Incredible Hulk #283
Follow the Leader!
The Avengers have teamed up with the Hulk on his mission to stop the Leader, who is hiding out on his space station Omnivac in Earth orbit. With the help of Iron Man and Captain Marvel, they managed to locate the space station even though it is cloaked. Once they are close enough, Thor knocks a hole in the station with his hammer Mjolnir. No sooner has he done this is the hole plugged with an army of Humanoids. The Hulk fights side-by-side with his cousin the She-Hulk, while they and the rest of the Avengers work together to dispell the Humanoids and gain access to Omnivac. They are swarmed by the Humanoids, until Captain Marvel uses her energy form to make the rubber-like bodies of the androids brittle, allowing the heroes to smash their way through.
Once inside the space station, they are greeted by the robotic form of Ominivac itself, who greets them on behalf of its absent master, the Leader. The robot's offer of food and beverage is sternly denied. The answers to their questions about the Leader are soon answered by a severely beaten Jackdaw. With his master's plot about to be exposed, Omnivac decides to explain it anyway. He tells the gathered heroes that the Leader has ventured back in time to prehistoric Earth to expose early life there to gamma radiation in the hopes of ruling the gamma-powered creatures in the present. Jackdaw confirms this, explaining that she tried to stop the Leader, unleashed the Omnivac robot upon her before escaping into the time-stream.
Suddenly, the Avengers vanish, leaving the Hulk and She-Hulk by themselves. The Hulk demands answers from the Omnivac robot, but his rage only succeeds in shaking the robot into pieces. She-Hulk assures her cousin that they will find a way to stop the Leader and his insane scheme.
Continuity Notes
Bruce Banner now has control of the Hulk and its transformations since a series of bombardments of gamma radiation between Incredible Hulk #269-272. He retains this ability until Incredible Hulk #296.
The narrative of this story states that this story takes place before the "trials" seen in then-recent issues of Iron Man. This is in reference to Tony Stark's battle with Alcoholism and trying to prevent the hostile take-over of Stark Industries by Obadiah Stane. Those events are chronicled in Iron Man #163-169.
Mention of the last time he and the Avengers battled the Leader, which was depicted in Incredible Hulk Annual #11. No explanation is given here how the Leader survived his apparent drowning. However, years later it was explained in Fall of the Hulks: Alpha #1 that the Leader and other members of the Intelligencia often worked together to pull each other out of near death scenarios.
The Hulk recalls how he was a founding member of the Avengers, helping form the team in Avengers #1. He quit in the following issue because his teammates couldn't trust him at the time.
