Body Double

Bruce Banner has returned to the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. instillation where the chemical bath tank that once separated the Hulk and he still exists. He is greatly pondering whether or not he should make a second attempt at driving the Hulk from his body once and for all. Betty and Rick Jones arrive and weigh in with their insights.

Meanwhile, Clay Quartermain and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents pick up a gamma radiated meteor that crash landed into the desert. Armoring themselves up, they investigate to find that the Abomination has returned. But this is not the Abomination that everyone is familiar with. This time, his body is being controlled by the mind of Tyrannus. Tyrannus/Abomination smashes through the SHIELD troops and leaps away. He eventually makes his way to the laboratory center where Bruce Banner is.

Tyrannus wants to use Doc Samson's nutrient bath to separate the Abomination from his human alias, Emil Blonsky. Tyrannus intends on living on through Blonsky's body while enslaving the Abomination. But Bruce transforms into the Hulk and the two begin fighting. After battling through several layers of the complex, the Abomination comes out on top. The new Hulk simply doesn’t have the same strength capacity as the Abomination.

The Abomination grabs Betty Ross and takes her down to one of Tyrannus' old subterranean laboratories. He places her within a glass tube with enough oxygen for twenty-four hours. Returning to the complex, he finds that the Hulk has reverted to Bruce Banner. He further tells him that he will help readjust the nutrient bath so that it can separate the Abomination from Emil Blonsky. If Banner betrays him, Betty will die.

Tyrannus's genius perfects the process and he enters the nutrient bath. But just as Emil Blonsky's form begins to detach itself from the Abomination, Quartermain's S.H.I.E.L.D. agents batter down the door. Bruce turns into the Hulk and engages S.H.I.E.L.D. Their fight damages the nutrient bath even as the Abomination emerges from the "soup". Blonsky and he have been separated, but Tyrannus' mind is still locked inside the body of the Abomination.

The Abomination and the Hulk throw down for one more battle. And even though the Abomination is many times stronger than this current version of the Hulk, the Hulk amasses enough willpower to conquer the Abomination.

Turning back into Bruce Banner, he pulls Emil Blonsky's frail body out of the soup. Blonsky tells Banner that he has some memory of his time merged with Tyrannus. He tells Bruce and Rick where they can find Betty.

Betty is found and rescued, but the nutrient bath is destroyed beyond all repair. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrest the Abomination.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, Betty Ross, Clay Quartermain, Doc Samson, Rick Jones, Emil Blonsky, Tyrannus, SHIELD

ontinuity Notes

• Bruce Banner recounts the events of Incredible Hulk #315-324, which cover Banner's separation and subsequent re-merging with the Hulk and his apparent cure.

• Tyrannus' exposition in this story covers a number of events pertaining to his life and that of the Abomination:

  • The transformation of spy Emily Blonsky into the Abomination which happened in Tales to Astonish #90.

  • The seeming destruction of the Abomination at the hands of MODOK in Incredible Hulk #291.

  • The origin of Tyrannus as it was told in Incredible Hulk #5.

  • Also his seeming demise after his failure to absorb to Cobalt Flame of El Dorado in Incredible Hulk #243.

• The Abomination's continuity gets out of sorts here between the moment he was seemingly disintegrated and when his essence and that of Tyrannus merged. He appered fully formed in Code of Honor #3 (which took place while Earth's heroes were off Earth during the Secret Wars), then as one of the villains gathered by Clyde Wyncham Jr. of Earth-1219 in Marvel 1985 #4 & 6, and lastly as a pawn of Mephisto in Secret Wars II #7. An official explanation has not been provided, however, it's possible that Wyncham's god-like powers reformed the Abomination, and Mephisto later dissipated him again.

• Although Tyrannus gets trapped in the body of the Abomination, while Emil Blonsky is restored to human form. This swap proves to be short lived as it was reversed by Ghaur and Llyra in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23.