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Hulk #3

May 2014
Mark Waid, Mark Bagley

Hulk #3 cover

Story Name:

Who shot the Hulk #3


Synopsis

Hulk #3 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
At the end of the previous series, when he worked for SHIELD, Bruce Banner got shot in the head and abducted by bad guys. In this series he was rescued by SHIELD, but he's got brain damage and total memory loss. SHIELD are hiding him in a town in Kentucky (or Colorado, there seems to be some confusion) using the name Bobby. But someone sent the Abomination after him, and SHIELD Director Maria Hill retaliated by turning Bobby into Hulk. While evacuating a townsman Hill was attacked by 3 armoured soldiers phasing through a wall.

Maria appears to use the civilian as a shield, but she's actually keeping him from being hit when she aims a sonic scrambler at the enemy, which knocks them out. Then she unmasks 1 of them and injects him with a truth drug which also wakes and paralyses him. He confirms that the guys who kidnapped Banner also sent the Abomination. And the monster is actually dead but animated by gamma-tissue from Hulk - and controlled from afar. But then the 3 soldiers are phased through the floor, and Hill only has time to grab a glowing wristband of 1 of them.

Meanwhile there's lots of smashing going on between Hulk and Abomination, with Hulk being mostly the smashee. So he's actually unconscious when some Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Sunspot) turn up. CA stays with Hulk while CM and IM force Abomination to retreat, and follow him. CA sends Sunspot to check for injured civilians, when Maria Hill runs up (having found time to change into her SHIELD uniform) as Hulk transforms back to 'Bobby'.

The man who's been controlling Abomination claims to be the world's only gammacrinologist. He's known Banner since before he became the Hulk, and has made himself an expert on the subject. CM and IM discover 1 of his upgrades to Abomination when IM detects him giving off dangerous levels of gamma radiation, that weakened Hulk during the fight.

The monster crushes Shellhead's chestplate. Sunspot joins the battle but Abomination hits him with Captain Marvel. Then runs off to find Hulk.

Banner has woken up very confused with his memories and personality shifting around. IM radios to tell Cap to get Bruce Hulked up. Maria says they can't afford that. Hulk's rapid healing will 'mend' his brain in the confused state it's in now, like a badly-set bone. But in 1 of his lucid moments Bruce insists on becoming Hulk to help his friends. Even though Hill tells him he'll lose his intellect.

Abomination has attacked CA, but IM comes to his rescue. But even the Golden Avenger falls before the monster. Then Hulk enters the fray again.

Abomination again gives him a beating. Until Hulk emerges from some rubble bearing Cap's shield.


 

Review / Commentaries


Hulk #3 Review by (June 7, 2014)
As I say these appear to be 2 conflicting ends to Bruce working for SHIELD. But either or both of these plotlines could finish with Banner back with SHIELD, and then 1 arc could follow the other. But I don't know how the Banner/Hulk in Original Sin fits in. At least the upcoming Savage Hulk won't complicate matters because it appears to be set in the past. There is 1 way out of the above dilemma, which I don't think *actually* fits with the scene where Banner got shot, but which I think would be cool - the Banner with amnesia here who got shot is actually the 1 from the alternate timeline - he wasn't evil until *his* Avengers messed with his brain, so he could have been turned good again by the brain damage. This wouldn't be completely unprecedented. Spider-Woman and many others were actually Skrull replacements for a long time before Secret Invasion without the readers knowing. Spider-Woman was nearly given her own series in that state. And long before that Wolverine got secretly replaced by a Skrull in several issues of X-Men and his own mag, again without letting the readers know.

The cover is somewhat misleading. The Avengers are attacking the Hulk - wrong! Hawkeye's there using Hulk as a pincushion - wrong! Abomination was killed by Red Hulk in Hulk (2008) #2. Since then he's appeared several times, for some reason in the *Greek* underworld. So this guy really is just a dead body reanimated. I guess gamma radiation is a good preservative. Hulk is involved in several separate continuity strands at the moment, and they're difficult to splice together. His time with SHIELD has been given 2 different endings. As well as getting shot at the end of the last series, in Avengers #28 he appeared to get imprisoned by SHIELD for going on a rampage. However *we* know that it was actually an evil Banner from an alternate reality that got put in jail. It was all part of a plot by Iron Man to recruit the real Banner into the Illuminati in New Avengers.


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Mark Bagley
Andrew Hennessy
Jason Keith
Jerome Opena (Cover Penciler)
Jerome Opena (Cover Inker)
Dean White (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Mark Paniccia.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel

(Carol Danvers)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)

Plus: Abomination (Zombie).

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