Incredible Hulk #80

The INCREDIBLE Hulk #80
Title: Tempest Fugit Part 4 of 5
Writer: Peter David
Penciler: Lee Weeks
Inks: Tom Palmer
Letters: Randy Gentile

Colorist: Studio F
Editor:Tom Brevoort
Cover Artist: Lee Weeks

In a flashback, Bruce is watching the group of kids, including Carla, walk off while the Hulk inside his mind tells Bruce that they are laughing at him and tries to goad him into saying "smash them all" but he won't. Hulk then tells Bruce that he knows what Bruce has been making out in the abandoned cabin in the woods. Bruce yells that it is his private stuff and that it is just theoretical. The Hulk comments that it can work but Bruce tells him not to touch it. The Hulk yells that he was elected to make Bruce a man but Bruce says that he doesn't need him and he should just scram. The Hulk gets made and yells "Puny Banner!" and "Hulk is strongest one there is!". Back at the military station, Ripley is sitting and talking to Professor Yarish. Ripley retells about the military operation on the base to test a device that pulls images out of a person's mind and make them real and that the Hulk is out there also and comments that none of it makes sense. Professor Yarish hands Ripley his tea and tells him to drink it before it gets cold. Given that Ripley has been temporarily blinded, he does not notice that Professor Yarish's reflection is that of a Mindless One.

Gwen continues to run through the woods to try and help General Ross from the 3-headed dog that dragged him off. She suddenly comes across Ross, just standing there. He says that he was disappointed in her and then asks for his gun back. Gwen hands back the gun and then realizes what he had said about disappointing him. General Ross says that she should have learned by now not to become attached to them and that they are disposable and that she is meant for greater things. Gwen is confused and siddenly Ross grabs her head and pushed her under the water in a pond and apparently drowns her. He says that he loves her and that we must always hurt the ones we love.

Back to Bruce sitting on a log, trying to figure out what is going on. He hears a noise behind him and is happy to see Wolverine so he asks if the other X-Men are here with him. Wolverine charges at him with claws bared. Wolverine misses a couple swips and then kicks him down a hill. Bruce turns into the Hulk as he tumbles down the hill and then comes charging back up.

General Ross says that he is running out of patience and that nothing if forever, including him. He walks away while a green snake slithers across the body of Gwen, still face down in the water.

The Hulk jsut stands there while Wolverine slices at him, taunting him the whole time. When Wolverine stops, the Hulk just laughs it off and his body just heals itself quickly.

In the flashback to Bruce's youth, his Aunt Susan comes in and asks if Bruce is going to school but Bruce says that he has not been sleeping well and is probably not going today. As she walks out of the room, she asks Bruce if he went out last night. Bruce says that he didn't and his aunt mentions how that his shoes were covered with mud and leaves. It takes a second but Bruce finally realizes that the Hulk part of him went out to the cabin. He talks to the imaginary Hulk who asks Bruce why waste bombs wasting away in the woods when they would be better in the school's basement. Bruce runs off to the school to make sure nothing has happened.

At the lab, Professor Yarish looks down on an unconscious Ripley laying on the floor while suddenly Gwen comes back to life and then notices that her hair has turned green.

The Hulk and Wolverine start to fight again but the Hulk just throws him around. Suddenly Kang the Conqueror appears and says that he is the mastermind and has taken enemies out of the Hulk's timeline to stop him as the Hulk is a danger to his plans for the space-time continuum. Kang suddenly gets mad when the Hulk voluntarily reverts to Bruce. Bruce starts yelling at Kang saying that with his intelligence there is no way he would fall for this. Someone is just playing a game and keeps changing the storyline. Kang mentions the space-time continuum and suddenly Bruce says that if he mentions that phrase again, he would get rather violent with him. He dares Kang to say it but Kang says nothing at all. Bruce says that he knew it was a game when he was able to dodge Wolverine while still in Bruce form and there is no way he should have been able to do that. He figures that whoever is playing the game wants him alive. Wolverine tells him it's a good theory but it is wrong and then shoves his claws though Bruce's chest. Bruce suddenly finds himself in a straightjacket in a padded room. Doc Samson comes in and Bruce wonders aloud about the eye Doc Samson lost. Samson tells Bruce that he has been in an asylum singe the Hulk had taken over Bruce's body. Bruce remembers that it happened after he left the Pantheon and mentions Betty dying. Samson says that Betty is fine and that everything that has happened to him has been a bad dream.

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