The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 Issue 2

## Summary

The Hulk, now colored green instead of gray, is walking through a swamp in the middle of the night when he is spotted by a man. The man jumps in his car and drives to town in order to warn the people that the Hulk is nearby. The town panics and barricades themselves in their homes. State troopers attempt to stop the Hulk but are unable to restrain him. Before the Hulk is able to cause real damage, Rick Jones arrives to take the Hulk somewhere safer. As Rick lures the Hulk away, an alien race known as the Toad Men is flying in Earth’s orbit. The Toad Men then fire a magnetic beam onto the Earth with the intention of the beam finding the most brilliant mind on Earth so that they can assess the threat humanity poses to their invasion effort. Meanwhile, Bruce and Rick have gathered equipment to deal with the Hulk but are met by Betty and General Ross. Betty expresses her worry for Bruce while Ross expresses his belief that Bruce is a coward. Bruce ignores Ross’ comments while assuaging Betty’s fears. Bruce and Rick then set up in a cave and Bruce makes his plan to barricade the Hulk in the cave with a mechanical door and Rick would make sure that the Hulk could not escape. After Bruce explains his plan to Rick, the both are stuck to the wall due to the magnetizing ray. The Toad Men then arrive and place them in their spaceship. The captain of the ship, Torrak, then appears via transmission and  informs the pair of their invasion plans and they want to know how advanced Earth is. Torrak then threatens that if the pair do not comply, the Toad Men will use their magnetizing beams to rip Earth apart and empty the oceans. Bruce still refuses to comply and when Rick chimes in to support him the Toad Men put Rick in a tube and fire it back into the Earth as they have no need for him. Bruce sees that Rick landed safely but notices that it is becoming night and he transforms into the Hulk. The Toad Men arrive to question Bruce, unaware of his transformation, The Hulk then attacks the Toad Men and locks them in a chamber. The Hulk sees the weapons on the ship and contemplates using them to eliminate humanity so he could be at peace. Meanwhile, the Army notices the spaceship in orbit and General Ross orders missiles be fired at the ship, while Rick cries out that Bruce is onboard. Rick’s cries are unheard and the missiles hit the ship and it plummets out of the sky. The army arrives to search the ship and find Bruce as the lone standing figure in the middle of the wreckage. Ross believes that Bruce was in league with the mysterious crew of the ship and has him arrested. Unbeknownst to the soldiers searching the ship, the Toad Men are still alive and have tunneled into the ground in order to escape. The Toad Men then fire a flare so that the fleet will attack Earth. Meanwhile, Banner is put in a maximum security prison with Rick visiting him. Rick whispers that although Bruce can’t escape, the Hulk can, to which that with the Hulk’s behavior he hopes it never happens. Ross then calls in to state he wants the guard to make sure that it is impossible for a human to escape. Betty asks her father if he really believes that Bruce is a traitor to which Ross states he doesn’t know what to think and it’s up to Washington to decide. Ross then gets a call about the invasion of the Toad Men. The King of the Toad Men appears on every screen on the Earth to announce that they have used their magnetism beams to make the Moon smash into the Earth, however they will return the Moon to its original location if the Earth surrenders. Ross refuses and states that somehow Mankind will defeat the Toad Men. Back in the prison, Bruce transforms into the Hulk and breaks out. The Hulk defeats the guards that attack him and overhears their plans to tell General Ross, and Hulk remembers that Ross is the reason that he was imprisoned and decides to go to his house to get his revenge. The Hulk enters the house but only finds Betty Ross. Betty yells in fear which alerts General Ross and some soldiers that the Hulk is in the house. Some of the Soldiers attempt to break down the door but the Hulk punches the door to send the soldiers flying. A tank then arrives and smashes through the wall, while Rick appears trying to get the soldiers to stand down so he could reason with the Hulk. The soldiers and Ross then storm the room to confront the Hulk. Rick tries to reason with the Hulk but is knocked away; the soldiers then attempt to pile on the Hulk but are knocked off. The Hulk then grabs Betty as a hostage and runs into the night, with Rick running to the lab he and Bruce constructed where he suspects the Hulk is taking Betty. At the lab, Betty questions why the Hulk hates humans so much to which the Hulk replies that humans have only ever attacked him and he is ready to fight back on his own terms. Rick then appears and pleads with the Hulk to help stop the Toad Men’s invasion as the Hulk moves to kill him. The effects of the magnetism beam start and the Earth begins tremoring. Daybreak happens and the Hulk transforms back into Bruce Banner. Bruce sees that Betty has passed out and decides to keep her in the lab until the threat of the Toad Men is dealt with. Bruce and Rick sneak into the base and attempt to use a gamma gun to stop the Toad Men’s magnetism beam, however Ross and his soldiers follow them and intend to arrest Banner again. Rick blasts the soldiers with a high pressure hose while Bruce fires the gamma beam which reverses the magnetism beam and sends the Toad Men haplessly into space. Bruce is then cleared of wrongdoing, but Ross still believes that Bruce is bad and in league with the Hulk. At night, the Hulk is rampaging in the cave prison that Bruce and Rick made while Rick barricades the door and hopes that day comes soon.