Bruce Banner again wakes up in a place where he didn’t go to
sleep last night. He’s in Albuquerque, not far from the diner where he has been
working as a dish washer. He goes to work and changes into the fresh clothes he
keeps there. He is approached by an elderly woman he recognizes as Dr. Noreen
Noolan, a scientist associated with the Gamma project who left before Bruce’s “accident.”
Bruce can also tell that she is riddled with Gamma radiation; she explains that
after the detonation, she was in charge of the clean-up team and was exposed.
She wants to know how Bruce deals with his situation i.e. the Hulk problem.
Bruce then notices the time: it’s getting dark, the time when Hulk comes to
life. He dashes out and sees in the parking lot a man harassing a woman. Unable
to pass this by, he asks the man to leave her alone and gets punched for his
trouble. He turns into the Hulk and puts the man on the bed of a pickup truck
and folds the truck over to trap him and then kicks the ball of metal into the
distance. The woman is angry because it’s her truck Hulk destroyed. Noreen
scolds Hulk and tells him both Bruce and Hulk need a smack upside the head;
Hulk challengers her to do it. So she does…and Hulk goes flying into the city,
crashing inside a warehouse. Noreen has followed, floating in the air and
continues to hurl rubble at him mentally as the Big Guy tries to fight back.
Noreen throws an entire train at Hulk who catches onto the front, while Noreen
says she just wants to help Bruce. Hulk insists he protects Bruce—but not from
himself. She sends the train up into the sky and brings it down on Hulk. SMASH!
She informs him that the line between man and monster is a flatline. After more
attempts to destroy her, she takes the Hulk apart (literally)….
Bruce awakens on the roof of a hospital; he goes inside and
finds Dr. Noreen Noolan, dying of cancer, caused by her exposure to Gamma radiation.
As she dies, Bruce and Hulk realize this was her final lesson: what keeps the
two of them apart is the same thing that brings them together. Each other. The
Gamma. And Noreen flatlines….