> Incredible Hulk Masterworks Vol. 4
 
 


From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"Hulk doesn't care -- as long as he can leave them all behind...maybe even leave the whole world behind!"

- - The Hulk, page 21


Black Bolt vs. Hulk, Part 1!

 

Incredible Hulk King-Size Special #1
1968 • 52 pages

Letters Page: No letters page published in this issue


I: Feature Story: "A Refuge Divided!"

Pages: 51

Writer: Gary Friedrich
Pencils: Marie Severin
Inks: Syd Shores
Letters: Irving Watanabe

First Appearance: Falcona, Leonus, Aireo, Timberius, Stallior, Nebulo, Legions, Romnar

Villain: Maximus, Falcona, Leonus, Aireo, Timberius, Stallior, Nebulo

Guest Appearance: Inhumans, Black Bolt, Gorgon, Legions

Flashback Cameo: Romnar

Setting: Great Refuge

Synopsis: The Hulk lumbers through the wilderness of Eastern Europe, sending a man racing to his village with tales of a fearsome green beast. In the nearby Great Refuge, Black Bolt presides over the trial of six Inhumans charged with high treason: Falcona, Leonus, Aireo, Timberius, Stallior and Nebulo. However, Stallior steps aside from the others and pledges allegiance to Black Bolt, hoping to save himself. Holding the Sceptre of Justice high in his right hand, Black Bolt signals their guilt. But instead of death, they are whisked away by Lockjaw to exile.

Outside the Great Refuge, the Hulk wanders near where Lockjaw teleports his prisoners, and the two behemoths tangle with each other, which leads to the Hulk getting wound up with the Inhuman exiles in the "Un-Place", their exile location. Trapped behind a seemingly unbreakable barrier, Hulk amazes his fellow prisoners by shattering it and allowing them to pass through. (Unknown to them, they were aided from a distance by Maximus, Black Bolt's mad brother.)

Falcona asks Hulk to join them, but Hulk refuses. Timberious controls nearby plant life to teach Hulk a lesson, but Hulk fights back, proving his might. Suddenly, Maximus arrives and teleports all the parties away using his teleporter. Their goal: overthrow Black Bolt!

Just as they arrive at Maximus' lab, soldiers begin to melt down the door. Maximus and the rest of the insurgents flee, leaving Hulk behind to beat off Inhumans security. Meanwhile, Maximus leads to others to a secret location, the storage facility holding a secret substance that Maximus wants to harness to take over the Great Refuge. To break through the chamber wall that holds the substance, Maximus will need the help of the Hulk, and he sends Nebulo out to find him.

Nebulo can't miss finding the Hulk as he rampages through the Great Refuge, assailed by Inhumans war craft. Nebulo shoots one of the aircraft down to prove his friendship to the Hulk, who responds well, and the pair teleport to join the others. After manipulating the Hulk to join his cause, Maximus sends him on a mission to bring back a container full of the substance from Romnar's ancient laboratory. With Hulk behind him, Maximus shows off to the populace of the Great Refuge that he has brought out Romnar's substance and is ready to use it. He demands their subservience.

Gorgon arrives to defend Black Bolt's throne, and Maximus' allies turn on him when they sense his power-madness is excluding them from the shared power he promised them. Timberius overpowers Maximus and grabs the Wrist Ray gun that the mad Inhuman has fashioned to fire Romnar's substance as a weapon. He fires it at Hulk, sending him falling off the promenade to the ground below.

But suddenly, Black Bolt arrives and swiftly apprehends his mad brother. As they walk the insurgents to prison, the enraged Hulk attacks, and Gorgon decides to let the Hulk have his way with Stallior and the rest, while Black Bolt tries to destroy Romnar's substance once and for all. But the invisible Nebulo makes away with the Wrist Ray, and as Black Bolt begins his search to recover it, he comes across the Hulk, who has dispatched all the insurgents and is ready for more.

He squares off against Black Bolt in a titanic battle that comes to a climax with a whisper: the emperor of the Inhumans knocks the Hulk back with the shattering power of his vocal chords. Nebulo sneaks behind Black Bolt and holds the Wrist Ray up to him. But the Hulk rises, and sees Nebulo threatening to kill everyone, and decides he doesn't like that! So he leaps on top of the invisible Inhuman and knocks the gun away from him, allowing Nebulo to be apprehended. Gorgon wants Black Bolt to execute the Hulk, but Black Bolt realizes the Hulk's heroism and offers him a chance to live in the Great Refuge with the Inhumans. Hulk rejects the offer, knowing that many Inhumans mistrust and dislike him. As he exits the Great Refuge, he wonders what life would be like if he could one day "find a whole city full of men like Black Bolt!"

--synopsis by Gormuu


Issues Reprinted
Incredible Hulk #103-110 and King-Size Special #1

 

IH #103

IH #104

IH #105

IH #106

IH #107

IH #108

SPEC #1

IH #109

IH #110

 

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