This issue picks up where the last one left off, with the Hulk bound and captured by General Ross and the US military. As Rick Jones learns of this, he leaves the side of Captain America to travel back and try to help the Hulk. At the same time, a mysterious new figure known as the Leader seeks to regain contact with the agent he sent to General Ross’s missile base and employs the Chameleon to find out. This leads to a single panel of coincidence of the Chameleon and Rick sitting next to each other on the same flight.

The Drama continues with the Chameleon trying first to find out what happened, then trying to do better, steal Gamma weapons, and make an ally of the Hulk. All while Major Talbot continues to look into the whole situation on behalf of the General and the U.S. government.

But I won’t lay out the whole story or spoil its ending, save that it does work to set up what follows in a “soft” continuation. It leaves us wondering what role this new figure, the leader, will continue to play.

Story

Marvel shows that its relaunch of The Hulk has great potential with this story, both in telling a more extended narrative and maintaining suspense. We have Bruce Banner, and the trouble growing for him is partly caused by the big green secret he keeps. We have the Antagonistic Ross and Talbot that, against our hero, are also not typical silvered all evil villains. Then there is Betty and Rick completing the ensemble. The story is the cast, and this reintroduction, as well as building upon it at this point.

Originality & Continuity

We can’t talk about Continuity without talking about Rick and how he developed after the end of the Hulk series and the reintroduction here. He has moved on from the Hulk to become a key player in Avengers stories, particularly taking on a role akin to that of a new sidekick for Captain America. We have seen this wrestled with in the most recent Avengers issue.

So introducing him here comes with some risk, but it is done responsibly; having a short scene with Captain America, and then we have him traveling to the Hulk. I will have to evaluate how this plays out going forward, but it does work to ensure it ‘fits’ at this point.

Characters & Development.

With the understanding that there are a couple of new faces, this is essentially a reinduction to our ensemble. It also works to more firmly (and finely) start to better tie down Hulk’s transformation. In the case of turning back to Banner, we see on page 4 it is tied to a “critical Peak” in his pulse rate. The reverse is used to explain turning back into the Hulk a few pages later.