is almost sorry that Fantasma blinded Hulk and that this is too easy. Hulk’s vision clears. Hulk sees Perun and says that he was the one that was using him for target practice when he couldn’t see. He asks what he says now and hits him. Perun says that at last a true fight. Hulk says that he was hoping for groveling.
Red Guardian and Ulysses sword fight. Vostok and Ajax are fighting. Vostok uses his power to manipulate metal and causes Ajax’s armor to make fists and punch Ajax all over.
Dynamo puts down Drenkov and says that he is going to help Perun finish off the Hulk. Perun says that depriving him of his weapon won’t stop him. He says that the energy comes from him. Perun powers up. Hulk says that he actually figured that out. He takes the electric Perun and throws him into Crimson Dynamo. It shuts down the armor. Hulk says that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to have figured out that would happen, but that he happens to be a rocket scientist. Perun asks if he ever shuts up. Hulk says that he had to go through years of having a ten word vocabulary, and that he is just making up for lost time. Hulk knees Perun in the face. Dynamo hits Hulk from behind. Vostok tells Hulk that he shouldn’t have turned his back on Dynamo… even if the man inside is unconscious. He controls Dynamo into punching Hulk again. Atalanta’s arrows go through each of his shoulders. Fantasma gets up. Atalanta looks down at her true back and is stunned. Fantasma takes advantage and hits Atalanta. Hulk goes to punch Vostok. Vostok uses his hands to block it, but Hulk just heat butts him to the ground. Hulk grabs Perun’s sickle and sinks it into Vostok’s chest.
Hulk leaps and lands in front of Igor. He asks him if the drugs have worn off yet. If he has figured out why this is happening to him.
Part 4:The Hulk Confronted
Igor
thinks about how he wasn’t allowed to believe in God. He thinks how his father
believed in God, and that he used to tell him stories about how when you die
that God would be waiting for you and demand an accounting of his sins. Igor
thinks about how his father is dead and that he longs to be with him. Hulk tells
Igor that right where he is sitting is where the bomb, that he could have
stopped, went off. He says that even now in the recreation that he could have
stopped it, but that he didn’t. He says that with all his old agendas long gone
that all he could think of was destroying him. He says that knowing all the
results that he is unrepentant and would do it again. Igor puts his face in his
hands. The Pantheon and People’s Protectorate gather around. Hulk tells them to
see a living example of an obsession that won’t die. Hulk says that Drenkov was
hired to infiltrate the original gamma bomb test. He says that he did it quite
well and signed on as his assistant. He was supposed to swipe the plans and make
sure that he wasn’t around to make any more. He says that his only regret is
that he wasn’t more efficient at it. Guardian asks if this isn’t the anniversary
of the test. Hulk says that it is and that when he heard Drenkov was going to be
in the US that he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Hulk says that his first
battle was with a Russian: The Gargoyle. He says that things change, but that
they don’t. Hulk says that he wanted to make him suffer for all the grief and
misery that he caused him and humanity. Rick says that he doesn’t sound too
upset. Igor starts to laugh. Igor says that he is going to get into Heaven and
that he saved the world. Hulk asks what he is talking about. Igor says that he
created the monster of destruction, and that he would do it again because the
monster has also been a force for good. He asks if he carries the guilt and
responsibility for the Hulk’s evil then doesn’t he get credit for the good. He
says that he dreams every night of what he did. He says that he knows he must be
dead because no one can suffer like this and be alive. He says that his soul
died the day the bomb went off… he says that he just wants to know where his
soul will go.
No Excuses rating: 8 out of 10
I like Bruce getting a little revenge on Igor on the 30th anniversary of his crime against Bruce and humanity. I also kind of like that the former Soviet Super Soldiers were brought out of Hulk’s past, but I don’t really like that it doesn’t seem like Hulk could handle them without the Pantheon. I’m also not crazy about the Twilight Zone ending with Igor asking “me” to judge him. Keown does a decent job, but some of it I don’t really care for. I don’t know if it’s a coloring problem, but the folds of skin colored rumples around Fantasma’s neck is kinda gross, and Igor searching for Banner’s cabin is awful.
Title: “Grudge Match”
Writer: Peter David
Penciller: Herb Trimpe
Inkers: Herb Trimpe and Charles Barnett
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bobbie Chase
The savage Hulk rips apart a tank. He says that humans call him “monster” and “brainless”, but that they are the ones that hunt him when he just wants to be left alone. Hulk says that they are the monsters. Hulk says that when he smashes them that they keep coming back for more, and that makes them more brainless than him. As Hulk prepares to leap away, Ross shouts for the soldiers to stop him. He asks what they are paying them for. Hulk asks how much money their lives are worth. Hulk says that he will make them pay. They start shooting Hulk, but Hulk just laughs at the bullets as he leaps away. Hulk leaps over the planes and says, “As if stupid planes could hurt Hulk.” Hulk leaps along and says that there is nothing that can hurt him. He says that the soldiers know that and that they are jealous of him. He says that they won’t rest until he is as puny and powerless as they are, which means that they won’t rest for a long time.
“Coyote” Cash drives in his “Cashstasher” Hummer-style getaway vehicle. He shoots at the police as they chase him. The police announce that he cannot get away. They tell him to pull over and come out with his hands up. Coyote says that he is just getting started. He comes to a roadblock and drives right through it. Coyote says that the Cashstasher is everything that he hoped for. He says that he is home free. Suddenly the Hulk lands on the Cashstasher’s hood and demolishes the vehicle. As he leaps up he pulls the hood off with him. Hulk says, “Here! Take back stupid hood, and next time… puny human should watch where Hulk is going!” The cops pull up and arrest him.
In jail, Coyote says that he is going to kill him.
A few years later, Coyote gets out of jail. He flies to Las Vegas. He says that he has spent years in jail thinking about how he is going to make all of Las Vegas’ money his. He thinks about all the money, the woman, and the cars. He looks at a device he built and says that this is all he needs to make it all his. Coyote walks into the Coliseum. After a while he puts a large bet on “four”. The roulette wheel comes up on four. A woman asks Coyote what the secret of his success is. Coyote says that it is clean living. He says that he is going to take his leave and that he has other places to go.
Fixit tells one of the men that there is something funny about that guy. He says that if he is pulling something that he isn’t walking out with a dime of Mr. B’s money. Fixit has two men approach Coyote at the cash out window. Coyote smacks them both with his suitcase of money. He says that it is all his. Fixit grabs the man by the back of his jacket. He says, “Now that’s what I call suspicious behavior. Get back here, you stupid hood.” Coyote recognizes the “stupid hood”. He looks at Hulk and says that it can’t be him. Fixit asks if he is supposed to know him. Hulk reaches into Coyote’s magnetic particle displacer. He say that could be used to control a rolling metal ball. Coyote asks him how he knew that. He says that only a genius like him, not some Las Vegas strong man, could figure that out. Hulk says that now he has hurt his feelings.
Back in jail, Coyote says that he is going to kill him.
As Coyote is getting out of jail the warden tells him that he hopes he realizes now how pointless the direction of his life was. He tells him that if he watches his step that the sky is the limit.
Coyote gets on a plane.
Coyote waits on the side of the road. As an army ordinance truck passes by he blows it up with a remote explosive. Coyote loads a rocket launcher onto the back of his truck. He says that he knows now that the only way he can proceed or rest easy is to law his nemesis low.
Coyote inspects his rocket launcher and says that it is the Hulk that has dogged him with every step. He says that through the changes in Hulk’s life that one thing has remained constant: Rick Jones. Coyote looks up Rick’s address in the phone book. He decides to kill Rick and then when Hulk comes looking for him that he will die too. Coyote climbs into Rick’s window. He sees that someone is in the bed and figures it is Rick. Coyote shoots the rocket launcher at the bed and demolishes it. Coyote announces to Hulk that the gauntlet has been thrown down, and that whenever he is ready that he will be waiting. Hulk pops up out of the demolished bed and says that he had better be ready now “you stupid flea-bitten hood!” Coyote screams. Hulk says that Rick is out of town and asked him to house sit for him. Hulk says that he just knows that Rick is going to blame him for this. He asks if he doesn’t have any consideration at all. Coyote stammers that he gives up.
As the police haul him away, Hulk wonders who that guy was. He says that this is some world they live in where you can just be minding your own business and a stranger comes along and complicates your life.
No Excuses rating: 6.5 out of 10
A cute enough story I guess, but a little irrelevant for Peter David’s usual work. It’s nice to see Herb Trimpe, but I miss his old style of penciling. This new style doesn’t have his trademark signature on it. I would have loved to have seen his version of Fixit and the Merged Hulk in his old style. Ah well. As it was it was adequate, but nothing great. 3 out of 5
Psychological Ramifications of Gamma Radiation
A case history of the incredible Hulk submitted to the American Psychological Association
By Leonard Samson, Ph.D.
Abstract
“Within all of us, oft times, there dwells a mighty, raging fury.”
Much research has been conducted on the biochemical effects of gamma radiation exposure, among them accelerated replication of cell tissue. But its psychological consequences have heretofore remained unexplored. Based upon my psychoanalysis of Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, I have concluded that gamma mutation is as much psychological as it is physical. G-rays ionize brain tissue, releasing the deepest parts of the collective unconscious. The darkest, most deeply-buried sense of self dictates the subject’s mutation. In the case of Robert Bruce Banner, the G-rays stimulated a repressed fury that transformed him into the incredible Hulk.
Robert Bruce Banner was born during the advent of the mutant hysteria in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Dr. Brian Banner and Rebecca Banner. Although Rebecca deeply loved her only son, the alcoholic Brian was obsessively jealous of their relationship.
A former atomic physicist at Los Alamos, Brian concluded that Bruce’s phenomenal intelligence was a genetic mutation derived from Brian’s exposure to radiation. Bruce’s earliest childhood memories are all filled with pain.
Brian Banner finally murdered his wife when she attempted to leave with Bruce. Bruce was raised by Rebecca’s sister and later attended Science High School. He sublimated his grief and rage over his childhood, diverting the drives spawned by his sufferings into the relative safety of science.
Bruce Banner attended Desert State University in Navapo, New Mexico, where he studied such contemporaries as Walter Langowski (now the monstrous Canadian super hero Sasquatch) Peter Corbeau (Nobel Prize winner for creating Starcore One, the first orbiting solar reactor), and Raoul Stoddard (who created the Gammatron to isolate gamma radiation).
Although among peers in college, Bruce was still a highly withdrawn intellectual unable to cope with emotions… An obsessive-compulsive with no fashion sense, Banner took a cue from Einstein in purchasing five sets of the exactly the same suit- all purple. That way he wouldn’t have to spend any thought on what to wear.
Obtaining his doctorate in nuclear physics from the California institute of Technology, Banner went to work at a nuclear research facility at Desert Base, New Mexico. The events that follow the test detonation of Banner’s gamma bomb, and his subsequent exposure to its radiation, are well documented elsewhere. Suffice to say that the gamma rays stimulated the repressed anger, releasing a powerful creature born of rage, pain, and fear. In fact, this “Hulk” was but one manifestation of at least three distinct identities I have diagnosed in the mind of Bruce Banner. I can express these character traits in Freudian terms with regard to the superego, the ego, and the id.
Banner the physicist represents the superego; a well-intentioned stiff almost despotic in his conscience, morality, and reason. At this level, Banner intellectualized his childhood suffering in order to avoid making contact with the emotions behind it.
The first Hulk, a gray-skinned behemoth, personified a regression from the superego to the ego. This Hulk houses Banner’s will power and decision making, upon which Banner projected his rage. He comes across with the most subtle, inventive behavior, only occasionally exuding false nobility or martyrdom.
The green Hulk represents Banner’s unfettered id, seat of his survival instinct and childhood desires, always trying to get his way. This, Banner’s ego regressed to an even earlier, less threatening period of concrete operations. This infantile state of narcissistic innocence resulted in a single-minded, baby-talking creature seeing the world only as an extension of himself.
Banner himself has assigned his own archetypes to each of these manifestations in his collective unconsciousness: Glow, Goblin, and Guardian respectively.
At first the Hulk transformed at sunset and reverted to human form at dawn. Although the Hulk’s skin pigment soon changed to green, he maintained the disposition of the gray Hulk for a while, even when encountering Betty.
The military tried to dispose of the Hulk by sending him into space. However, the same cosmic rays that transformed the gallant members of the Fantastic Four also bathed Bruce Banner. Due to the effects of this radiation, Bruce Banner became the Hulk for the first time during daylight hours, under the mental control of the youth Rick Jones.
For a time, Banner could control the transformation using gamma ray projectors in his hidden desert lab. Although he possessed the physicist’s intelligence, he had a more brutish, violent temperament, as though the raging gray Hulk was trying to assert control. Prolonged exposure to the projector segregated their personalities further and provided some unwanted side-effects…
Soon after the Hulk’s brief stint as an Avenger, Banner’s body changed so that his transformations into the Hulk were triggered by his adrenal medulla’s secretion of norepinephrine during periods of stress. It also worked the other way around- stress would cause the Hulk to revert back to Banner. A decline in his adrenaline levels wouldn’t transform him from Hulk to Banner until several months later.
By this time, the green Hulk had fully emerged, possessing little of Banner’s memory and intelligence. This easily enraged Hulk was characterized by his deep loneliness and a childlike longing for friendship, acceptance, and love. He also exhibited a homing ability that enabled him to locate the New Mexico desert where he was created. The Hulk encountered his first gamma-spawned enemy in this condition- a former laborer named Samuel Sterns who rechristened himself the Leader.
Following the Hulk’s battle with the Leader, a soldier shot the Hulk in the head in the midst of transformation. Bruce Banner’s life was saved by Rick Jones, who bombarded the dying scientist with a dose of gamma rays. The Hulk’s emerald skin healed around the bullet, which had an unexpected positive effect…
But even then the gray Hulk’s savagery manifested…
Playing upon Banner’s altruistic sense of honor, the Leader removed the bullet from the Hulk’s skull. To bring him back to full strength, the Leader subjected him to the strongest gamma radiation dosage he had ever received, making him stronger than ever, with the intelligence of Bruce Banner. Little by little, however, Banner’s identity was submerged by the stronger, more brutal essence of the green Hulk.
Using Banner’s modifications on his own scientific breakthrough to cure the Hulk, Dr. Reed Richards broke down Banner’s very atoms, the reconstructed them. As a molecular scientist, Richards only treated the physical symptoms of Banner’s malady, not its psychological roots. Before Betty Ross could say “I do” at their California wedding ceremony, the Leader blasted Banner with a gamma-powered amplifies and Banner lost his control over the Hulk.
When Raoul Stoddard later used his Gammatron to separate Banner from the Hulk, he didn’t realize that the two halves could not live without each other. Thus, with the help of his friend Jim Wilson, Banner reintegrated himself with the green Hulk, never realizing that the repressed gray Hulk had probably influenced his decision.
When Betty Ross’ body was crystallized through a blood transfusion with the Sandman. I devised a cathexis ray projector to drain gamma particles and psionic energy from the Hulk. Unfamiliar as I was with Banner’s case history at the time, I incorrectly theorized that Banner would be cured of the physiological instability that continually transformed him into the Hulk. The cathexis ray succeeded in returning Betty to flesh and blood and seemed to send Banner into remission. I later irradiated myself with the energies remaining in the projector. I was transformed into a green-haired superhuman with gamma-boosted strength. The gamma rays had released my repressed childhood desires to gain superhuman powers, like my biblical namesake.
And like a child, I flaunted my newfound strength to romance Betty, not realizing the damage it was causing Banner’s unresolved inner conflict. Again, his ego pushed him to expose himself to gamma radiation, thereby undoing my physiological “cure”.
For years, Betty Ross continued to love Banner. However, Banner’s feelings divided once the Hulk fell in love with the green-skinned Jarella, warrior queen of the interdimensional planet K’ai. On Jarella’s world three sorcerers had formed a mystical triad around the Hulk, each chanting an incantation which stimulated the Hulk’s intellect to understand their language. The result of the three-way brain-bath was similar to my recent merging of the Hulk’s personalities.
The Hulk’s sojourn on K’ai soon ended, and he returned to Earth. After a period of intense gamma treatments, Banner again achieved control over his transformations into the Hulk while retaining his own mind. But the extra dimensional demon known as Nightmare reached into Banner’s psyche and released his worse nightmare- a truly savage Hulk devoid of any reason or intelligence. The shock of its release forced Banner into psychic retreat, leaving this mindless fourth incarnation in his wake.
Dr. Strange banished the raging creature to another dimension, where it was rescued some months later by Walter Langowski. I captured the Hulk and separated the unique psyche and atomic structure of Bruce Banner from the Hulk. Based on Stoddard’s research, Banner and the Hulk again became two separate beings. I inadvertently released the mindless, savage Hulk while Banner finally married Betty Ross, believing himself free of his curse forever.
But the Fates would not be so kind. After a time, Banner fell ill as a result of being split into two separate physical entities. I was therefore compelled to reintegrate Banner and the Hulk, though the process went a bit awry, similar to the early transformation which changed all of Banner into the Hulk except his head!
General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross interfered with my subsequent attempt to treat this condition, causing the green Hulk persona to possess Rick Jones. Banner subsequently used the gamma ray projector upon himself, little realizing that the gray Hulk was manipulating him from within. He transformed into his initial gray state.
The gray Hulk formed an alliance with Sam Sterns, whose gamma-spawned intellect had worn off. Sterns drained the gamma radiation from the Rick Jones Hulk, which mutated Sterns into a more monstrous version of the Leader. But a power surge linked the minds of Jones and the Leader, much as a similar surge had once linked Jones and the Hulk early on. This link allowed the Leader to keep tabs on Rick’s whereabouts.
Once again, Banner would transform into the gray Hulk at nightfall. During nights of the full moon, he seemed to possess more of Bruce Banner’s characteristics, due to the solar reflection from the moon.
In an attempt to create a race of gamma-spawned beings, the Leader detonated a gamma bomb in Middletown, Arizona, where the Hulk seemingly perished. The Hulk survived, however, thanks to a magical spell cast upon him by the sorcerers of K’ai. The same spell allowed the gray goliath to remain the Hulk for several months without reverting to Banner. At this time, the Hulk found employment as a Las Vegas casino enforcer, adopting the alias “Joe Fixit”.
When the spell wore off, not only did Bruce Banner return…
Just about then, Banner’s transformations began to go haywire… he, the gray Hulk, and the green Hulk were all fighting for dominance. That’s where I stepped in.
I had psychoanalyzed the Hulk once before, but I had barely scratched the surface of his psychosis. Now that the three aspects of Banner’s mind were moving toward each other, I wished to facilitate each person’s coming to terms with each other. Little did I realize how quickly and efficiently my therapy would work…
I would like to conclude that I am some sort of miracle worker, but I don’t think that’s the case. Multiple personality disorders usually require years of therapy. I would like to analyze the Hulk further, but Bruce is convinced that I did the trick.
If that’s so, then why do I have the gnawing feeling that I’ve missed something? I mentioned a fourth incarnation, the mindless, savage Hulk. Where does that identity fit into this puzzle? Will it intrude upon the future of a man who has finally come to terms with himself? Only time will tell.
Review and pictures by The Leader
One picture in Psychological Ramifications done by Captain Nate.