Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #74

Mar 12

Mar 12 Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #74

Big Things, Part 4

Hired on to help Tony Stark and Jack Rutlidge create a suit of Iron Man armor that is impervious to gamma radiation, Bruce Banner finds himself helping the two men with the final test. With Tony in the new prototype armor, they unleash a powerful gamma bomb explosion. Although it knocks Iron Man off his feet, Tony survives the blast. Bruce realizes to his horror that someone increased the tonnage of the bomb before the test. Recovering from the blast, Tony tells them that he increased the power of the blast to show off the capabilities of the armor. When they ask Tony how he feels, he ecstatically tell them he feels terrific and flies off. Meanwhile, back at Stark's mansion, Richard Cummings has broken free and disguised as a security guard takes Nichole March hostage and tells her to drive him to the test site.

Meanwhile, Tony continues to fly around and showboat in his new armor, despite the protests from Banner and Rutlidge that he is still leaking radiation. With the risk of the Air Force taking off to intercept Tony, the two scientists realize that Tony is suffering from gamma radiation poisoning, hence his irrational behavior. A scan of the armor system determined that the flow of RG-27 was compromised in the blast impact and to make matters worse, Tony's wound opened up. They try to tell Tony this but he won't listen, so Bruce Banner decides to take matters into his own hands. Suddenly, Iron Man's reckless flight is interrupted by a blow from the Hulk. In order to prevent Tony from being exposed to more radiation, the Hulk blocks the radiation leap with a boulder, but this prompts an all on the attack from Iron Man, who doesn't want the hole blocked. As the battle rages on, Cummings and Nicole are getting closer to the test site. Seeing an explosion, Nicole wonders if a bomb went off, but Richard Cummings tells her to keep her mind on the road.

At that moment, the battle between the Hulk and Iron Man takes a turn when the armored Avenger knocks out the gamma-spawned brute. Still unhinged by gamma radiation poisoning, Iron Man then leaves the Hulk with a bottle of aspirin and flies off to engage the Air Force fighter jets that have arrived on the scene. After incapacitating the fighters, Iron Man orders Rutlidge to detonate the above-ground bomb. When his partner refuses, Iron Man crashes into the bunkhouse and orders him to do it. Rutlidge continues to refuse until Richard Cummings arrives with Nicole March as his hostage. As Stark flies off to the test site, Rutlidge tries to convince Richard that Stark wasn't responsible for his sister's death, it was him. He explains that Lisa in order to prove to Tony that the armor wasn't ready, she tested it on herself and died in the process. Because he was complicit in the unauthorized test, Rutlidge then faked Lisa's suicide and tore the last page out of her diary. Hearing this, Richard shoots Jack. Hearing the shot over the radio, Iron Man turns around to try and save his friend only to be attacked by the Hulk.

Before Cummings can be stopped, he activates the second bomb, but the damaged control panel electrocutes him. As Iron Man and the Hulk duke it out the second bomb goes off before it can be stopped. Later, at Stark's mansion, Tony and Bruce learn that Nicole survived the blast and that the readouts on the computers indicated that the test was a success. Banner then reveals that he saved Tony's life because he followed Tony on the night he increased to tonnage of the bomb. He made sure the second bomb was nothing but pure RG-27 to purge the gamma radiation from his system. Sadly, Bruce's plan didn't work before Jack had died. Still, Tony thanks Bruce for all of his help and is thankful that the Hulk was unbeatable... this time. With the job done, Bruce Banner leaves town on his endless wanderings across the country.