Hulk #10 — Nick Peron

Mar 12

Mar 12 Hulk #10

This Power Divided

Bruce Banner and Archer Leopold are prisoners of Tyrannus. With Banner restrained, Tyrannus turns his fury toward Archer, who ended up being made younger by the villain's Fountain of Youth. However, in threatening Archer he has made Banner angry enough to transform into the Hulk. This allows Tyrannus to use his machines to siphon off the Hulk's power and channel it into himself. As they are watching Tyrannus undergo a strange transformation, Archer recounts his encounter with the Hulk and his subsequent battle with the Thing. Quick thinking, Arch picks up a rock and tosses it at the device controls. This interrupts the transfer of power, leaving Tyrannus with only half of the Hulk's power.

Before Tyrannus can harm Leopold, the Hulk breaks free and attacks his foe. Tyrannus orders his minions to repair the transfer device before leaping at the Hulk. The Hulk easily overpowers Tyrannus, burying him under tons of rubble. The Hulk looks around for Archer, but finds no trace of his friend. Finding that he likes his surroundings, the Hulk is easily duped when Tyrannus emerges from the rubble and invites the Hulk to a feast. Archer, meanwhile, has been locked up in a cell. He has gathered a group of Tyrannoids and begins talking to them about their working conditions. When he hears they blindly obey their master, he begins convincing them of the benefit of unionized work, relating to his times working in the mines.

Meanwhile, at Ayers Air Force Base in Kentucky, SHIELD agents are working around the clock to try and locate the Hulk. When they get a lock on the Hulk's most recent location this is reported to Nick Fury, who is in charge of capturing the Hulk and having him stand trial for the crash of flight 1701 that killed over three hundred people. However, Fury isn't convinced that the Hulk is responsible for killing anyone, as that isn't his usual nation. Back down below, Tyrannus has a massive feast prepared for the Hulk. When Tyrannus is interrupted by his followers he rages against them. After killing one of them, he notices that the Hulk has stopped eating. When trying to lull the brute into more false security, the Hulk attacks, revealing that he only wanted some food and now is ready to fight again. However, Tyrannus was prepared for this and had the meal laced with mushrooms that will slow the Hulk down. The Hulk lashes out against Tyrannus, playing into his hands because he is hoping to slow down the Hulk's metabolism down enough to trigger a reversion into Bruce Banner so the power transference can complete itself.

With the Hulk sufficiently weakened, Tyrannus orders his minions to activate the repaired machine. This causes the Hulk's powers to be siphoned again, however not only does the Hulk change back into Bruce Banner, Tyrannus loses his increased might as well. When Tyrannus demand to know what happened he discovers, to his horror, that the Hulk's power has been transferred to his legion of Tyrannoids. As it turns out, Archer's talk of unionized labor had inspired the Tyrannoids to revolt against their master until he negotiates new terms of employment. With Tyrannus carried away by his former slaves, the Tyrannoids thanks Archer for his help and allow him to take Bruce Banner back up to the surface. When brought to the surface by one of his new allies, Archer fears that Bruce Banner is going to be in a whole heap of trouble thanks to his actions as the Hulk. The Tyrannoid assures Archer that Banner has been relieved of this burden and returns back below the Earth. Archer carries Banner outside of the mine he finds Nick Fury and his agents of SHIELD waiting for him outside. The two are quickly taken prisoner and contained at Ayers Air Force Base. There, Archer learns that he is being held as an accessory to murder and that Bruce Banner is going to be tried under the death penalty.