Hulk/Thing: Hard Knocks #4

Upon Reflection

The Thing begins to conclude his story about how he defeated the Hulk in battle...

After their first encounter, the Thing tracked down the Hulk to defeat him in battle and prove that he was not a monster. The Thing caught the Hulk off guard. So filled with rage, the Thing didn't hold back and pounded the Hulk mercilessly. Beating the Hulk into submission, the Thing was witness to something the rest of the world had never been privy to at that point: The Hulk changing back into Bruce Banner. Seeing the humanity within the Hulk, the Thing couldn't bring himself to kill Banner and left him to fight the Hulk again another day.

With the story finished, the Thing explains that seeing Banner made him realise that there was still a human inside himself as well. The Hulk is almost touched by the story and before he can say anything more a military missile strikes the diner. When the explosion clears, the Thing radios the troops to tell them that the Thing wasn't phased by the attack. The Hulk gets the drop on the Thing and knocks him out. The Hulk then uses the radio and pretends to be the Thing and orders the troops to converge on the scene. As they advance, the Thing crashes into the advancing group. Ben is furious that they disobeyed his orders not to fire and smashes one of the tanks.

The Thing rushes back only to be attacked by the Hulk again. Although the military tries to interfere, they only succeed in getting their equipment trashed as the Thing and the Hulk fight it out. However, the battle comes to an end when the Thing reminds the Hulk how he spared his life all those years ago. The two stop fighting and sit down to talk about working on a book deal together and start arguing about percentages.

Recurring Characters

Hulk, Thing