Incredible Hulk #154
Hell Is a Very Small Hulk!
The Hulk, dimly remembering how Bruce Banner sought out Henry Pym's help to shrink down to the Microverse so that he might be reunited with Jarella, has found himself outside of Pym's laboratory. Smashing his way in, Hulk is frustrated by all the different bottles of chemicals, unable to read them he smashes them in anger. Then, the Hulk dimly remembers when he was Bruce Banner with Jarella and how he had contacted Henry Pym who told Banner that his shrinking serum was located in the vault of his lab. The Hulk smashes it open and still unsure which bottle to drink from grabs one at random and drinks it down. It causes him pain and he is weakened.
He is confronted be a man who appears to be Henry Pym, but is in reality the Chameleon who had come to steal secret plans from Pym before he spotted the Hulk entering the building. Elsewhere in the city, Henry Pym and his wife Janet van Dyne are out on the road when Henry gets an alarm signal that goes off whenever someone breaks into his lab and changes into Ant-Man, mounts a flying ant and goes off to investigate. There he finds the ruins of his vault, and that secret plans on viral research have been stolen. Noticing the broken container of his shrinking formula he used to travel to the Microverse with the Fantastic Four, Pym tests out the chemical when he realizes someone has drank it. To his horror he learns that the formula has deteriorated and may cause unforeseen results.
The results come in the form the Hulk having been shrunk to Ant-Man size and is now the prisoner of the Chameleon. The Chameleon turns over the viral research and the miniaturized Hulk over to Hydra who hopes to use the Hulk as a test subject for the virus that they create from Pym's research. However, despite his small size, the Hulk still retains his regular strength and easily breaks free and makes a run for it, escaping down an air shaft. The leader of this Hydra unit unleashes their lab rats into the tunnel to go after the Hulk.
Meanwhile, at Project: Greenskin, Betty Ross has decided to leave to sort out what her feelings are and try to cope with the possibility that Bruce Banner loves another woman named Jarella more than her and what that means for her future.
While back at the Hydra base, the Hulk is forced to fight off the horde of rats, which he manages to do with relative ease, although the fight takes him out into the open. The Hydra agents then try to kill the Hulk themselves, however the Hulk manages to avoid their blasts. Ant-Man arrives on his flying ant, having tracked the Hulk to Hydra's location. The two then work together to fight off the terrorists that are around them. While the Hulk dumps machinery on them, Ant-Man takes a match and lights flammable cleaning solution on fire. When the fumes from the fire knock the Hydra agents out, Ant-Man turns on the sprinkler system to douse the flames.
Things are about to get worse as the Chameleon was not effected, and as he approached the two heroes with the intention of squashing them under his shoe, the Hulk buckles over in pain. The solution begins to work again and as the Hulk reverts back to Bruce Banner, Banner begins to shrink smaller and smaller. Before Ant-Man can prevent the Chameleon from stomping on them his ant pushing him out of the way. Ant-Man then quickly trips up the Chameleon with an electrical chord, knocking him out. In the aftermath of the battle Ant-Man wonders if the Chameleon stomped Banner to death or if he vanished to the Microverse and to safety.
Recurring Characters
Hulk, General Ross, Major Talbot, Betty Ross, Ant-Man, Chameleon, Hydra, Janet Van Dyne, Jarella (flashback)
Continuity Notes
The formula the Hulk is searching for is the same one the Fantastic Four used in Fantastic Four #16.
The Chameleon recalls his last encounter with Hulk which happened in Tales to Astonish #62-66. The narrative of this story states he was last seen in Amazing Spider-Man #80 however the events of Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #5-6 were the Chameleon's last chronological appearance prior to this point. This is not so much a mistake as the Captain America stories were not published until years later.
Chameleon also mentions the last time the Hulk clashed with Hydra, those events occurred in Incredible Hulk #132.
This story states that Jarella's world is contained within an atom. However, the realms of the Microverse are actually in another dimension. A traveler accesses that dimension through the process of shrinking. Eventually, they shrink to the point where they cross the dimensional threshold. This was first explained in Fantastic Four #282.
