The Hulk has returned from the grave, but he may have sent a fellow Avengers back there to take his place.
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SPOILERS for Avengers #685 follow.
In Avengers #684, after being heavily teased by Marvel Comics throughout Avengers: No Surrender, the Hulk finally returned, now dubbed The Immortal Hulk.
The Hulk was drafted by the Elder of the Universe known as the Challenger to be part of the cosmic game he is playing with his brother, the Grandmaster. The two rival Elders chose Earth for their game of games. The Grandmaster formed a new Lethal Legion to fight for his side. The Challenger chose the Black Order. Earth was chosen as a battlefield and the Avengers made into neutral parties acting to disrupt both sides’ attempts at victory (though The Grandmaster had a secret agent embedded in the Avengers ranks, or so he thought).
Throughout Avengers: No Surrender, it had been noted that the Grandmaster’s Lethal Legion outnumbered the Challenger’s Black Order, but it turned out the Challenger simply held one piece in reserve. The Challenger drafted the Hulk into the game and sent him after the final Pyramoid, the elemental objects that the Elders’ teams have been trying to collect to win the game.
The Hulk immediately stormed off towards the Avengers auxiliary headquarters, where Voyager had brought the last Pyramoid. Though some of the Avengers stood against him, the Hulk easily disabled those in his path. The Red Hulk donned the Iron Patriot armor to become the Iron Hulk, but even he wasn’t enough to stop the Hulk’s rampage.
Finally, the Vision was freed from stasis and arrived on the scene. The synthezoid is among the most powerful heroes ever to join the Avengers, and so he fared much better against the Hulk than the other who first stood against him. The Vision was able to shift his density to withstand Hulk’s blows and the use his eye beams to attack.
But the Vision made a miscalculation. He assumed that the Hulk lacked intelligence and tried to goad the monster to come closer. Vision would then use his phasing abilities to reach inside the Hulk and end the battle. Unfortunately for Vision, the Hulk is smarter than assumed. He walked toward Vision and then once the android was within arm’s reach the Hulk reached out did some real damage:
The Vision was left twitching and sputtering on the floor and then seemingly went offline, indicating that the Hulk may have killed him.
The Hulk then continued to move towards the Pyramoid, but he was cut off by another Avengers. The pacifist Wonder Man seems intent on talking the Hulk down.
Avengers #685 is on sale now.
