Hulk: Gray #1 — Nick Peron

Mar 14

Mar 14 Hulk: Gray #1

A is for Apple

Bruce Banner has come to see the psychiatrist Leonard Samson> Bruce says it's to get out of the rain, but Leonard notes one doesn't jump across the country to get get out of the rain and opts for Banner to talk. Initially Bruce is reluctant to talk but he does so once Leonard shows him his file and a series of photos he has in it. The file includes pictures of General Thaddeus Ross, Rick Jones, and Bruce's late wife Betty. Bruce hasn't seen this photo of Betty in years and he decides to talk to Leonard about the early days of the gamma bomb project and the accident that created the Hulk...

Bruce Banner had just pushed Rick Jones into the safety trench moments before the gamma bomb exploded. Banner who is still in the open is bombarded with gamma rays beginning his seemingly endless nightmare as the Hulk. Landing in the trench next to Rick Jones, all Banner is capable of doing is scream and scream and scream. Back at the base, General Ross demands to know what's going on. He chastises the men in the control room for detonating the bomb with someone on the site and demands that they send people out to recover Banner as he is too much of an asset to the country. Betty Ross approaches her father and asks if Bruce is okay. Thaddeus takes his daughter outside of the control room and orders her to calm down. When she does so, she demands to know the truth about Bruce Banner. The General then tells his daughter that Bruce is probably dead.

Banner did in fact survive as Rick Jones took him to a doctor in town who is surprised to discover that Bruce is alive after being told what he had gone through. Later, Bruce scolds Rick Jones for pulling such a stupid stunt because now the military will want to know where he went and what he did. Not only is his career potentially ruined, but he has no idea how the exposure to gamma rays will affect him. Suddenly, Banner transforms into the Hulk for the first time. Rick tries to converse with the gray-skinned monster before him, but at the mention of the army, the Hulk decides to flee and smashes his way out of the doctor's room they are in.

Leaping across the desert, the Hulk lands in the path of a military jeep that smashes into him, sending the soldiers scattering but not harming the Hulk in the slightest. The soldiers fire on the Hulk, but their bullets have no effect and he easily knocks them aside, warning them that he just wants to be left alone. Meanwhile, news about this "monster" have reached Thaddeus Ross who finds them hard to believe but decides to go into the field and see it for himself. As he is preparing to go out, he is visited by his daughter Betty who wants to know if there is any news about Bruce Banner. The General tells his daughter that he has reports that he was seen in a town clinic but now there is a monster on the loose. He tells her to go home and lock the doors. By the time Betty gets home, some part of Bruce Banner's personality has drawn the Hulk to her home...