Hulk (Vol. 3) #11
The Ω Hulk: Chapter Seven
Doc Green reflects on the various futures that he has seen in the past, and despite how grim some of them are the only one he won't let pass is the future where Thaddeus Ross wins their long battle with each other. Following his last battle with the Red Hulk, Doc Green and his assistants Randall Jessup and Daman Veteri have fled to the ruins of the Baxter Building where they are continuing Doc Green's plans to depower every Hulk on the planet. Meanwhile, in the main lab, Randall and Daman are working on a temporal gauntlet with the assistance of Doc Green's artificial intelligence. When their test run is a success, Veteri goes to tell Doc Green of their progress. He comes in on the Doc as he is working on building a toilet that can support his frame since the one used by the Thing was destroyed when the Baxter Building was last attacked. He then goes to the lab to wait for the temporal gauntlet to return from its trip through time. While they are waiting, Daman asks once again what happened to Melinda Lucenstern. Doc Green confirms that she was the one responsible for shooting Bruce Banner in the head and when he confronted her with the truth, she asked to leave and he let her go. Randall and Daman find this hard to believe, but Doc Green explains that he has no ill will toward Lucenstern as she helped free him. When the chronal gauntlet returns as expected, Doc Green makes preparations to use it on Lyra, his daughter from the future. He explains to his assistants that Lyra is here based on circumstance and that all she wants is a means of returning to her own time, something that Doc Green intends to give her.
At that moment, at a Roxxon fracking site in Kansas, Lyra is busy preventing the company from causing any more damage to the environment by destroying their equipment. After she smashes some of the machinery, Doc Green arrives and tells her that he is also trying to save the planet by dealing with Hulks. Having an idea why her father has come, Lyra lashes out at him. While she is lacing into him, Doc Green uses the distraction to slap the chronal gauntlet onto her arm. He tells her that he is sending her home and a portal, apparently back to her home reality, opens. However, as Lyra is being drawn into the portal, she is horrified by what she sees on the other side as it is not her home. Before Doc Green can stop the process she is pulled into the portal and it closes instantly. Teleporting himself back to the Baxter Building, Doc Green asks his artificial intelligence what went wrong. The A.I. explains that sending Lyra back to her future does not neutralize her threat and so it sent her elsewhere then purged her destination from its memory to prevent her from being recovered. At that moment, Lyra finds herself fighting for her life in a dimension of darkness filled with horrific creatures.
Back on Earth, Doc Green is furious that his A.I. would overstep his instructions and tries to disable it. The Green A.I. mocks him, pointing out that it discovered Doc Green's weakness: Now that the Extremis has been removed from his brain, he is losing his intelligence. The artificial intelligence then has Doc Green open a chamber where it reveals that it is building itself a physical body in the form of Bruce Banner to carry out its mission to eliminate all Hulks. As Doc Green begins crushing the incomplete robot's head, it informs him that it is downloading its mind elsewhere and all it has to do is wait until the Doc becomes a mindless Hulk again and use him to complete his goals. When Randall and Daman enter the room asking what happened, Doc Green tells them how Lyra has gone missing and his A.I. has fled. He tells them he is not sure where the artificial intelligence went but believes it was angry. At that moment, aboard a SHIELD helicarrier, the Green A.I. finishes downloading itself into a Life Model Decoy. From there, it calls SHIELD command to report that there are intruders within the Baxter Building.
Recurring Characters
Doc Green, Daman Veteri, Randall Jessup, Lyra, Roxxon Corporation, Doc Green AI
Continuity Notes
One of the possible futures seen here is the one where the Hulk becomes the tyrant known as the Maestro as first seen in Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1-2.
The Fantastic Four were evicted from the Baxter Building after it was heavily damaged during a battle in Fantastic Four Vol 5 #4.
Jessup mentions how Reed Richards had discovered the Negative Zone while working in the Baxter Building. This discovery happened back in Fantastic Four #51.
Melinda Lucenstern shot Bruce Banner in the back of the head in Indestructible Hulk #20. His complicity in this assassination attempt was revealed in Hulk Vol 3 #8.
