Nightmerica: The Quarry

The Hulk was minding his own business when suddenly he is attacked by one of his old foes, the Cobalt Man. The Hulk easily trounces the villain and then leaps away. Landing in a nearby forest, the Hulk goes on a rampage, knocking down trees and trashing logging equipment. Eventually, the Hulk grows tired and goes to sleep, reverting back to Bruce Banner. Banner pulls himself up out from the wreckage and finds a nearby cabin. Finding it deserted, Banner finds a fresh shirt and then leaves to search for something to eat. Outside, he hears a gunshot and goes to investigate. He finds a young woman out in the downed trees. She introduces herself as Chrissie Cutler, a reporter investigating a Hulk sighting in the area. Introducing himself as "Glen", Banner discovers that she has some sandwiches he can eat and the two sit down to talk. Suddenly, they are attacked by some robots that burst out of the ground. When Chrissie is subdued with a net, Banner allows himself to change into the Hulk. He quickly smashes the robots. When he frees Chrissie from the net she warns him to be careful because it's sharp and accidentally calls him Banner. The Hulk then tosses her away and tells her to let Banner know that he will destroy him. The Hulk then wanders off into the woods and falls asleep, triggering a reversion back into Bruce Banner.

When Banner wakes up he finds Chrissie who is tending to her injured arm. She explains that the robots that attacked them were after her. She admits that she was lying to him about why she was out here. She then shows him that the robots are old inventory belonging to the Wright-Armstrong corporation. She explains that her parents worked for the company before it was shut down by a scandal and she grew up on one of their facilities. She then explains that she is looking for a group of people who she lived with there and consider part of her extended family who went into hiding once everything with the company started to go wrong. She tells him that the company probably got tipped off that she was looking for them when she cut out on her classes. She tells Bruce that she and her friends always saw the Hulk as a misunderstood hero and then tries to leave, not wanting Bruce to get involved in her troubles.

Elsewhere, at a Wright-Armstrong facility, it's new owner Mohamed Simensky watches the footage of the battle and believes that capturing the Hulk will be the thing that will help his company redeem itself in the eyes of the Pentagon and decides to do just that, despite warnings from his assistant Ken. Back in the forest, Banner catches up to Chrissie and convinces her to let him tag along on her mission. He takes her jacket and finds a tracking device sewn into it and removes it. He then tosses it into the back of a pick-up truck to throw off her pursuers and the two soon leave in her car. Banner then tells Chrissie that she doesn't have to tell him everything about her mission but wants to help anyway. He soon falls asleep, and when he wakes up to discover the car is parked and Chrissie is gone. He sees her going into a cabin and she starts screaming. Looking into the window, he sees the skeletal remains of a man on the floor and the words "Nightmerica", "Military Industrial Complex", "Broken Toys" and "Guinea Pigs" scrawled on the wall.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, Chrissie Cutler, Wright-Armstrong (Mohammad Simensky), Cobalt Man, Manny Joslin

Continuity Notes

• Cobalt Man mentions the last time he battled the Hulk. This happened in Incredible Hulk #173-174.