Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #45

Mar 12

Mar 12 Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #45

Remember Me Never

A pair of hikers come across the burned-out remains of a cabin in the woods. Checking the rubble they discover a strange laptop. However, before they can find out if it works or not, a large figure approaches them, telling them that they'll need that laptop. Seeing the being who has approached them horrifies the hikers, and one of them screams.

Elsewhere, in the town of Clarksville, Bruce Banner is still on the run from those who seek to capture him. When he sees a police car coming his way, he tries to avoid being seen by ducking into an alleyway. However, he is struck by a car and is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up he finds himself sharing a bed with a woman in a bachelor apartment. The woman introduces herself as Laurie, the woman who hit him with her car. After she struck him she brought him to her apartment to recover. She explains that she should have brought him to a hospital, but she has to watch out for the law, something that Bruce totally understands. When she tells him he was mumbling about a boy named Ricky, Bruce tries to leave warning Laurie that he might be putting her life in danger being here. However, she convinces Bruce, who is still weak from his injuries, to stay for a while and he falls asleep. Meanwhile, on a lone country road, an elderly man is trying to change the tire on his car. He is approached by someone he thinks is death itself, but is spared when it takes his car and drives off.

Meanwhile, Bruce Banner wakes up to find Laurie going through his bag. She explains that she needs money for a bus ticket to Kansas City to visit her sick mother. When Bruce offers her to leave, Laurie once more tells him to stay, telling him that the rent is paid up for a week and the fridge is full and that she wants him there when she gets back. After kissing Bruce, Laurie says goodbye and leaves, promising to tell him all about her troubled life when she gets back. Meanwhile, the mysterious being that stole the car pulls up to a country house where a blind boy sits on a tire swing. Somehow, this person knows that the boy has cancer, and when the kid asks if they will take the pain away, the mysterious person tells him that they will. Back at Laurie's apartment, Bruce wakes up to find a woman lying next to him in bed. Thinking it's Laurie, Bruce turns her over and is horrified to see a skinless face looking back at him.

Bruce wakes up to the sound of someone pounding on the door. Apparently, the skinless face was all a dream. It's the police who are demanding that he open up. Bruce quickly hides his gun, and not seeing a new message from Mr. Blue, answers the door. Greeting him are the police and an irate Mrs. Krosky, who is furious that the rent is two weeks overdue. The officers think Bruce is a man named George Copeland. Banner insists that he is not, but the officers don't believe him. Things get worse when they see blood oozing out of the closet door. Opening it they find the skinless corpse of a woman inside. The police think that "Copeland" murdered Laurie. When Banner continues to deny killing her and that he is not George Copeland, the officers find a wallet in his duffle bag which carried identification for one George Copeland of Topeka, Kansas. The photo on the identification is that of Bruce Banner. Because he is still injured, Bruce is taken to the local hospital where he is questioned by police. They think he murdered the woman in the closet, who they identify as George Copeland's sister Alice, and they have the murder weapon on hand, with his prints on it. Moreso, DNA tests show that he and the corpse are closely related.

Bruce feels sick and continues to deny it all, but the officer tells him that he has a visitor, the local sheriff from Kansas is up to question him. Suddenly, the officer and the nurse are shot dead. The gunman turns out to be none other than Agent Pratt, who has somehow managed to cheat death itself.