Synopsis
What If (1977 series) #53 synopsis by
Tod Herdt
Rating:
In Incredible Hulk #324, Rick Jones is accidentally immersed in a nutrient batch designed to stabilize Bruce Banner's molecular cohesion as one Hulk. Banner emerges as a grey Hulk and in #325 it's revealed that Rick has become a new green Hulk. The Leader (now plain human Samuel Sterns) and Banner later team up to siphon the gamma radiation from the Rick Hulk. This would then be fed into Sterns to recreate the Leader. In this issue of What If, however, the Rick Hulk dodges the power siphon and turns it on the grey Hulk, thus curing Banner once and for all. The Leader and now-cured Banner track down Rick Hulk and manage to subdue him and return him to the lab where the siphoning was attempted. The Leader and Rick Hulk are reattached to the power siphon and the switch is flipped. But Banner cannot allow the Leader to absorb all of Rick's gamma radiation so he redirects some of it to an electrical harness he had concealed beneath his jacket, and he changes. Cut to Doc Samson and SHIELD agents arriving at the lab to find a cured Rick and a comatose Samuel Sterns. Doc curses Banner for tipping them off to his plan using a timed delay so they couldn't interfere. The Hulk is elsewhere, gloating about expecting Banner's treachery and planning for it--he is trapped inside Stern's comatose body while the Leader has taken over the form of the Incredible Hulk. In the parting words of the Watcher, "Shed a bitter tear for this world!"