Incredible Hulk #245
When the Hulk Comes Raging!
Remembering that Jarella's body is being kept at Gamma Base, the Hulk bounds his way towards the New Mexico Desert. Detecting the gamma-spawned monsters approach, Gamma Base's new commanding officer, Colonel Glenn Talbot, sends a Hulkbuster unit to greet him. Although they greatly outnumber the Hulk and have many fantastic weapons, the brute is so furious he is able to fend off all of their attacks and smashes their various armored vehicles. It's then that Talbot decides to get involved personally. In a suit of Mandroid armor, Glenn confronts the Hulk and accuses him for ruining his life and his marriage.
At that moment in Denver, Colorado, both Rick Jones and Fred Sloan are appearing on a national talk show to talk about their mutual experiences with the Hulk. Rick Jones as the Hulk's former sidekick, and Sloan as the Hulk's most recent companion as well as the author of an upcoming book based on the man-monster. They talk about how the Hulk is basically harmless so long as he isn't attacked. After the interview is over, Fred Sloan introduces Rick to his assistant Trish Starr, and Rick introduces him to his long time ally Captain Marvel and his lover Elysius. When they catch a report that the Hulk is currently attacking Gamma Base, Captain Marvel clashes his Nega-Bands together causing him to transform into his costume and flies off to clash with them.
Back at Gamma Base, the Hulk launches his attack on Glenn Talbot. As the two men fight it out, Talbot goes into detail about why he thinks the Hulk has ruined his life, ruined his former father-in-law and ruined his marriage. Lastly he recalls how the Hulk saved his life by travelling into his brain and destroying the Gremlin's mental block. Recalling how the Hulk was shrunken down into his mind, Talbot decides an ideal way of getting revenge is to pierce into the Hulk's brain using one of the Mandroid's blades. The Hulk fights back and easily overpowers Talbot, furious that he was attacked when all he wanted was to recover Jarella's body which has been held at Gamma Base since she died.
The power of the Hulk's blows send them crashing into the lower levels of Gamma Base. There, Talbot discovers, to his horror, that the Mandroid armor has been disabled. Worse, the Hulk is straining to break his back. Before the Hulk can kill Talbot, he is blasted from behind by Captain Marvel. The Hulk tells the Kree warrior that he has come for his former love, Jarella. Using his Cosmic Conciousness, Mar-Vell offers to help Hulk recover Jarella and return her body to her homeworld, but he cannot allow him to kill Glenn Talbot.
Recurring Characters
Hulk, Captain Marvel, Rick Jones, Elyusius, Fred Sloan, Trish Starr, Glenn Talbot,
Continuity Notes
Jarella was killed in Incredible Hulk #205 and has been stored at Gamma Base ever since. This was revealed to the Hulk by Tyrannus in Incredible Hulk #240.
Mike Douglas hosted the Mike Douglas Show from 1961 to 1982. The appearance of both Mike and his show here should be considered a topical reference relative to the date of publication per the guidelines of the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
Rick Jones' storied history with the Hulk and the super-hero community in general is glossed over in this story, including:
The fact that Rick Jones is partially responsible for the birth of the Hulk, as seen back in Incredible Hulk #1, and how Jones was the Hulk's regular sidekick until Incredible Hulk #6.
The pair got involved with the Avengers in Avengers #1, however the team's mistrust of the Hulk led to his departure in the following issue. Rick remained with the Avengers following the Hulk's an eventually began training under Captain America starting in Avengers #4.
Rick eventually became Captain America's partner, as Bucky, from Captain America #110-117.
Lastly, Rick has been an ally of Captain Marvel since Captain Marvel #17.
Rick Sloan's encounter with the Hulk from Incredible Hulk #231-237.
Talbot goes over all the times that the Hulk interfered with his life.
How he started working at what became Gamma Base in Tales to Astonish #61. He suspected that Banner was a traitor to his country until he learned that Banner was also the Hulk in Tales to Astonish #77. Throughout this entire time Talbot struggled to win over the heart of Betty Ross, who loved Bruce Banner at the time.
Eventually, Betty and Glenn did fall in love and got married in Incredible Hulk #158, but this was only after Betty discovered that Bruce loved Jarella in Incredible Hulk #150.
Their marriage got complicated when Glenn was captured by the Gremlin in Incredible Hulk #166. Talbot wasn't freed until Incredible Hulk #188 but was reduced to a catatonic state. The Hulk was used to save Talbot's life in Incredible Hulk #200.
However this entire ordeal caused strain on Glenn and Betty's marriage and he separated from her in Incredible Hulk #212 the pair eventually decided to get divorced, which was finalized in Incredible Hulk #238.
