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Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD
The INCREDIBLE Hulk #39Title: Tag...You're Dead!
Writer: Bruce Jones
Penciler: John Romita JR
Inks: Tom Palmer
Letters: Richard Starkings/Wes Abbott
Colorist: Studio F
Editor:Axel Alonso
Synopsis: The book opens with the Hulk coming upon a boy tossing flowers into a pond, reminescent of the original Frankenstein movie. The Hulk joins the boy in tossing the flowers into the pond and when he is out, the Hulk picks up the boy and throws him in. The whole scene is black and white as if a dream. Cut to Slater tracking the Hulk via computer. He tells base that he has picked up the Hulk's trail and to let him do it alone. The Hulk comes upon a cabin and the hooded person inside invites him in and gives him stew to eat. Slater comes to the pond the Hulk was at and sees a tree trunk the approximate size of a boy floating in the pond. Back at the cabin, the hooded person starts to put the Hulk into a trance, causing him to relax and revert back to Bruce Banner. She takes the hood off to reveal Sandra Verdugo, with a bullet hole in here head and still alive. While still on the trail, another person from the company sneaks up on Slater. They talk shortly and Slater kills him suddenly. At the cabin, Bruce asks how she knew how he meditates. She says her job as an assassin makes it so she has to know everything about her target. She tells Bruce she had a ring and injected him with a drug while at the restaurant which made him sleepwalk and easier to track. She says that Ricky Myers, the boy who the Hulk supposedly killed in Chicago is her son. Slater checks the body of the other agent and finds secret documents and an unusual metal object. Sandra explains how she was a soldier of fortune and that a few years ago she was accused of murdering her child. While on deaths row, she was approached about helping capture the Hulk in return for the life of her dead son. After being executed, she awoke in an empty room and two voices told her in was time to fulfill her part of the bargin. While still examining the metal object, Slater is shot in the head by another operative. When that operative comes to check Slater's body, Slater turns over and shots him in the face. Bruce asks Sandra who the people are who want him so badly but she doesn't know, she just wants her child. Bruce doubts the who resurrection deal and Sandra just tells Bruce to look at her for proof. Sandra doesn't even know what the mystery people want with the Hulk but knows it can't be good. Sandra tells Bruce that after her first night out she found a computer disk among her things mysteriously. It took her 70 hours to figure out the decryption. Slater examines the second operative and finds another strange metal piece. Sandra explains that if they use the disk, Slater will be able to track them on his computer. Bruce says to do it. She opens the disk and Slater gets a lock on the cabin. Sandra and Bruce bring up info about the two agents Slater killed, how they were carrying parts of a new weapon although they don't know what the weapons does. Sandra says that her and Slater were just insurance and the people who are using her have lied to her and wells as the media with the fake footage of Ricky dying in Chicago. Sandra pulls a gun on Bruce and says that they are going to go back to the base and get her son. She proceeds to tell Bruce how eight years ago she was running guns in Argentina and met an American businessman. She had an affair with him and the result was Ricky. She left before telling the American that she was pregnant and never saw him again until yesterday meaning Doc Samson. Bruce tells Sandra that Doc Samson was hired by the same people who hired her and also that he doubted that Doc Samson would surely know if he had a child. He wondered if she was lying to him. Suddenly Slater appears, holding the secret weapon in one hand and a rifle in another. Sandra tells him that she has twenty pounds of plastique explosives in the basement and just has to press a computer key. Slater figures she if bluffing. Slater fires and hits Sandra in the shoulder. Bruce jumps in front of her and Slater tells him to let the Hulk loose so that he can try out the secret gun. To add incentive, he tries to shoot Sandra again but the gun misfires so Sandra pushes the button. Before the bomb goes off, Sandra begs Bruce to find her son and then the place explodes. Cut to Bruce burying two bodies in the dirt and walking away. The last panel shows a hand digging out of the soil.
Review: Okay, now we are getting somewhere. We have the Hulk in multiple panels, answers (maybe) to some questions and some great artwork. The mystery of the boy who the Hulk supposedly killed is answered, maybe. Bruce Jones is keeping the story interesting and keeps you guessing. The first few issues were a little slow starting but it was all to get the story going. JRJR does his usual great job of artwork. Hope he is replaced by an artist as good as him. I should also mention the coloring was excellent is this issue. Studio F did a fantastic job and all the scenes.
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