1901, clergyman Robert Sterns comes to visit his scientist
brother Samuel on a snowy evening, Samuel can’t stop talking about his experiments
with the new gamma radiation but Robert has something else in mind. He accuses
Samuel of an affair with Robert’s wife and then beats him to death with his
cane, the man’s body falling across his worktable. Robert then goes home and
throws his pregnant wife out into the cold; she denounces him as a monster….
Hulk, now spilt into green for basic Hulk and red for Joe Fixit
with Jackie McGee along, has entered the Below-Place. It is a wasteland
with the largest structure in the center, a giant fortress that resembles the
Leader with massive spider-like legs and multiple stone faces….
Above, the Fantastic Four (Reed Richards, Invisible Woman,
Thing, Human Torch) with Jennifer Walters are trying to understand where Hulk
went; Reed doesn’t know and gives his chances of survival infinity-to-one odds.
But someone else is on the way to help: Walter Langkowski, in the body of Doc
Samson….
Joe Fixit bangs on the Leader’s door and nothing happens.
Green Hulk keeps punching and punching until the door gives way and Hulk’s hand
is broken. They are greeted by the shade of Brian Banner; he admits them to an
M.C. Escher castle where the shades of all of Hulk’s acquaintances who have
died are walking up and down stairs endlessly. Hulk is met by Jarella who walks
off; Hulk tries to restrain her but her arm comes off in Hulk’s hand and she
does not notice. Hulk is approached by the shade of Samuel Sterns (we recognize
him as the elder Sterns from the prologue); Hulk squishes him and leaves him
behind. Joe Fixit finally makes his way in through the door with Jackie and he
meets his father figure Mike Berengetti. Joe and Jackie make it to the top
where a massive spider-like Leader has Hulk anchored like a marionette, the
strings extruding from a monstrous tongue. Leader makes the puppet Hulk fight
red Joe Fixit; Jackie looks on helplessly and then she sees the shade of her
late father who tells her he’s proud of her. This gives her the power to focus
her eye beams and hurt Leader, freeing Hulk. The two Hulks pull on the tongue
tentacles and they pull out a pod containing the unpowered Samuel Sterns,
pleading for help. The Hulks face the sky and demand to know why—why all this
has happened to them. The One Above All, a glowing god-like figure, replies
that Hulk is his child, created as a counterweight. The left hand is strength,
the right hand mercy. Hulk forgives Sterns and walks out with him; meanwhile,
Joe Fixit has freed the Bruce Banner body that had become a tree and takes that
out. On the way to the Green Door, Jackie and Joe have a talk which ends with
him promising to come to her aid whenever she calls, to atone for the damage he’s
done to her life. The three are met by Thing and Langkowski who escort them
back Above….
Bruce Banner is cleaned up and given a new suit to wear and
he leaves for his new life, asking about himself and the Hulks, “Are we good people?
What do you think…?”