Immortal Hulk Reveals a Horrific New Abomination

Rick Jones, longtime ally and confidant of Bruce Banner and Hulk, is dead, and his corpse subjected to gamma experimentation.

As Banner unravels a cryptic mystery, he is unaware the ominous Shadow Base holds a horrifying sight: a grotesque new form of his archfoe, now more than ever a true Abomination.

Immortal Hulk #17 sees General Fortean and Dr. McGowan housed within Shadow Base Site B, where Fortean says obtaining Jones' corpse drew the Hulk to Shadow Base Site A, where Banner's therapist, Doc Samson, was shot and killed by Carl Burbank — a.k.a. the villainous Bushwacker — in a trap where Hulk was reverted to his human form through the use of solar emitters Fortean says "gave the Hulk a sunburn."

Now Banner is trapped — "exposed, wounded and helpless," Fortean says — and all Burbank has to do is fire a single bullet.

Bushwacker closes in on a shot and wounded Banner, who is prevented by artificial sunlight from transforming into the Hulk, as his alter ego assumes control over their shared body at night. Confronted by Bushwacker up close, Banner tells him he's "not Bruce."

"It's Joe," 'Banner' says, his Grey Hulk persona — a.k.a. Mister Fixit — in control of Banner's body. Joe assaults Bushwacker and runs free, and the cyborg is then handed down orders to shoot to kill upon sight of Banner or Fixit.

As Joe wanders through halls of animals undergoing gamma experiments, he comes across a hidden room full of computers. Fortean orders the base flooded with UVB radiation, but Joe says Banner's body can take the sun. As Joe works to unlock the secrets held by a password-protected computer, Bushwacker closes in with orders to put his prey down immediately. Upon discovering Joe, Bushwacker savagely guns his target down.

Fortean orders Bushwacker to cut Banner's body to pieces, starting with his head — but before Bushwacker can dismember Joe, his bloodied, powerful body fights back.

"I figured it was weird, me taking over this body. I mean, why'd coach put me in? I don't even like Banner," he says. "But I get it now. Banner's all about science, the senses... and not just him... I like those things, too."

Bushwacker helplessly fires more rounds into Banner's body, but he won't die.

"I like having a good time... and I like using my head. I like figuring stuff out," he says, his eyes turning gamma green. "Like ways to hurt people."

A technician points out Joe didn't turn off the emitters assaulting him with various UV wavelengths, but instead turned them up, compressing the wavelength.

"Banner doesn't know computers. But he knows radiation. He knows wavelengths," Joe says. "Past visible light is ultraviolet. Tighten that wavelength, you get x-rays. And past that..."

The realization sets in: Gamma radiation. Joe assumed control over the emitters, overriding them to unleash what a horrified McGowan points out is a "massive overdose of gamma."

Banner's body is transformed into a massive, six-headed version of the Hulk, every one of them pissed off. Bushwacker is killed and the base is destroyed. The entire mountain is gone, devastated by Hulk's burst of gamma energy.

Fortean turns his attention to "Subject B," writing off Bushwacker's failure as "human error."

McGown offers a rundown on Subject B: "We used Rick Jones' body as a kind of scaffolding — for a shell of gamma-activated tissue... recovered from the corpse of Emil Blonsky," she says of the original Abomination.

"It woke up today, General. It looked at us," McGown continues, presenting Fortean with the creature housed in a tank. "You want to eliminate human error? Trust me. There's nothing human in there."

With that, the new Abomination is revealed: the amphibious-looking creature is a gruesome, mangled mash of monster who will next stalk his prey in Immortal Hulk #18.