Hulk is Where the Heart Is!

Returning home from a business trip in Hong Kong, Tony Stark is picked up at the airport by his girlfriend, Bethany Cabe. On the way back to Stark International, they get caught in a traffic jam caused by the Hulk. The gamma-spawned monster has smashed open a truck transporting a shipment of fruit and is gorging himself.

Seeing this, Tony tries to slip away by telling Beth that he’s going to call the Avengers. However, Bethany tells him to stay as his celebrity status could keep people calm and she goes to look for a phone.[1] Slipping into the back of an unoccupied van, Tony quickly changes into Iron Man so he can confront the Hulk.

By this time the Hulk has grown annoyed by a helicopter that is watching his movements and begins attacking the SWAT team that has arrived on the scene. In the ensuing battle a rocket launcher misses the Hulk and strikes an overpass causing an RV to begin tipping over the edge. Seeing that a kid is trapped inside, the Hulk breaks off from his attack to save the child. Unafraid of the Hulk, the kid entertains the monster with his toys. Iron Man orders the officers to hold back and sure enough, the kid calms the Hulk down enough that he changes back into Bruce Banner. Exhausted after being the Hulk for so long, Banner pleads with Iron Man to end his tortured life before passing out. Rather than kill Bruce, Tony convinces the authorities to let him to take the tortured back to Stark International so he can try and cure him.

Returning to his office penthouse, Tony puts Bruce to bed in his master bedroom for the night. The following morning, when Tony’s secretary — Bambi Arbogast — brings in breakfast she is shocked when the man slumped down in front of Tony’s drawing board is a stranger and screams for help. Tony wakes up and comes out to see what the commotion is and quickly explains the situations to Arbogast. As it turned out, Banner had woken up earlier and began working on an idea to cure himself. He has come up with a rudimentary device that can regulate his metabolism and heart beat whenever he gets excited or angry. Thankfully, Tony has the technological know how to help Bruce make his idea a reality. They call in the assistance of Scott Lang, an electronics expert that works for Tony, to help them build the device.[2]

When the device is finished and installed on Banner, Iron Man is on site to oversee the test. Banner is placed in a device that bombards him with violent imagery and when he doesn’t turn into the Hulk, the device is considered a success. Unfortunately, the celebrations are marred when the police arrive to take Banner into custody. When Bruce tries to make a run for it, one of the rookie cops tosses a grenade. When it goes off, they all fear the worst when they hear the Hulk talking from within the smoke. However, they are shocked when he emerges from the smoke still in the form of Bruce Banner!

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Hulk, Scott Lang, Bethany Cabe, Erica Sondheim, Bambi Arbogast,

Continuity Notes

1. The reason why Bethany is so insistent on going to find a phone is that she has figured out Tony is secretly Iron Man, as revealed in Iron Man #139. The reason why she doesn’t say it outright is that she is waiting for him to decide its time to tell her his secret. He won’t find out Beth knows the truth until issue #153.

2. A footnote here reminds readers that Lang is secretly the “new” Ant-Man, something that is only known by his predecessor, Hank Pym. See Marvel Premiere #47.

Topical References

• When entering some dude shaggin’ wagon, Tony quips “I didn’t know Hef was in the neighborhood.” This is in reference to magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, best known for creating Playboy magazine. This joke should be considered topical since Hefner died in 2017.

• The boy who is rescued by the Hulk manages to clam him down by showing off his Micronaut toys. These toys were quite popular in the late 70s and early 80s. Is this a topical reference? Since the Micronauts existed in the Marvel Universe and many characters many heroes have had toys made in their image, this might not be the case in this instance.