Hulked-Out Heroes #2
All the Pretty Little Hulkpools!
Hulkpool has enlisted his former sidekick Hydra Bob to send him back in time to kill himself before he became a Hulk. Unfortunately, something has gone wrong and after various trips to different time periods, Hulkpool finds himself in the year 1945 at the moment when Captain America and Bucky were seemingly killed in action. However, instead of a drone plane, Bucky is trying to disarm a massive missile. Agreeing to help save the youth, Hulkpool grabs Captain America and leaps up at the missile. When the pair land on the missile they only succeed in making it fly toward it's intended target, the United States, faster. Hulkpool uses his tremendous strength to redirect the missile in another direction. Examining their course, Captain America predicts that it is heading back to Germany and toward the best possible target.
Meanwhile, in a German castle, the Red Skull and Hitler celebrate the fact that they tricked the Russians into thinking he was killed in a bunker and begin planning their next move. As they go out onto the balcony they see the missile-carrying Hulkpool, Captain America and Bucky heading straight for them. Hulkpool manages to leap off with his two unlikely allies just as the missile strikes the castle killing Hitler and the Red Skull. Back in the United States, a massive parade is thrown in their honor. That's when Hydra Bob reactivates the time machine and tries to get Hulkpool on the proper course. After he is gone, Bucky thinks it's for the best because he doesn't think Hulkpool would fit in in "modern" America. Captain America thinks his partner is underestimating the cultural melting pot of America, reminding him how their country was founded by a deformed pirate who waged war with the British, pointing to a statue of the Thing dressed up as Blackbeard. In the timestream, Hulkpool is being pulled forward through time. Hydra Bob explains that he is going to try and bring Hulkpool to the recent past by jumping across important points in history, but warns him not to do anything to change history.
First, Hulkpool arrives in Hell's Kitchen some years ago and witnessing a young Matt Murdock pushing an old man out of the way of a speeding truck hauling toxic waste. Hulkpool gets in the way, getting doused the toxic waste instead of Murdock, thus preventing the birth of Daredevil. Pulled through time again, Hulkpool prevents the car accident that damaged Stephen Strange's hands, sending him on the path into becoming Doctor Strange. He then ends up outside the space ship carrying Reed Richards and his crew and pushes their ship off course so the crew is not exposed to cosmic rays. He then saves Doctor Donald Blake from the Kronans, smashed the radioactive spider before it could bite Peter Parker, saved Tony Stark from being mortally wounded, and lastly carrying Bruce Banner and Rick Jones away from the gamma bomb explosion.
In the present, Hydra Bob is horrified by all the events that Hulkpool has changed and wonders why his present still exists if Hulkpool prevented the creation of the Hulk. However, he finds the moment in history that Hulkpool was seeking out and sends him there. He appears his past self, Deadpool, as he is trying to get a lap dance from a stripper. Just as the mobsters come out and demand Deadpool pay his bar tab, Hulkpool tosses them aside so he can kill his past self himself. Tossing Deadpool outside, Hulkpool easily shrugs off all the various weapons Deadpool tries to use against him. As the two Deadpools fight it out, Hydra Bob is interrupted by a fellow AIM agent who tells him that the time machine is off-limits. Looking at the screen and learning that Bob sent Hulkpool to yesterday, the AIM agent points out that he can't change the past, whenever one does, it creates an alternate reality. As the AIM agent begins looking at the damage Hydra Bob has done, Bob knocks him out with a rock.
Back in the alternate past, Hulkpool reveals his origins to Deadpool. Deadpool finds this amazing as being turned into a Hulk will allow him to kill even more. Hulkpool however, has come back to destroy Deadpool because killing is wrong. Ultimately, Hulkpool kills Deadpool and after he is done he notices a religious statue that depicts Hydra Bob and finds the irony of the situation amusing. Hulkpool is then teleported back to his proper reality and time. There, Bob convinces Hulkpool that he accomplished his mission. Delighted, Hulkpool decides to go and find the Red Hulk and thank him for "fixing" him. As he leaps off into the sky, he leaves Hydra Bob behind, who asks Hulkpool to come back and at least get him back home.
Recurring Characters
Deadpool, AIM Bob, Captain America, Bucky
Continuity Notes
Deadpool visits various important moments in Marvel history, they are:
The apparent death of Captain America and Bucky in 1945, as originally depicted in Avengers #4.
The origin of Daredevil as seen in Daredevil #1.
The origin of Doctor Strange as seen in Strange Tales #115.
The birth of the Fantastic Four as seen in Fantastic Four #1.
The return of Thor from Journey into Mystery #83.
The origin of Spider-Man from Amazing Fantasy #15.
Tony Stark's warzone injury that led to the birth of Iron Man from Tales of Suspense #39.
Lastly, the gamma bomb accident that created the Hulk in Incredible Hulk #1.
The strip club incident with Deadpool and the mobsters who own it was originally depicted in World War Hulks #1.
