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- Betty Ross awakens from a nightmare about the Hulk. A telephone
call to her father, General "Thunderbolt" Ross, is from Major Glen Talbot.
Talbot has found a secret tap into power lines in the desert that is likely being shunted
to Bruce Banner's hidden lab. As usual, Betty and her dad argue over the Hulk. "No
one is safe when Bruce Banner becomes the Incredible Hulk." insists General
Ross. We see Dr. Robert Bruce Banner dictating a journal entry. He sits down in a
well-gadgeted chair in another attempt to cure himself. Just as Bruce is throwing the
switch, Major Talbot shoots down the electric tower (he couldn't just cut the power
feed?!). The overload causes Bruce to Hulk out. The Hulk begins by destroying the lab,
then goes after his attackers. He is met by missile-firing helicopters and soldiers in
Hulkbuster battle suits which are no match for the Hulk's ferocity. Betty drives onto the
battlefield as a giant cage is dropped over the Hulk. Betty jumps out and tells the Hulk
to calm down. Reacting calmly to Betty, he relaxes and de-Hulks. We see Rick Jones working
at a garage when he gets a call from Betty, letting him know that the Hulk has been
captured. Rick immediately quits and jumps onto his trusty motorcycle. Now that Bruce'
persona is back in charge, he convinces General Ross that his experiment should be
continued, with Betty's support (she is after all, trained in gamma radiation). General
Ross gives him one last chance. Meanwhile, a small mechanical flying insect has been
relaying their conversation to . . . The Leader. The Leader is determined to stop the
experiment because the Hulk is no good to him cured. He yells for his assistant, the
deformed Gargoyle. The Gargoyle has made a bargain with the Leader to serve him as long as
he can find out why the Hulk reverts to a human form, while he, the Gargoyle is stuck in a
misshapen, squat, blue body. Bruce apologizes to Betty for everything that's happened and
we flash back to the origin of the Hulk and the Gamma Bomb test. We then hear the Leader
explain his origin, as a member of the clean-up crew working on the aftereffects of the
Gamma blast. As fate would have it, the very man who sabotaged the test fell from a
damaged catwalk into Gamma-irradiated sludge. We then hear the Leader's most heartfelt
desire "And to my resulting unsurpassed intellect, I will now add the unbridled
strength of the Hulk, thereby becoming the most powerful being ever to walk this
planet." The Leader orders the Gargoyle to release the Abomination. Although the
experiment is given a "green" light, Ross retains an ace up his sleeve, the
Omega Laser, now Gamma-powered. Before the experiment begins, Talbot tightens the arm
restraints and threatens Banner - blaming him for screwing up everybody's lives. The
experiment begins, but is quickly stopped as the Abomination arrives. Bruce cannot control
himself when he sees Betty being threatened by the Abomination. Ross has now grabbed the
Omega Laser and fires it at the combatants. He has terrible aim and ends up vaporizing one
of his tanks! The Leader, sensing the tide turning, orders the Abomination back to his
base. Ross toasts yet another tank as the Abomination escapes into the sewers. The Hulk
turns to face Rambo Ross.