Incredible Hulk #375
Night of the Living Skrulls
While on his book tour, Rick Jones has been captured and interrogated by the Skrulls. Jumping one of his captors, Rick stole his Bucky costume in order to blend in with the others. When he is spotted by some of the Skrulls in charge, Rick makes up the excuse that he is "stuck" in human form. Before they can question him further, security informs the commanding officer that the Super-Skrull is attacking two humans outside of their secret hideout. They learn that these two humans, Bruce Banner and his wife Betty, had been seeking Rick out since they arrived in town. The Skrull commander tells them that they will not be complete with Rick Jones until they find a way to tap the power he used during the Kree-Skrull War. Rick tries to explain to them that the only way Rick was able to access that power was thanks to the interference of the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree. Still thinking that he is speaking with one of the subordinates, the Skrull asks Rick why he would question his orders.
Outside, Banner is recovering from the blow he suffered from the Super-Skrull. Needing the power of the Hulk, Bruce reaches into his mind and tries to coax the gray Hulk into coming out. There, the gray Hulk is using all his strength to keep the green Hulk contained in the mental block put up by Bruce. The gray Hulk explains to Bruce that he cannot come out during the day as Mr. Hyde theorized because Bruce is ashamed of the Hulk. While the gray Hulk tries to convince Banner to let go of this shame as the green Hulk continues to pound on the door keeping his block. This causes Banner to keel over in pain as his three personalities struggle with each other. The Super-Skrull takes this opportunity to mock Betty by explaining how he cheated death during the most recent Kree-Skrull War. He tells of how the Silver Surfer dropped him on an alien world thinking him dead, however, his Skrull healing abilities allowed him to survive. When he was later recovered by some of the Badoon they learned of his survival the hard way.
Back inside the Skrull base, the commanding officer demands to know why Rick Jones is questioning his orders. Rick explains that killing Bruce and Betty won't shock Rick into using his powers. As such, the Super-Skrull is ordered to take the Banners prisoner. However, the Super-Skrull is tired of taking orders and decides to kill the humans anyway. With Betty's life at risk, Bruce gives in an accepts the Hulk, allowing his gray-skinned alter-ego out in the daylight. The transformation from Banner into the Hulk comes as a shock to the Super-Skrull who believes that the Hulk was dead. When the Hulk begins to battle the Super-Skrull, Rick Jones blows his cover by cheering on the for the Hulk. As Rick makes a break for it, the Hulk and the Super-Skrull continue to fight it out. The Skrull commander tries to trick Rick by assuming the form of Captain America and offering his aid, but Rick sees right through it and tosses the Skrull over a railing. The Skrull drops his disguise and grows some wings to recover from the fall, but Rick still manages to getaway.
Meanwhile, outside, the Hulk notices that the Super-Skrull can only use one of his powers at a time. To take advantage of this, the Hulk impales the Super-Skrull with a metal rod, forcing him to use the elasticity powers of Mr. Fantastic to keep himself alive. The Hulk then knocks him out with a single blow. While back aboard the Skrull ship, Rick manages to get to the control and activates a lift-off sequence. The ship takes off from the ground underneath the Hulk, Betty, and the Super-Skrull. The Super-Skrull tries to resume his battle, but the Hulk hits him so hard it breaks through the ship and into the reactor core powering it. With the ship about to explode, the Hulk laps off with Betty in their arms. After the ship explodes, Bruce reverts back to human form and they fear that Rick died in the blast. However, they are soon delighted to see that he somehow bailed out with a parachute at the last possible minute. Happy to see Betty and Bruce back together, Rick takes them back to his apartment. At that very moment, a woman is knocking on Rick's apartment door. Rick's neighbor tells the woman that Rick is home and asks who is calling. The woman introduces herself as Marlo Chandler, Rick's girlfriend.
Recurring Characters
Continuity Notes
This story has many references to the current state of Bruce Banner's transformations into the Hulk. Some explanation:
Bruce was seemingly cured of his transformations into the green Hulk in Incredible Hulk #325, although he began intermittent changes into the gray Hulk. However, after willingly bombarding himself with gamma rays in Incredible Hulk #331 led to nightly transformations into the gray Hulk.
The Hulk was seemingly killed in a gamma bomb blast in Incredible Hulk #345.
The green Hulk made a return Incredible Hulk #372 after Bruce freed him from a mental block in Incredible Hulk #371.
The Skrulls are trying to access the Destiny Force which Rick used to temporarily stop the Kree-Skrull War a number of years earlier as seen in Avengers #97.
The gray Hulk mentions his encounter with Mr. Hyde in Incredible Hulk #368.
The Super-Skrull recounts his apparent death in the most recent Kree-Skrull War. He was seemingly killed at the hands of Captain Reptyl in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #28.
Mention is made as to how the Skrulls lost and regained their shape-shifting powers. The Skrulls were stripped of their powers thanks to a genetic bomb unleashed in Avengers Annual #14/Fantastic Four Annual #19. This status quo was reversed by S'Byll starting in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #27.
