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eatured Characters:

• Bruce Banner
• Hulk (Banner-less) (First appearance)

Supporting Characters:

• Betty Ross
• General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross
• Glenn Talbot

Villains:

• Raoul Stoddard

Locations:

• Southwestern United States
  • Unidentified Army Base
  • Navapo, New Mexico
    • Desert State University

Items:

• Gammatron

Synopsis

This story follows the events of Captain Marvel #20 and 21…(in Italy in F4C #47-48).

The Hulk is once more bounding across the States when he
accidentally smashes into a military aircraft before slamming into the
ground creating a large crater. From the craters epicenter is Bruce
Banner, Banner is horrified of the Hulk’s actions and vows to try and
rid himself of the Hulk once and for all. Meanwhile, at Gama Base,
General Ross and Glenn Talbot receive reports of the Hulk’s most recent
activities.

Later, Bruce soon learns that he is in New Mexico near Desert
State University, where he recalls his rampage at that location a few
hours earlier as the Hulk and battle Captain Marvel. He begins to
realize he failed in his mission to seek the aid of a fellow scientist
to help separate Rick Jones from Mar-Vel, a mission that failed.

Traveling to the University, Banner approaches another old
colleague: Dr. Raoul Stoddard and asks him to help cure him of being the
Hulk, unaware that Ross and Talbot have been tracking him since he had
been spotted on the road earlier that day. Raoul agrees to help Bruce
and takes him to his secret lab which is off a deserted road and losing
their unknown tail.

Inside his secret lab, Raoul uses a Gammatron device on him that
will hopefully cure Banner of being the Hulk. However, the experiment
has an unforeseen side effect: Instead of curing Banner of being the
Hulk it instead separates the two in separate entities. The Hulk finally
free of his “captor” Banner goes on a rampage, grabbing Raoul, Banner
flees the scene hoping that the Hulk will drop Stoddard and chase after
him instead, escaping to a vehicle and getting outside of the lab.

The Hulk has trailed after Banner smashing through the ground in
front of his car and attacking. Bruce is about to be crushed in his car
when the military arrives and attacks the Hulk and carries Banner away
to safety. With Banner flown to safety, the army moves in for the
attack, however, the Hulk easily smashes them and continues his chase of
Banner.

Banner is taken to the safety of a nearby military base, however,
word of the Hulk continued following of Banner reaches them. They are
too slow to act to get Bruce to safety when the Hulk attacks once more.
Bruce flees and decides to go back to Raoul’s lab to try and find a
solution to his problem, the Hulk naturally follows behind. When Banner
arrives at Raoul’s lab Stoddard agrees to strap Bruce back to the
machine and re-merge the two. However, once Banner is strapped into the
machine when Stoddard reveals a deep rooted jealousy of Banners fame as a
scientist and intends to kill him and the Hulk.

Just then the military arrives and tries to stop Stoddard who
holds them at bay with a ray gun. Suddenly the Hulk smashes through the
wall to destroy Banner. Unaware of Stoddard’s plan to kill both Banner
and the Hulk, he charges toward Bruce but hesitates when he notices the
Gammatron device and believes that it is a weapon. When Stoddard tries
to convince the Hulk to kill Banner, the Hulk merely swats him away and
flees the scene, leaving the military to apprehend Stoddard and plan how
they are going to stop the Hulk.

Continuity Notes

• At this point, Bruce is unaware that Rick Jones is bonded to Captain Marvel since Captain Marvel #1 (in Italy in F4C #19 and 21).

• This marks the first time that Banner and the Hulk are split up into two separate entities. This time only lasts until next issue. 

Featured Characters:

• Dr. Strange

Supporting Characters:

• Clea

Villains:

• Baron Mordo
• Sise-Neg (First appearance) (Impersonates Cagliostro)

Other Characters:

• Lilia (Only in flashback)
• Living Gargoyle (Only in flashback)

Locations:

• 18th century
  • Paris

Items:

• Book of Cagliostro

Synopsis

Traveling through time, Dr. Strange
attempts to stop Baron Mordo from altering history, however when
Strange fails to stop him in the time stream, he travels to where Mordo
is intended to go, 18th Century France. Traveling there and meeting with
Cagliostro, Cagliostro is unconcerned with other mens affairs and
departs. Strange then decides to pose as Cagliostro, and when Mordo
arrives in that time, Strange attacks him and is able to defeat his old
foe.

However, the ruse is ended when the “real” Cagliostro appears,
and reveals himself to be a sorcerer from the 40th Century who intends
to travel back to the beginning of time to accumulate enough mystical
power to become a god. After defeating Strange in combat, Sise-Neg then
departs to meet his destiny, when Strange asks Mordo for help, Mordo
flatly refuses and returns to the present, leaving Strange to deal with
this problem alone.

• Digger (Host)

Supporting Characters:

• Amos and his wife
• an old man

Villains:

• Angelo
• Manuel
• Joe Czanek

Locations:

• Tower of Shadows

Synopsis

Three career criminals looking to rob an eccentric retired mariner so ancient that no one alive remembers his youth. He is known for frequently conversing with a collection of bottles he keeps in his home, each of which contains a small piece of lead suspended pendulum-wise from a string, and which he addresses by names like those of old-world pirates, sometimes speaking to them.

Notes

• Based on an original short story by pulp horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft.