War and Remembrance

While driving through New Orleans, Rick Jones and his future granddaughter Janis are attacked by the Absorbing Man, who totally wrecks their rental car. Janis manages to blast the villain with her staff, but he quickly disarms her. He explains that he hadn't come to harm them, but to warn them that Apocalypse had captured the Hulk in order to boost the gamma-spawned monster’s power for his own ends.

At that moment in Egypt, Apocalypse subdues the Hulk and convinces him to seize his struggles in order to see what the eternal mutant has brought him to see. He takes the Hulk down to the Gaza sphinx and has him pear at the pyramids below. There he projects images from the past showing Egyptian slaves constructing the pyramids. Among the slaves, the Hulk sees a much younger En Sabah Nur lugging the heavy blocks. Apocalypse explains that these days of slavery made him strong. When the Hulk questions why he should trust anything Apocalypse is telling him. Apocalypse states that what he does to the Hulk now it is what needs to be done. He also says that trust makes you week, turning the Hulk's attention to the image of Nephri, a young woman who he was foolish enough to trust and was betrayed him. Had he been weak, he would have been destroyed. Apocalypse then relates this to the Hulk's position, pointing out that he is vulnerable with the shrapnel lodged in his brain and that he too suffers the weakness to trust a woman. When the Hulk questions him about this, Apocalypse points out how transparent the Hulk is being.

Back in the United States, Henry Gyrich tells Betty Banner that her father, General Ross wants to see her. Betty finds it hard to believe that her father is back from the dead and is incredibly upset that the grave she had been visiting was empty. Gyrich explains that they kept it a secret because she is married to the Hulk. When Betty tries to tell Gyrich how he has no idea how she feels, Gyrich tells her that he watched his father die of Alzheimer's and on his dying day couldn't even remember his own son and reminds her what a miracle she has before her and to enjoy it. With that, Betty goes into her father's room and he can't provide any answers to his miraculous resurrection as his memories between his death and now are jumbled. He explains that he is ready to get back to work and explains that he is not just going to start hunting the Hulk again but do everything in his power to make sure Betty and Bruce live happily ever after. Finally accepting the fact that this is truly her father, Betty begins to cry and they hug.

Meanwhile, over the air, Rick Jones and Janis are taking a private jet to Egypt chartered for them by the organization who hired the Absorbing Man. The villain in question is contacting his employers in the New World Order to inform them that Rick Jones is on his way to the Hulk's location. The Absorbing Man finds this all uneasy because the NWO is getting this from the one of Apocalypse's known associates, the eternal man known as Ozymandias. At that moment in Egypt, Apocalypse has taken the Hulk down into one of his labs hidden beneath the pyramids. Apocalypse explains that he intends to boost the Hulk's power as part of his scheme to take over the world, and intends to test the brute's new power on the New World Order. Strapped into one of the Celestial machines, the Hulk awaits for the experiment to start. He is haunted by a hallucination of his father, who tells the Hulk that he will not be rid of him so easily. As Apocalypse uses his machines to incinerate the shrapnel in the Hulk's brain, the vengeful hallucination of Brian Banner mocks the Hulk for replacing one father figure for another by siding with Apocalypse. The Hulk stays silent throughout the entire procedure. Soon, the accusatory voices of Brian Banner are silenced as a mask is lowered and placed on the Hulk's head. The silence in his mind comes as a blessing.

Back in Washington, Betty and her father meet with Colonel Lawrence, whose record General Ross is impressed with. He asks her to tell him everything she has on the Hulk in the hopes that taking a kinder gentler approach to dealing with the Hulk will result in the Hulk dealing with them in kind. Colonel Lawrence, thinking about how the alternate Hulk kissed her, thinks that stranger things can happen. While in Egypt, Rick Jones, Janis, and the Absorbing Man are driving to the pyramids. While Rick goes over how Apocalypse plans to enhance the Hulk's strength, they just barely manage to avoid getting crushed by a pyramid lifted from the ground and tossed at them. Rick and Janis are horrified to see the Hulk decked out in the armor Apocalypse has fashioned for him. The Hulk approaches them brandishing a whip and a sword. When the Absorbing Man grabs the sword and tries to absorb its properties, it causes energy feedback that shatters the Creel's stone form. The Hulk announces himself as Apocalypse's newest Horseman, War. Before he can attack Rick and Janis, they are interrupted by the arrival of another one of the New World Order's agents, the unstoppable Juggernaut.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, Betty Ross, Rick Jones, Janis Jones, Henry Gyrich, Colonel St. Lawrence, Apocalypse, Ozymandias, Absorbing Man, Juggernaut, Nephri (flashback)

Continuity Notes

• This story takes place before the events of X-Men (vol. 2) #65.

• Apocalypse mentions how he was betrayed by Nephi, this was shortly after he adopted his identity of Apocalypse while freeing himself from slavery in Rise of Apocalypse #4.

• Mention is made of how the Hulk has shrapnel in his brain, this has been lodged there when he was caught in a grenade blast while in the form of Bruce Banner back in Incredible Hulk #437.

• Betty's surprise at seeing her father alive is because as far as she knew he had died back in Incredible Hulk #330. Unknown to her he was revived and became a mindless thrall of the Leader as explained in Incredible Hulk #400 where he was seemingly killed yet again. His sudden resurrection and restoration of his mind is explained in more detail in Incredible Hulk #464.

• Betty asks her father if he remembers the incident with Zzzax. General Ross briefly controlled the creature from Incredible Hulk #326-327.

• Rick mentions the time that Daredevil once defeated the Absorbing Man because he had a cold. This is a reference to the events of Daredevil #359-360.