While a sad
Hulk walks New York City remembering Jarella (who died in
Hulk #205), a group of bandits aboard a special tank, break a hole in the wall of a detention center to rescue their boss,
Bruno Caper. On their way out, they accidentally hit the Hulk (of all things!) The man-monster smashes the tank as the cops arrive. Hulk decides to skip a fight with the "men-in-blue", leaps away and finds an alley to rest. He turns into Bruce Banner.
Meanwhile, at the jailhouse, a fractured water pipe starts dripping over a mysterious cardboard box in a cell. We learn that none other than Crusher Creel AKA the Absorbing Man was in it! (He was locked there after his fight with Thor in
Thor #236). After turning into liquid and reaching the steel door, the villain, now a man-of-steel, breaks free from the prison easily (destroying the wall bricklayer
Morris K. Goldstein had just fixed...) Policemen try holding him unsuccessfully as reporter
Fred Cramer explains live what's going on.
Earlier, Banner gets himself some clothes with a traveler's check he found in his pockets (this was also helpful in
Hulk #160) and rents an apartment to a beautiful model called
April Sommers. He gets the unit that magician, Kropotkin the Great, had as tenant. But he was evicted after owing six-months of rent. With a new place for himself, Bruce feels his life is about to change dramatically for the best. A new beginning! It seems he forgot Jarella rather quickly...
In Los Angeles, Jim Wilson escapes some gangsters and seeing a news article about the Hulk in New York, he decides to pay his old friend a visit.
Back in the Apple, April and Bruce watch the Absorbing Man on TV as he battles the police. While Banner manages to control his temper and avoid a metamorphosis into the Hulk, the villain disappears in front of everyone's eyes! He has been transported to an undisclosed location by three individuals who call themselves They Who Wield Power. They ask the Absorbing Man if he be willing to kill the Hulk for an agenda of their own. The villain accepts the task with joy.
And while all of that takes place, in New Mexico's Gamma Base, Thunderbolt Ross reaches out to Glenn Talbot to speak about Talbot's deteriorating relation with his daughter Betty. But the son-in-law does not take it mildly. That's put-on hold as they're interrupted by Doc Samson who's holding an ill person in his arms. An unidentified man that mysteriously came out walking from the desert...