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Indestructible Hulk #18

Jan 2014
Mark Waid, Miguel Sepulveda

Story Name:

Humanity bomb part two


Synopsis

Indestructible Hulk #18 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue Bruce Banner's bomb went off, designed to solve the problem of the Terrigen Mists. It was triggered by a conflict between Hulk, Iron Man, Giant-Man and Beast.

Henry Pym avoided the blast by shrinking to subatomic size. When he regains normal size he finds his immediate surroundings frozen in time. The falling quinjet he and Beast were riding is hanging mid-plummet, and Iron Man too is stationary in mid-air. And on the ground Hulk has been reverted to Banner and then frozen. But some other things have been greatly speeded up, like some cars that are now busy crashing.

Pym jumps down from the suspended quinjet, despite the arm Hulk broke last issue. He sees the chaotic mixture of fast and slow. In his immediate vicinity some crashed cars are now stuck flying through the air, with a petrol pump caught mid-explosion and onlookers frozen in the act of fleeing. Henry tries to move the people to safety but the cars start to move.

Then Iron Man turns up to push the cars away. And Beast wakes up in the falling quinjet. So the Golden Avenger has to save him.

Hank Pym had realised what Banner must have done to counter the Terrigen radiation. He intended the bomb to accelerate time for the Terrigen particles, so that they decayed and lost effectiveness. (He's right, but he doesn't know that Bruce used a time element he got from the Chronarchists during his time-travel adventure in #11-15.) But it wasn't supposed to produce this chaotic time. And Giant-Man finds 1 of the cocoons that are incubating the new Inhumans created by the Terrigen. So the bomb didn't even do what it was supposed to!

Meanwhile frozen Banner has been hit by a car. And he's now an unfrozen Hulk. Then the gas station explosion unfreezes too.

When the dust settles Hulk is back to Banner. The injured and the cocoon are taken away. And Beast and Iron Man tell Bruce that Terrigen particles are strange. Instead of the bomb's Chronometal radiation affecting them, they affected the Chronometal radiation, causing the unforeseen effects. And Banner hadn't had enough time to test it. (Beast says Banner didn't give himself enough time, but it was Tony Stark who gave Bruce only 24 hours last issue.)

Beast and Iron Man take Giant-Man to have his arm seen to, leaving Bruce to contact SHIELD to get a lift home.

While all this was going on Banner's 4 assistants ignored quarantine, stole a SHIELD airship and are approaching Tulsa where the explosion happened. SHIELD Director Maria Hill says she'll get them to bring him back, and she'll deal with them later.

Melinda Leucenstern is flying the ship. They were quarantined because 1 of them has the Inhuman gene. They wonder which of them is going to turn Inhuman. Patricia Wolman even seems eager. (She's hoping it might cure the incurable disease the others don't know she has.) Randall Jessup defends Hill as usual, which annoys Daman Veteri.

As the 2 men square up for a fight, Jessup is suddenly encased in a cocoon. Patty attacks it in frustrated anger. The cocoon retaliates with a beam of light which leaves Wolman mellow and smiling. At this point Hulk bursts into the plane and attacks the cocoon too. The cocoon opens to release Jessup transformed into a monster whose eyes emit the light beam. And this light takes away Hulk's anger, reverting him to a laughing Banner who is thrown or falls out of the aircraft.


 

Review / Commentaries


Indestructible Hulk #18 Review by (February 13, 2014)
There's more juggling of artists this issue. Miguel Sepulveda is again here for the 2nd half (with Bruce Banner's assistants), but this time with Tom Grummett inking. But the 1st half (with Iron Man, etc) belongs to Jheremy Raapack. This issue refers to Terrigen radiation. There seems to be some confusion in different comics as to what Terrigen is. The usual idea is the Terrigen Mists, obviously a gas. The radiation described here is still particles rather than waves as the term Terrigenesis Wave might suggest. But I would guess they are fast-moving particles, which would spread the effect worldwide faster than a gas. In Iron Man #20.INH Tony Stark will refer to Banner's failed attempt to solve the Terrigen problem. However we will see there that he himself had some unsuccessful ideas too. And arguably if Stark had left Banner alone last issue he would have tested his bomb and discovered that it wouldn't work, or maybe found ways to improve it.


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Preview Pages




Miguel Sepulveda
Tom Grummett
Val Staples
Mahmud Asrar (Cover Penciler)
Mahmud Asrar (Cover Inker)
Dave McCaig (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Mark Paniccia.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Beast
Beast

(Henry Phillip McCoy)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)

Plus: Giant-Man (Scott Lang).