Having arrived in St. Louis’ inner city in search of the next
friend on the list, Chrissie Cutler is dismayed when Bruce Banner explains that
the only way they can escape serious notice is if they disguise themselves as a
prostitute and her client. Bruce also advises Deadbird to stay in the RV and
should anyone approach making noises should scare him off. Bruce and Chrissie
enter a grocery store where they encounter a woman who seems to recognize them
as Georgia’s son Reginald and his girlfriend. They move on and in the store a
little boy freaks out, demanding “Normal” from his mother. Chrissie asks after
Stuart Wendell a/k/a Manifest Destiny but the storeowner orders them out. In
the street, they are confronted by some gang types wanting to know what they
want but they run off when Duke Dauphin, former pro football player arrives.
Bruce claims to be a reporter so Duke takes them to his outreach ministry,
revealing he knows they are Chrissie Cutler and Manny Joslin but soon he
becomes suspicious of the pair and they leave. They draw a gun on a dude and he
takes them to a secret place where the drug Normal is made and where Stu
Wendell is being held captive. Stu turns out to be a mutated blob with a
childlike personality and Normal is derived from Stu’s liver. They cut Stu
loose from the floor he is merged with and then Duke Dauphin arrives, trying to
persuade Stu to remain and defending the drug’s effects, chemically induced
delusion making the neighborhood more livable. One of Duke’s thugs hits Bruce
over the head, triggering a transformation into Hulk and he smashes everyone.
Chrissie is able to talk him down into Bruce and they take Stu and depart….
Later, Stu explains his “origin” to Bruce, being a subject
for a new super-soldier serum test which left him looking like melting flesh but
with a sunny demeanor; his hero is, of course, Captain America. Stu persuades
the unhappy Bruce to place his head against Stu’s side and suddenly Bruce is in
an idyllic world, a small town where he and Chrissie are happily married, Duke
Dauphin is a successful banker, and Stu has his human appearance back and is in
the army. But Deadbird cries a warning to Bruce to remove his head from Stu’s
body or he will die….