Synopsis / Summary / Plot
OK, in Kalkhimithia in Greece the population were turned into Hulks. The Avengers have been trying to contain them in the town. Goliath got them all to merge into 1 giant Hulk, intending to then miniaturise it. But the miniaturising bit didn't work. So now the team have to fight the raging mega-Hulk.
Warbird berates Henry Pym for his stupid plan. Goliath (who's secretly his unreliable counterpart Yellowjacket) tries to defend himself but collapses with a seizure he's been having occasionally lately. SHIELD put through a call to team leader Wasp from Doc Samson. He (and his girlfriend Angela Lipscombe) have Bruce Banner with them who wants to help. This gives Pym another idea and he wants Banner here ASAP. Janet Van Dyne contacts Edwin Jarvis in Avengers Mansion to ask him to get his ward Silverclaw to bring Bruce here in a quinjet (but last issue we were told she couldn't fly 1). However Jarvis tells her that Silverclaw is currently fighting Diablo who destroyed a building across the street, and he fears *she* needs help. Wasp doesn't want to involve SHIELD because they'd just *arrest* Banner. So she contacts Triathlon and Wonder Man who are on the way here by quinjet and tells them to go back to help Silverclaw. And newly-rejoined Quicksilver says he's much faster these days, and can run across the Atlantic quicker than a quinjet to fetch Bruce.
In Manhattan Diablo has 'Claw trapped in amber(?) while he dowses for something. He repeats (for our benefit) that he thought he'd arranged for all the Avengers to be away while he searched for what he's after, but *she* was no problem anyway. Then his dismissive arrogance gives Lupe the strength to shapeshift from puma to the larger sloth form and break free. The alchemist/sorcerer tosses beans at her which turn into entangling vines, but another shift allows her to slither through them. A powder raises a fierce wind which she rides in a bird form. But as she lands in human (but still silver-fleshed) form another powder turns her to salt!
Now the villain causes the ground to erupt and deliver him an ancient artefact, the tablet of T'hely'eh created by primitive worshippers of the N'Garai which will give him the power to "shatter the barriers 'twixt worlds". But behind him Lupe manages to escape her salt-doom by shifting back to a human girl. Edwin reaches her and tries to stop her from continuing the fight, but she shifts to puma and attacks again saying "Avengers don't quit".
Now we take a short break to look in on Black Knight and Firebird still (since #38) with SHIELD monitoring Bloodwraith trapped in deserted Slorenia. But now SHIELD sensors pick up an even larger radiation source in Siberia. The 2 Avengers figure they'd better investigate.
Back in Greece Thor and Vision hit the huge Hulk with Mjolnir and solar energy blast while Scarlet Witch tries to use her magic to stop the monster approaching a city. But they are only slowing it, so Captain America asks the Thunder God if he can use his hammer to create a dimensional rift large enough to send the beast elsewhere. Then Quicksilver arrives carrying Bruce Banner piggyback with warm clothes and a breathing mask to protect him from the high speeds. Pietro Maximoff then collapses in the arms of his sister Wanda with his boots worn away and bleeding feet.
Banner and Pym exchange ideas and, with the lack of scientific equipment, settle on a plan involving the Witch and the fact that the Kalkhimithians have had Bruce's particular Hulk gamma transformation imposed on them (where usually gamma radiation produces unique results like the Abomination and the Leader).
Back in New York Diablo has sicced a Petrachnus (a giant spider built from stone rubble) on Silverclaw to keep her at bay. But then the ionic Wonder Man slams into the ground near him making him drop the Tablet, and Triathlon hops out of their hovering quinjet. As Simon Williams commends Lupe for keeping the villain occupied for so long, said villain pulls out another vial. But speedy Triathlon relieves him of it and loads of others in his pocket, and grabs him to stop him using potions soaked in his moustache (reading Avengers files pays off). Delroy Garrett is about to KO the bad guy when Silverclaw claims the honour.
For the last time back in Greece the Avengers witness Banner transform into the real Hulk, this time choosing the intelligent 'Professor' version. Iron Man and Warbird airlift him and drop him on the foe. Wanda unleashes a specially-prepared Chaos Magic hex which causes the 2 Hulks to merge. The mega-Hulk transforms into a giant grey Mr Fixit Hulk, and then the savage version whose rage forces the construct to shatter into its plain human components. The wind of Thor's whirling hammer and Wanda's magic slows their fall and the other Avengers catch them all.
Then they get a call from the Mansion to tell them that their problem was all a diversion to keep them away while Diablo located the artefact. But 'Diablo' turns to ash while informing them with a laugh that he was a homunculus sent here to get the artefact to free the real Diablo who is trapped in another dimension.
And Bruce Banner reminds them that he's a wanted man but claims he's working on a way of controlling the Hulk. Wasp says he's proved his worth again today so they'll let him go free, but they'll give him a direct comms channel to the Avengers in case things go wrong.
And wherever they are the mysterious watching father and son duo from the last 2 issues reveal themselves to us as Kang The Conqueror and the Scarlet Centurion.