They locked Bruce Banner in a prison at Hulkbuster base. He is angry. The new US President is visiting the base and the possibility of his hulking out was a risk neither Colonel Armbruster nor Thunderbolt Ross would accept. But Banner doesn’t want to hear their apologies. Neither were those from Betty Ross, now married to Glenn Talbot. She is sorry for hurting Banner, for finding reciprocal care in another man. But, she needs a companion that would not share her happiness with a monster like the Hulk!
Banner responds angrily to her that everything seems to be about the Hulk, and nobody gives a damn about him. Then, he is better off alone. He needs no one. He has no friends! Banner talks as the Hulk would. Chased away, Betty believes that her true love may deserve no friends.
When Air-Force One lands, General Ross welcomes President Gerald Ford and alongside Talbot, they show him around the base.
Meanwhile, Armbruster goes into Harold Conrad’s lab to demand him from the due report on Talbot. Horrified, he finds him dead in a storeroom. The report is but ashes in a trash bin, but Armbruster reprints it (not without cursing the “mish mosh of baling wire”). Learning that the Russians had planted an organic, undetectable bomb in Talbot’s chest, he sprints to save the US President’s life.
Armbruster arrives just in time to push Talbot away, as he detonates, killing both. They were next to Banner’s prison. Shock turns him into the Hulk, who easily breaks free. Ross takes the President to safety while soldiers try rescuing Betty from the monster. But Hulk does not behave like a monster to Betty. Her tears made him want to help her. Soldiers spoiled the moment and pay it dearly!
Hulk carries Betty outside and Ross confronts him at the helm of a biped robotic tank, the HS-1000, a ten-ton device designed to best the Hulk. It seems to just do that initially, but Hulk’s strength increases as his anger does, and when he is about to smash Ross for good, Betty pleads for her father. Such takes the Hulk out of the fight and gives Ross enough time to shoot his opponent with a gamma blaster at point range, knocking the Hulk out.
As Ross celebrates his very first victory against his archenemy, Betty claims that the cost of her father’s revenge has been too high and wonders in tears if it will have no end.
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