The Forest for the Trees

While on a mission in the Amazon Jungle, the Hulk is attacked by someone whose strength rivals his own. The Hulk doesn't recognize the man attacking him, and as he is locked into a headlock he thinks back to the events that have led up to this moment.

Things all started at the Pantheon's headquarters the Mount, where the members of the group are all gathered for a meeting with Agamemnon. Achilles is already in a rotten mood which is made worse when Paris begins asking thinly veiled questions about what they were doing together the night before. When Agamemnon appears he tells them that he will be leaving the Pantheon for a time to explore the world and has left the Hulk in charge of things until he gets back. This angers Achilles, who insists that since he has no familial ties to the Pantheon like the others he has no right to lead them. When Ulysses has to contain Achilles, he gets fed up of the situation and storms out of the room. Agamemnon tells the Hulk to give Achilles time to cool down and wish him luck on his future endeavors. With Agamemnon now gone, the Hulk tells the other members of the Pantheon that they need to get down to work.

... Hulk ends his recollection and breaks free from his attacker's hold. Now the Hulk is ready for his foe, however, he grossly underestimates his attacker's strength. The fight takes the two of them falling from a high up waterfall. The Hulk comes out of the water and demands to know who his attacker is. The man doesn't wish to reveal who he is and drags the Hulk back under the water in the hopes of drowning him.

Meanwhile, in Reno, Doc Samson is called to the home that Betty Banner shares with Marlo Chandler. There he sees how Marlo is in a catatonic state since her recent resurrection and Rick's attempts to try and snap her out of it by practicing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over with her. Leonard manages to pull Rick away from Marlo to examine her and determines that she is in some kind of waking coma, but can't determine if she has suffered any permanent brain damage. When he turns to ask Rick more questions about Marlo he discovers that Rick has collapsed into a deep sleep due to utter exhaustion. Samson then asks Betty about when the last time she saw Bruce....

She recounts when he came by the day before to tell them that he was given command of the Pantheon. He tells her that he is going on a mission and would like for him to wait for her at the Mount. Betty declines the offer, explaining that she needs some sort of normalcy in her life. This makes the Hulk thinks that this is just Betty pushing him away again, but she recommends that he commute between her home here, but she wants him to start sessions with Doc Samson again because they don't know the full scope of the merger he conducted on the Hulk.

... Back in the Amazon, the Hulk continues to be pummeled by his foe. He manages to get his villain off his back by tossing mud into his eyes. Still, his attacker refuses to divulge his identity. The Hulk eventually knocks him into quicksand, but when he tries to rescue his foe from the swamp, the bruiser tries to pull him into the quicksand as well. The Hulk manages to pull back, asking his attacker if he's crazy. Still, his attacker manages to break free from the quicksand and pummel the Hulk into unconsciousness. As he blacks out, the Hulk realizes that he has been battling it out with the Juggernaut. As soon as the Hulk is out, the Juggernaut's employer, the Red Skull appears and tells him to keep the Hulk alive as they have other uses for him. Elsewhere, the teenaged form of Agamemnon hitches a ride on a truck on the side of a desert road. He wishes Hulk all the best trying to lead the Pantheon, as failure could ultimately destroy them all.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, Betty Ross, Rick Jones, Marlo Chandler, Pantheon (Agamemmon, Atalanta, Delphi, Hector, Paris, Ulysses, Achilles), Doc Samson, Juggernaut, Red Skull

Continuity Notes

• Marlo was killed by Jackie Shorr back in Incredible Hulk #398. She was brought back to life Incredible Hulk #400. However, she remains in a catatonic state until Incredible Hulk #406.

• Betty mentions how Doc Samson managed to merge all of the Hulk's personalities into one, that happened in Incredible Hulk #377. Although Doc Samson states that he merged all of the Hulk’s personalities into a single unified personality, Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #12 reveals that this new incarnation of the Hulk is just yet another part of Banner’s fractured personality.