Incredible Hulk #376
Personality Conflict
Following their battle with the Skrulls, Bruce Banner, his wife Betty, and Rick Jones have managed to hitch a ride back to Reno in the back of a truck. Banner finds himself unable to sleep because the two personas of the Hulk continue to fight it out inside his mind. The argument in his mind takes a strange turn when his hands suddenly change into that of the gray Hulk. Bruce screams up and tries to contain this, waking up Rick. Bruce then explains to Rick that the gray and green personas of the Hulk are warring in his mind, but he assures Rick that everything is fine and tells him to go back to sleep. In town, Rick's girlfriend Marlo Chandler tries to reach him, but gets his answering machine instead. While at the Mount, Prometheus has returned to his fellows in the Pantheon to report his attempts to capture the Hulk. He explains that his car, the Argo, was only equipped to deal with the gray Hulk, not the green Hulk that he fought. Since the green Hulk is much more powerful, Prometheus couldn't possible capture their foe. Suddenly, the meeting is interrupted by the Pantheon's leader Agamemnon who asks Prometheus what they should do next. Prometheus tells his leader that they should continue trying to recruit the Hulk as it would benefit them all greatly.
Inside Bruce Banner's mind, Banner and the gray Hulk stand before the door that acts as a mental block keeping the green Hulk contained. However, the green Hulk continues to smash at the door. The gray Hulk is fed up with his green counterpart and opens the door and dives in. While the two fight it out, Bruce shuts the door. However, the onslaught causes him to scream out in the waking world. This alerts Betty and Rick who run-up to the room where Bruce has been resting. When they wake him, he tells his two friends that he contained both Hulks inside his mind and hopes they will both kill each other so he will be rid of them forever. As Betty goes to her husband's side, Rick decides to give them some privacy.
Sometime later, as Rick is making a meal for his guests, Marlo Chandler arrives and heads up to Rick's apartment. Rick meanwhile, is telling Bruce and Betty how he met his new girlfriend while doing a gig in Las Vegas at the Coliseum. Bruce plays dumb and hopes that Rick isn't talking about who he thinks he is talking about. This hope gets quashed when Marlo enters the room. Marlo instantly recognizes Bruce, which comes to a shock to both Rick and Betty. Betty is instantly upset by this sudden revelation. Meanwhile, not far away, Doc Samson pulls up to a service station and asks for directions to Rick Jones' apartment. While inside Banner's mind, the two Hulks continue to fight it out. In the real world, Marlo explains that she met "Bruce Bancroft" through her relationship with Joe Fixit. As they start piecing it all together, Bruce insists that it wasn't him. Suddenly, when they all realize that Marlo was dating the Hulk in Vegas, the two Hulks break free from the mental block in Bruce's mind. Screaming that it wasn't him in Vegas, Bruce suddenly begins transforming into the Hulk.
However, the transformation is incomplete and one of the hands of the green Hulk clamps on Bruce's throat and begins trying to choke him. Bruce then smashes out of the apartment and out into the street. Inside his mind, Bruce tries to get the two Hulk's to stop fighting but they knock him aside. In the real world, this manifests as Banner shifting between strange amalgamations of himself, and the green and gray Hulks. He goes smashing into a nearby store while he tries to choke himself to death. Meanwhile, Rick, Betty, and Marlo rush out to try and see what they can do to help. When Marlo confirms that Betty is married to Banner, she asks her how she can handle it. Betty responds by telling her she takes it a day at a time. By this time, the police have arrived and try to shoot the strange creature that Banner has become, but their bullets have no effect on him. Inside his mind, Bruce tries to get the gray Hulk to stop. However, the gray Hulk tells Banner that he has to make a choice. Bruce tells his alter-egos that there are no more sides, they all need to work together.
Outside, Betty and the others force their way past the police to get to Bruce. Betty pleads to her husband to assert his control. Inside Banner's mind, Bruce has had enough and attacks the two Hulks, who is surprisingly able to bowl them both over. In the real world, Bruce suddenly collapses and reverts back to human form. When Marlo asks what they should do next, they are confronted by Doc Samson who tells his allies that they need to get to work.
Recurring Characters
Hulk, Betty Ross, Rick Jones, Marlo Chandler, Doc Samson, Pantheon (Agamemnon, Paris, Atalanta, Prometheus)
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.
Rick Jones mentions how the Coliseum was repaired after it was damaged by something that "nobody wanted to talk about". This is a vague reference to how the Hulk trashed it fighting the Ghoul and Glorian in Incredible Hulk #358-359.
Marlo Chandler had a relationship with the gray Hulk during his time as the Vegas enforcer known as Joe Fixit. Their romance lasted from Incredible Hulk #347-358.
