On the night of the Fourth of July, Peter Parker is kissing
his girlfriend Cissy Ironwood good night, when the Crimson Dynamo bursts out of
her house, intending to seize her. Pete flips him over, making it look like it
was his own clumsiness, covering Pete’s spider-strength. Pete runs away with
Cissy but they are halted by a wall of Darkforce, supplied by Darkstar, who Pete
recognizes as a good guy when with the Champions. She is kidnapping Cissy's father and Pete and Cissy are confronted by Vanguard; Pete takes a poke at him
but Vanguard’s hammer and sickle weapons reflect an attacker’s force back at
him, knocking Pete down. He put a Spider-Tracer on Cissy before being knocked
out by CD….
Spider-Man heads to the Baxter Building for help. He is
caught by Mr. Fantastic’s stretching limbs before he identifies himself. But
Reed is seriously ill with the flu; Sue Storm comes to his aid and they carry
Reed to bed. Spidey shows Reed something he found in Dr. Ironwood’s office, a
formula for creating an anti-matter bomb. So Reed offers to help Spidey any way
he can….
Bruce Banner is working as a waiter at a bar in Montana when
a brawl breaks out. Bruce, caught in the middle, is hurled out the door where
he starts to transform into the Hulk. But he is then shot with a tranquilizer
dart, arresting the big change. He awakens in a Winnebago parked over the
Colorado state line. His captor is Colonel Alexei Vazhin of the KGB and he
needs the Hulk’s assistance. He tells how Soviet hardliner General Nikolai
Kutzov resigned his commission but assembled a team of Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar, and Vanguard,
convincing them they were being enlisted in an official operation to prevent
the USA from launching a nuclear strike on Russia; the mission involved
kidnapping Professor Ironwood and Cissy to force the Prof into creating the
anti-matter bomb which could destroy the entire North American continent. Bruce
agrees to help….
A Pogo Plane drops Spider-Man over the Rocky Mountains near
Cathedal Canyon with artificial wings to ease his way down, Reed having used
his tech to trace Darkstar’s Darkforce to the area. Bruce Banner and Colonel
Vazhin are entering the area from another direction. But the villain Kutzov
sees them coming on a surveillance screen and dispatches his three agents to
stop them. As they are about to intercept Bruce and Vazhin, Darkstar starts
questioning what Kutzov told them as it doesn’t add up; Dynamo and Vanguard
tell her not to question orders and attack. The surprise causes Bruce to
transform into Hulk who tears down the cliff the three Russian heroes are
standing on. He overpowers Dynamo and Darkstar but his attack on Vanguard is
reflected back by his weapons and Hulk is knocked for a loop. Hulk tries again
and is repelled again. But Spider-Man arrives and takes down the Crimson
Dynamo. He confronts Darkstar about her actions and learns of Kutzov’s lies but
Hulk, trying once again to assault Vanguard, is hurled backward with such
force, the cliff walls collapse. Spidey tries to carry Darkstar to safety but
the rockslide overcomes everyone. Spidey recovers then digs out Bruce Banner
who tells Spidey about Kutzov and the anti-matter bomb. Spidey now detects the
tracer he put on Cissy and carries Bruce to Kutzov’s lair while Darkstar
searches for her comrades….
In his lab, Kutsov has completed his anti-matter bomb and is
preparing it for detonation when Vazhin enters and orders him to halt at
gunpoint. But Kutsov takes him by surprise and knocks him down but he is
prevented from killing the KGB man by Spider-Man. As Kutsov fires a machine gun
forcing Ironwood and Cissy to run for cover, Spidey dodges bullets, distracting
the villain from Bruce’s attempt to disarm the bomb. It doesn’t work out that
way. Instead, Kutsov activates the mechanism that sends a pair of anti-matter
spheres moving on a track toward each other and when they meet the bomb will go
off. Bruce points out that nothing can stop them; Spidey bets the Hulk can so
he slaps Bruce, forcing the transformation. Spidey then challenges Hulk to keep
the two spheres apart; Hulk jumps into the center and holds them but not even
he is strong enough to keep them from moving together. So Spidey switches gears
and challenges Hulk to hit one of the spheres into space. That he does and the
other sphere is drawn after it and they meet in space and detonate far from
Earth. And then Vazhin (the KGB guy) shoots Dr. Ironwood who thanks him, as
only his death could prevent the creation of another anti-matter bomb. He dies
and Bruce makes an anti-nuke speech to end the issue.