Synopsis
A group of Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man and Sunspot) came to help Hulk against the Abomination last issue.
But this issue starts with a flashback to when Bruce Banner was hired by SHIELD at the start of the previous series. A previously undisclosed component of the deal was that Banner had major dirt on some important people/organisations. Lawyer Matt (Daredevil) Murdock had the information, and would release it to the press if he didn't hear from Bruce regularly. (There's a bit of hand-waving to explain why he didn't use his lawyer cousin Jennifer (She-Hulk) Walters.) But Banner has been incommunicado with brain damage for a while, so how come nothing's happened?
The Avengers got flattened by the Abomination last issue, and when CM and Sunspot dig CA and IM out of a collapsed building Cap discovers his shield is missing. Hulk has it and is using it to hit Abomination with.
Hulk has been missing for weeks, and when the Avengers turned up here they learned from SHIELD Director Maria Hill that Banner had been shot in the head and kidnapped. When SHIELD rescued him he didn't know who he was and had lost his high IQ. They hid him in a false identity here in a small town in Colorado to recover. Now when he becomes Hulk his gamma healing ability starts 'fixing' his brain damage, but is likely to 'heal' it into a low IQ or even vegetable state.
Bruce's mental state is somewhat erratic. But in 1 of his more lucid moments last issue he deliberately became the Hulk to save his friends from Abomination. So the Avengers want to stop the fight as quickly as possible, to minimise the effect on Banner's brain.
But Iron Man is worried about the effect of Abomination's intense gamma radiation. It stops Marvel and Sunspot from getting too close, and is probably irradiating the townsfolk. Abomination was sent here by the people who kidnapped Banner, and they severely increased his radiation level.
They also sent 3 'soldiers' last issue to help Abomination. They got away from Hill, but not before she took a wristband off 1 of them. Tony Stark recognises it as a teleportation device, which gives him an idea.
Hulk is still losing the fight against the souped-up Abomination when the Avengers put Iron Man's plan into operation. CM and Sunspot deliberately start absorbing the gamma radiation to drain as much off Abomination as they can. The monster lashes out and makes Hulk drop Cap's shield. Iron Man flies in and grabs it and attaches the teleport device to it, which he has modified. Stark throws the shield back to Hulk and tells him to hurl it at Abomination with all his might. And the monster disappears.
Tony had rigged the teleporter to activate on impact. The harder the hit the further it would send its target. Stark figures Abomination should be out around Jupiter. (As established last issue Abomination is actually a corpse being remote-controlled by the bad guys.)
Carol Danvers and Sunspot fly off to harmlessly expend their absorbed energy in space, then return. Banner wakes up a mumbling idiot. Maria Hill wants to take him for SHIELD doctors to help, but Shellhead says her 'help' has got him in this state. The Avengers will help him.
Hill goes to see Daredevil in San Francisco to tell him what's happened to Banner. It turns out that SHIELD broke the encryption Bruce used in his communications with Matt, and Maria has been using a voice synthesiser to imitate Banner when talking (long-distance) with Murdock.
Tony Stark takes Banner to his futuristic city Troy where he and secret brother Arno enlist the aid of Dr. Carpenter who was tricked by the bad guys into operating on Banner in #1. They employ his neurosurgery skill to remote-operate surgical machinery that will implant a dose of Extremis in Bruce's brain.
They expect Extremis' repair function to gradually return Banner's brain to the state it should be in. But it may take a few days. However Bruce wakes up immediately, knowing who he is and with his genius IQ back in play.
But there's a strange effect in his eyes (possibly like stars in the sky).
A 'next' box says Original Sin.