Nick Peron

View Original

Hulk (Vol. 2) #55

Kukulcan

Inside a Mayan temple in Chichen Itza, Annie the LMD finds the captured members of Alpha Flight and discovers that they too have been drained of almost all their life force. Bumping into Snowbird wakes the woman and she begs for help. Outside, the Red Hulk, A-Bomb, and Machine Man are continuing their battle against the Mayapan. Tohil causes the ground to split open in the hopes of incinerating his foes in molten lava. Narrowly avoiding death, the Red Hulk decides that their best bet is to retreat and come up with a means of stopping their foes. While back into the temple, Annie hides when she hears the Mayapan return to their home to continue planning the return of their people. Ixchel informs her people that they will soon have enough power to return the rest of their pantheon all at once.

While not far away, the Red Hulk and his allies witness as the Mayapan suddenly teleport away. With the temple empty, the trio enters and confirms that their foes have left. When X-51 detects the presence of Annie at the bottom of a well, the Red Hulk leaps down to rescue her. When the Red Hulk finds her, he is relieved that she is still functional and tells her that she shouldn't put herself at risk. Annie said she needed to act as there are lives at stake. When Ross continues to express his concern, she reminds him that she is merely a Life Model Decoy. However, the Red Hulk insists that as far as he is concerned, Annie as real as they get. When they are joined by Machine Man and A-Bomb, Annie leads them to where the captured members of Alpha Flight are being kept. Machine Man insists that they recover them and leave the temple before the Mayapan returns and make the two Hulks their prisoners. When they remark that Snowbird was more lively than the others, X-51 theorizes that it is due to the fact that she is part of the Inuit gods. As they gather up their allies, Annie points out that the Mayapan call them gods. X-51 points out that it was what they would all be classified by people who lived thousands of years earlier. Hearing this, the Red Hulk decides that if their foes insist on calling themselves gods, he will be their devil.

With the members of Alpha Flight aboard their craft, A-Bomb goes to level the temple. That's when a call from Captain America, who wants a status report. He tells them how the Mayapan are attacking El Salvador. He has dispatched some of the Avengers to deal with the attack there. The Red Hulk demands that they send them back as they are at risk. As the heroes in El Salvador help those put in danger, the Mayapan's visages appear in the could above and they decide to make more sacrifices so increase their numbers. It's at this point that the pyramid becomes active again, allowing them to capture A-Bomb as well. Soon, the Avengers who have been sent to try and stop the carnage are overpowered and taken into the temple. The Red Hulk sends then sends Annie away with the members of Alpha Flight back to Gamma Base to try and find a way to reverse the process. Annie is touched that he is willing to sacrifice the location of their secret base to help people and she kisses him on the cheek. With Annie gone, Red Hulk and X-51 begin planning what to do next. That's when they noticed that they are being watched by talking monkies. These apes warn them that it is too late to stop the Mayapan from what they are doing.

Subdued by Machine Man, the two apes introduce themselves as Hunahpu and Xbalanque, two Mayapan who betrayed their fellows and were banished in the form of apes as punishment thousands of years ago. Suddenly, the Mayapan return, sending the two apes fleeing as they are now bringing back their God King. Before they ask who they are talking about, they are soon confronted by Kukulkan, God King of the Mayapan.

Recurring Characters

Red Hulk, Annie, Machine Man, A-Bomb, Hunahpu, Xbalanque, Mayapand (Jacawitz, Ixchel, Camazotz, Ah Puch, Tohil, Yum Kaax, Kukulkan), Alpha Flight (Snowbird, Aurora, Sasquatch), Living Lightning, Silverclaw, Velocidad, Toro, Junta, Captain America