Incredible Hulk #75

The INCREDIBLE Hulk #75

Date: September 2004
Title: Wake to Nightmare
Writer: Bruce Jones
Penciler: Darick Robertson
Inks: Tom Palmer
Letters: Randy Gentile

Colorist: Raul Trevino
Editor: Axel Alonso
Cover Artist: Gary Frank

Bruce wakes up in a hotel with no electricity or heat, not remembering checking in. He walks down to the front lobby but doesn't find anyone there. He walks out the front to find Los Angeles devastated. Bruce sits down trying to figure out what is going on and the last thing he remembers is being with Stark. He runs to Stark's mansion to find it in ruins like everything else. Bruce walks along trying to figure out if the city was evacuated when suddenly he sees a woman in the shadows. He chases her but then loses her. Suddenly he hears people talking from a nearby building. He runs up to find a tv on and determines there must be a generator somewhere. As he turns to leave, the mysterious lips come onto the screen and asks him if he is leaving so soon. They talk for a second when the "lips" steps out from the shadows reveling himself to be the Leader.

Bruce says that there was something familiar about those sneers on the screen all these times. The Leader says it was a rather confusing journey he has been on. Bruce says that is was a overly-complicated plan just to get the Hulk's blood. The Leader explains how the plan wa to wear Bruce down until his mind was suscetible to mind control. The Leader explains how he set up Verdugo and used reanimating the dead to framing her for the 'death' of her child to control her. He then offers to lead Bruce around and show him the sights. Bruce asks the Leader why he was after the Hulk's blood but the Leader just blows the question off. The Leader than says that they have less than three days until the effect of radioactivity reaches critical mass. The Leader says that he can't explain how they became trapped in the radioactive future but that he found Bruce after the nuclear fires because he knew Bruce could help change what happened. While walking with the Leader, Bruce notices a woman following them in the shadows. The Leader says that Bruce can help bring all of humanity back to life, including Betty. He takes Bruce to a map and shows him an area near San Francisco that he needs Bruce to go to. He explains there is an abandoned milssle silo there with a time machine so that they can go back in time and stop the nuclear disaster. Bruce asks why the Leader just doesn't go and get it himself. The Leader explains that there are roving bands of radioactive-scarred mutants and only the Hulk can make it. Bruce wonders how he will stop the nuclear annihilatioin by going back in time. The Leader says that Bruce will go back and stop the first bomb, namely the gamma bomb which created the Hulk. So Bruce would be normal and nothing bad would happen to Betty or anyone else Bruce cares about.

Cut to the Hulk rampaging through a normal looking Los Angeles. Betty watches the Hulk's destruction on tv when Samson calls and says that he is in LA with Stark and they need her there to help with the Hulk situation. Betty wonders about Nadia and Samson says he will call her also. Betty gets there and the news reports that the police have lost the Hulk after he headed into the desert. Samson figures that he changed back to his Bruce form. Samson decides to go out and find Bruce but Stark says that someone who Bruce trusts should go out, in which case Betty volunteers. Betty boards a helicopter disguised as a Red Cross helicopter. Samson gives her a DNA tracker to find Bruce. Nadia suddenly steps up and berates Samson and Stark for letting Betty go up there alone. She jumps in the copter and the two of them fly off, which just makes Samson mad. Betty and Nadia fly around for awhile until they finally get a reading on the tracker. They spot Bruce walking through the woods with no other military aircraft on radar. Betty is worried that since Bruce hasn't been himself and the Red Cross helicopter might spook him. Suddenly Oregon State Police come up on Bruce and fire at him, causing him to turn into the Hulk. The Leader still has control over the Hulk's mind and makes him think that the police are actually mutants attacking him and he is still in the radioactive wasteland. When the Hulk sees the helicopter with Betty and Nadia, he sees a dinosaur with a mutant on it. He throws a "rock" which is really a car at it but Betty manages to avoid it. The Hulk turns back into Bruce, with the Leader's goading, and runs into the forest. Samson wonders why he would turn back into Bruce in such a dangerous situation and thinks that Bruce is acting like someone else is in control.

Betty figures the only way to get through to Bruce is to contact him directly so she goes off to land. The Leader tells Bruce that there are only a few more miles to go. Betty lands and stands in the field as Bruce walks out. The Leader tells Bruce that it is just a mutant and he should go around the situation. Bruce turns around but Betty calls out to him. He turns around and the Leader fights to remain in control by saying that she is an imposter and the enemy and that he should turn into the Hulk. The Hulk comes out and starts to chase Betty. Betty gets in as Nadia pulls the chopter up into the air. The Hulk leaps but just misses the chopter. Samson and Stark are worried but Betty says they are okay. Betty notices that the tracking device shows that Bruce is actually asleep. Stark looks at his equipment and confirms it. Betty says that there is something about Bruce and the Hulk, like he is not all there. Samson asks Stark to use the tracking device and tap int othe Hulk's brainwaves and get a visual on his subconscious. It brings up an image of the Leader. Samson says that it all fits now, with the Leader's telepathic abilities, he must have been behind the whole conspiracy. Betty is not sure as it seems like all the Leader is doing is sending the Hulk on a rampage, nothing big. Samson tries to figure out what they are missing. Stark realizes that if the Leader can monitor Banner's thoughts, that he can track brain activity in Banner's range. Stark tells the girls to shut down the tracker. Suddenly, Betty is in pain and the chopter starts to dive. Nadia takes the controls as Betty goes unconscious. Samson tries to talk her through it when suddenly Nadia is attacked mentally by the Leader also. Stark tells Nadia to fight it and try to get away from the Hulk so the Leader can't affect her. Nadia says that she can't stay awake and and you see the chopter crash into the ground and explode.

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