Fantastic Four #533 — Nick Peron

Mar 5

Mar 5 Fantastic Four #533

What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas

North-East of Nevada, a truck carrying SHIELD agents and the Hulk are en route to a cave where a Hydra bomb has been set. Soon they are on-site and the Hulk goes in to try and disarm the bomb. When the Hulk gets past the security system he is horrified to discover that Hydra has been building a gamma bomb. When the Hulk tries to disarm the bomb it goes off in a massive explosion.

Five hours later at the Baxter Building, the Thing is exercising while also talking to his accountant about his investments. After his call, Ben takes a shower and heads into the living room. There he learns from Reed and Sue that the Child Welfare Office is trying to take Franklin and Valeria away because they feel that the Baxter Building isn't safe for them. Ben understandably gets upset, but Reed diverts the subject to Bruce Banner. Reed explains the situation in Nevada and how a rampaging Hulk has been seen rampaging about five hours away from Las Vegas. Mister Fantastic decides to send the Thing and the Torch to deal with the Hulk while Reed and Sue deal with Child Services. Soon Johnny and Ben are off, and Sue laments about how their custody battle will be unlike the ones they can clobber themselves out of.

Four hours later, the Thing and Torch land in Nevada and meet with SHIELD and learn about what happened. The agent on-site shows them the damage the Hulk caused to an abandoned airfield and how they believe that Banner has reverted to an earlier savage version of the Hulk. The reason they have requested for the Thing is that his long history of being the only one who can go toe-to-toe with the Hulk. They also requested the Torch to act as transportation. Although Ben finds this hilarious to begin with, he's less than happy about being carried across the desert in Johnny's arms.

Back in New York City, Reed and Sue meet with Simone DeBouvier from Child Welfare. When they start talking about the possibility of losing the children, Reed agrees with Simone that it is dangerous to live with the children and they will not fight a court order to take the children away. While in Nevada, Johnny and Ben run fist first into the Hulk who is in a savaged grey Hulk form.

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Simone DeBouvier, Hulk, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

There has been a long standing feud between the Thing and the Hulk and they have clashed many times. As of this story these previous times are: Fantastic Four #12, Fantastic Four #25-26, Incredible Hulk #122, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Comics Magazine #5, Fantastic Four #112, Incredible Hulk #153, Marvel Feature #11, Giant-Size Super-Stars #1, Fantastic Four #166-167, Rampaging Hulk Vol 2 #5, Marvel Two-In-One #46, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #5, Marvel Fanfare #21, Marvel Graphic Novel #29, Fantastic Four #320, Incredible Hulk #350, Incredible Hulk #365, and Incredible Hulk Annual #18, Fantastic Four #374, Hulk #9, Hulk and Thing: Hard Knocks #1 - #4.