Indestructible Hulk #18.INH

Mar 16

Mar 16 Indestructible Hulk #18.INH

Humanity Bomb: Part Three

In an attempt to destroy the Terrigen Cloud traveling the world and mutating anyone with Inhuman DNA, Bruce Banner had developed a bomb to eliminate it. Fearing that it would only make matters worse, Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Beast attempted to stop Banner from deploying it. This led to the Hulk fleeing with the bomb and it is detonated while trying to keep it away from his sometime allies. In order to protect himself from the blast, Giant-Man shrinks down to size, sparing him serious injury and also being affected by the bomb. When he reverts to normal size, he finds that everything inside the Quinjet is frozen in time. When he realizes what Bruce Banner had done, he calls him a crazy genius. Meanwhile, Banner's assistants Melinda Leucenstern, Daman Veteri, Randall Jessup, and Patricia Wolman are en route to try and stop the bomb from being detonated despite a SHIELD order that they were to be quarantined. However, they discover that they are too late and that the bomb had been detonated too low. They fear how the blast will affect people caught in the blast radius.

On the ground, the bomb has sped up Bruce Banner's transformation into the Hulk so that he reverts back to human form. His bomb was based on materials he took from the Chronoarchists. His intent was to use the bomb on the Terrigen Cloud to speed up it's radioactive decay. Instead, he finds himself caught in the time bomb which has caused some things to fast-forward in time, while other objects slow down to nothing. Giant-Man quickly lands on the surface and deflects speeding cars and moving people out of explosions and other threats while time is frozen. He is joined by Iron Man who helps him get people out of harm's way. That's when they discover that every window in the area was blown out by the blast and there are shattered pieces of glass is hovering in the air. Meanwhile, the Beast and his Quinjet snap free from the bomb's effects and struggle to keep the Quinjet from crashing. Iron Man uses his repulsor rays to incinerate the broken glass then speeds off to help the Beast. While at that time, Giant-Man continues to get people to safety when he discovers a human-sized cocoon. This proves that Bruce Banner's bomb didn't work. Suddenly, time begins to snap back into place causing Banner to quickly turn into the Hulk to save himself from a speeding car that is about to run him down. Suddenly, the gas station on-site explodes.

Later, after all the danger out of the way and Banner back in human form, he blames himself for failing. Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Beast, however, found his idea that Banner came up with was brilliant. However, they point out that Terrigen Mist doesn't originate from Earth and there was no way anyone could guess how the radiation it gives off decays over time. He then gets a call from Maria Hill who is not impressed to hear that his assistants disobeyed her orders and went out onto the field. She allows for them to come and pick him up and warns him that she is likely going to fire every one of them. Not far away, Banner's technicians are delighted to hear that nobody was hurt by the bomb, even though they jeopardized their careers for nothing. Jessup is certain that things will work themselves out and this prompts Daman to criticize his colleague's worldview, calling him Banner's pet. This leads to an argument between the two men, however, the argument is abruptly cut off when Randall suddenly finds himself sealed up in a cocoon, revealing that he is the one among them that has Inhuman DNA. Daman and Patricia try to stop the process but it fails.

Patricia is furious that the one that would be affected by the Terrigen Cloud was not her and she angrily strikes the cocoon. Suddenly, energy comes out from the mass and strikes her, draining away her anger. Hearing the commotion over the radio, Banner transforms into the Hulk and leaps up to the ship and forces his way inside. The Hulk is then blasted by the form inside the cocoon. When it hatches, Randall Jessup is no more, there is only a hideous monster in his place. As the Hulk tries to fight this new foe, he suddenly feels his anger draining away and reverts back to Bruce Banner. Finding himself laughing uncontrollably, Banner is tossed out of the plane. As plummets to the ground below, Bruce is surprised to discover that he doesn't have a care in the world.