Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #77

Mar 11

Mar 11 Incredible Hulk (Vol. 2) #77

Tempest Fugit, Part 1

The Hulk is working his way across the ocean floor when he is attacked by a shark. He easily kills the creature and continues on his way. His mind begins to drift back to the past...

Bruce Banner is in high school and is told by his teacher to stop muttering to himself in class. He replies by saying that he was upset that he got an answer to his test wrong. One of his classmates, Ken, wonders why he is complaining about getting one answer wrong when he aced the rest of the test, bringing up the grade average. Banner explains that he was concerned about his grades and wasn't talking to him. His teacher asks Bruce who he was talking to. Bruce tells her that he isn't talking to anybody. However, in Bruce's mind's eye, the massive form of the Hulk sits behind him.....

... The Hulk finds the idea that Bruce Banner thought he was nobody was and finds this idea laughable. As he leaps across an underwater chasm a massive squid wraps its tentacle around the Hulk's leg and pulls him down into the chasm. As he sinks, the Hulk's mind turns back to the past....

It's lunchtime now and Banner is scrawling in his notebook. The Hulk asks Bruce what he is writing about and Banner tells him to mind his own business. Suddenly, there is a commotion and he sees his classmate Ken harassing a girl named Clara. When it catches Bruce's attention, the Hulk warns him that it is none of his business and he should leave it alone...

... The Hulk struggles to get free from the squid, but it won't let him go. Getting fed up, the Hulk allows it to try and eat him. He starts pounding on the squid's face. The Hulk battles the creature and it eventually flees. The Hulk is furious that the creature got away and swims to the surface. There he is amused to find an island and swims to the shore. There he roars with triumph when suddenly he feels sick and keels over. Gasping for air, the Hulk throws up, and as he begins changing back to Bruce Banner he begins to realize that the Hulk's physiology has a certain level of adaptability and that after being underwater so long, he had developed the ability to breathe underwater. Back in human form, Banner collapses back onto the beach muttering about Clara and passes out. From the jungle ahead of him, two sets of glowing eyes peer out at him. It's a two-headed creature that tries to attack Banner, but the monster is forced back by a blind man armed with a flame thrower. The man, Ripley, keeps the monster at bay while his female companion, Gwen, drags Banner to safety.

As they get away from the two-headed creature, the trio ends up bumping into what appears to be the gray Hulk. The man-monster raises his fists preparing to strike the intruders on this island.