Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Original Sin 3.n - Hulk vs Iron Man #1 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Hulk is battling Iron Man (in Hulkbuster armour) outside Tony Stark's futuristic city Troy (ex Mandarin City) off the coast of China. All the Golden Avenger's power doesn't stop the Green Giant punching him through a bunch of tall buildings. Tony's on the point of collapse but lays a trap for Hulk with gamma blades. But this is the new intelligent Hulk, who avoids the drones by dropping on IM via 1 of his huge leaps.
Stark remembers what led up to this fight, starting from when they met and became work-buddies as graduate students (I guess). Tony could tell even then that Bruce Banner had hidden anger issues. Which didn't stop him from letting Bruce do a lot of the detail work while he went out spending his money and enjoying himself.
We'll learn more about early days later. Now we get recent memories continuing from Hulk #4 where Bruce's brain damage was cured by Arno Stark's improved version of Extremis. In the weeks since then Bruce and Tony have worked together. Bruce is even brainier than before, and stress doesn't turn him into the Hulk, even for instance when they found the dead Watcher on the Moon. But he seems even more of an introvert loner.
Then 1 of Uatu's stolen eyes was found, and in Original Sin #3 it gave those around it visions of old secrets. For some reason it mixed Stark and Banner's memories, in particular reminding them of another time they met long ago.
Banner had developed his gamma bomb with military funding, and was now talking about the upcoming test firing (presumably the 1 which turns him into Hulk) to his military masters. But Bruce was more interested in describing the future peaceful applications of his gamma project. (He'd only agreed to build a bomb to get the money for the fundamental research.) General Ross would have none of this.
Tony Stark interrupted the meeting to support his friend. He was now running the weapons company he inherited from his father, and supplied the hardware for the gamma bomb. Stark schmoozed with the brass and confirmed that the bomb would work. But he couldn't help pointing out that Bruce had overengineered the safety aspects, thus reducing its effectiveness.
Banner countered that the bomb was still at least as powerful as he'd promised the military. But the generals obviously wanted more if they could have it. Bruce objected that surely they didn't want a bomb that could destroy a continent? But he also somehow tied limiting the bomb into his dream of the future peaceful uses.
Bruce and tipsy Tony got into their regular argument about idealism vs practicality. Bruce lost his temper and accused Tony of being a drunk. Tony left in a huff, accusing Bruce of being childish.
Next we see the immediate past, where Tony Stark wakes up after the Watcher's eye messed with his brain. Captain America and Maria Hill are worried about him, especially when he confuses them with General Ross and Rick Jones (because of the jumbled memories of himself and Bruce). Apparently Hulk left the scene immediately after the eye struck. Iron Man now flies after him, worried about what their combined memories may have shown Bruce. Which will obviously lead to the fight that opened this issue.
We end with Bruce Banner breaking into the abandoned Gamma Base to look through secret files. And he has a memory from Tony Stark's point of view, with still-drinking Tony tampering with the gamma bomb. His conclusion:- that it's Stark's fault he's the Hulk.