Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #463Incredible Hulk vol. 2 #463
Title: College Daze
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Adam Kubert
Inks: Mark Farmer, Green, Deplerdang and Larosa
Colors: Matthew Paine/Digital Chameleon Colors
Editor: Bobbie Chase
"No one tells Hulk what to do." The words ring in Bruce Banner’s head.
Bruce Banner is being grasped tightly in the metal hand of a huge Troyjan Shock-Troop Robot unable to free himself from its grasp, while he wonders why he is not turning into the Hulk to get them free. The new series of transformations since being re-merged with the Hulk is described as a chess match—and this point in time, Hulk shows he is the one in charge by not coming to Bruce’s "rescue."
Bruce asks himself why the Hulk would not come to rescue him, and then it comes to him. He realizes that the robot has the power to crush him if he wanted to, but he is not. Bruce realizes what the Hulk understood all along, that the robots would not hurt him so there was no need to turn into Hulk. ""Nicely played, Hulk. Very nicely played," Bruce compliments Hulk and sticks his tongue out at the Troyjan inside the battle suit. The holographic image of Armageddon asks the Troyjan if he is squeezing Bruce too hard and causing him to stick his tongue out. The Troyjan replies no and is ordered to attack those with Bruce if threats to Bruce’s safety do not daunt him.
The Troyjan battle robot prepares to punch the hospital Rick, Marlo and Betty are in. Betty tell Marlo to get out of there, but Marlo won’t leave Rick. Rick demands they both leave because it won’t do any good if they all die. Bruce (and Hulk) see what the robot is about to do and Hulk comes to the surface and Bruce finally transforms. Hulk destroys the robots hand as he bursts free declaring he’s the strongest one there is and that no stupid robot would hold him.
Hulk grabs the robots head and rips it off, throwing it into the sky. Hulk asks the troyjan inside what he is doing here. He says he is doing nothing at the moment, but his allies are going to seek a new target and Hulk had better follow them if he hopes to stop them. Then the troyjan self-destructs. Hulk decides that the Troyjan would rather blow himself than be his "prisoner." He doesn’t care, saying there are more where he came from and he leaps after the other battle suits.
W.T. Rogers is reporting for CBS News on Chelsea Clinton’s Freshman year at Stanford. Behind him, all the people look up at the sky while he continues to talk about Chelsea. The giant battle robots fly into camera frame and land behind him. He says there are rumors teachers are afraid of reprecussions from the government if they give Chelsea a bad grade. Anything from "FBI harassment…late-night searches…even…giant robots…?" Seeing the Troyjan robot foot coming down near him he runs off, screaming that Clinton has gone beserk.
The robots stand around doing nothing, but secret service agents on the ground decides that the robots must be after Chelsea Clinton, when they really don’t even care. Secret service agents dressed as students and nuns open fire on the robots. One of the troyjans thinks maybe they are defending something of value to them. Armageddon tells them it is not important and to step on them.
Back in the hospital, Betty tells Rick not to worry, that Bruce will be fine. Rick says he knows, they always used to be okay—except now he is crippled and will never walk again. Marlo tells Rick that Bruce has been talking to other scientists to help him. That Reed Richards and Tony Stark are working with some Irish guy called Egg’s O’Skelton. Betty corrects her, saying they are working on an exoskeleton. Rick doesn’t care, he says he’ll still be a cripple but with pretend legs.
General Ross is out in the hall talking on a pay phone to Colonel ST. Lawrence. He says he better not find out that Gyrich or SHIELD of another super-spook (that’s spy-talk) is behind the giant robots. Colonel Lawrence says that Gyrich claims he has nothing to do with it. He tells the Colonel not to be so naïve as to believe everything Gyrich says, and a metal-gloved hand taps him on the shoulder. Ross tells whoever is tapping him to buzz off and to find a different phone. Next, the person behind him taps him on the shoulder with the end of his huge gun. Ross turns around and tells ST. Lawrence that he thinks aliens are behind it. Colonel Lawrence asks him if he means foreign nationals. Ross says no, he means aliens from out of space. Lawrence wants to know how he figured that out. Ross stares up at the two armored Troyjans pointing their weapons at him and says "when you’ve done this as long as I have, St. Lawrence, you develop instincts, that’s all."
The secret
service agents fire their weapons at the robots, having no effect
on them. The troyjans wonder again what they are trying to keep
them away from, so they decide to go investigate. But before they
can do it Hulk comes soaring through the sky, smashing through
one of the robots heads, knocking it into the other one and they
both fall to the ground. Hulk complains about how the stupid
robots are a stupid waste of his time. The other robots see Hulk
and target their missiles, Hulk grabs one of the robots and
throws it into the other. Another robot flies through the air and
starts blasting Hulk with lasers from his palms. Hulk says:
"More Attacks? Don’t you guys get it yet? I’m the
Hulk. I’m Back! And I’m
Really…really…pissed…!"
Hulk leaps at the robot and smashed into it, knocking it off its flight path. The Hulk and the robot are now heading straight towards Chelsea’s dorn room. Hulk says that if they crash into it, Hulk will be blamed. And Hulk says he is tired of give people excuses to hate him, so he punches the robot and knocked them off course and they miss the building and crash to the ground. Hulk stands on top of the robot, demanding the Troyjan comes out for another couple of rounds, when a huge shadow covers Hulk and the robot, Hulk asks now what is happening. Inside the dorm, Chelsea is talking to her mother who wants to know if it is safe yet. Her body guard says he wouldn’t exactly say it was safe.
The huge Troyjan ship floats over the city, completely covering it in shadows. They declare that the robot shock troops have reported heavy casualties, but the Hulk is not even slowed down. They then decide it is time for the next phase of the plan. A message comes from the ship telling Hulk to prepare for the holograph projection of the High Commander "Shon." The Projection is not facing Hulk, and Hulk asks if he is afraid to face him. The projection says he is not, but he wants to show Hulk what would happen if he continues this conflict.
The projection
shows Hulk that they have general Ross as a prisoner, and that
they "know" that Ross is important to Hulk. He says
that if Hulk does not surrender, General Ross will suffer the
consequences. All Hulk does is laugh. Ross tells Shon that he
told him Hulk would react like that. But then, Bruce fights
Hulk’s control and Hulk starts turning back into Bruce
Banner, screaming "not now!"
Reminiscent of the old 80’s cartoon show, where Bruce Banner’s shirt magically reappeared when Hulk turned back to Banner, Bruce’s glasses reappear on his face when Hulk turns back into him. The holograph says that Bruce is not the one he wants, that Armageddon wants the intelligent one. Bruce tells him that he is the intelligent one. Ross tells Shon again that he told him so. Shon tells Ross to stop saying that because it’s annoying. Shon tells Bruce that Armageddon wants the intelligent being named Bruce Banner/The Hulk to help him. Bruce guesses that Armageddon intended to obtain what he wanted by showing his indisputable superiority by beating the Hulk into submission to do his bidding. Shon tells him that he is correct. Bruce says that as long as General Ross is not harmed, Bruce will help him within reason. Otherwise, Bruce will wait around for Hulk to come back again so that he can pound on more Troyjans.
The CBS reporter gets back up as the robots fly up to the huge ship over the school. He interprets what is happening as the Hulk intervening in an alien plot to kidnap Chelsea Clinton, and that Bruce has sacrificed himself in some sort of exchange plan to to protect Chelsea. The Troyjan flying the robot carrying Bruce says that his broadcast equipment has noted the repeated mention of a "Chelsea" and asks what "Chelsea" is. Bruce says that is a section of New York. The Troyjan replies saying that humans are a most incomprehensible species.
Shon and his men throw Bruce into a huge cell with General Ross. Bruce compliments them on the impressive structure of their ship. Shon says that Bruce’s opinions do not interest him. He says that if Bruce somehow Hulks-out and flees the ship with Ross, they will come back and wipe out the entire area. And he says that Ross will cooperate with them because they owe him. Ross asks what they mean. Shon asks him if he remembers anything at all, and says that if it weren’t for the Troyjans he would be dead. General Ross buckles over and Bruce catches him and helps him stand. Bruce asks General Ross what happened and he replies that he is starting to remember an image of one of the Troyjans, but he was bigger, and their leader. "Armageddon," Bruce says. "These guys are the Troyjan and if they’re here, then the odds are that the ‘big one’ you saw is their leader…Armageddon. And he has quite a grudge against me." Ross asks Bruce why, "Because I…that is to say, the Hulk…that is…we…we killed his son. "
Armageddon is stand in a room alone, looking out a huge window in outerspace. He turns to a huge device in the room that hold the body of his son Trauma in it.
The Silver Surfer flies up to the outside of the ship. He says that Troyjans are daring to come to Earth. He says that he will follow them to their destination and that the Silver Surfer will attend to them permanently when they do.
No Excuses Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
I really enjoy this issue, because to me this is just pure fantasy writing that works. With the Hulk battling big robots from space, with plenty of humor added in, just makes this story very enjoyable. I love the Troyjans and Armageddon, and seeing them back is a big plus. I think this is the first time they were heard from since the end of the Troyjan war, way back during the Merged Hulk/Gary Frank era. I’m excited by this issue to see what Armageddon has planned for Bruce. I like the description of the new Hulk/Banner relationship as a chess game, and I wish it got tapped further before Marvel "reset" Hulk back to being the Savage Hulk. This incarnation of Hulk has always been one that I enjoyed (it was also the Hulk in my first Hulk comic) and think it works very well for the title. I was going to give this writing a near perfect score of 4.5, because this isn’t a ground-breaking story, and might seem like standard comicbook fare, but it’s just too enjoyable in my opinion, so it gets a 5 out of 5 for writing. I really like Adam Kubert’s art, and think his Hulk is amazing, but I think he was a bit rushed to get this in, because it seems a little rough around the edges, but that might have to do with having 3 inkers, so the art is not always consistent. Overall you can tell what is going on pretty well, and the multiple inkers isn’t really that distracting. There aren’t that many amazing shots of Hulk this issue, but there a few pictures I really like, so I think the art deserves a solid 3.5 out of 5.
Summary and pictures provided by Captain Nate