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From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"You stupid kid! It's not going to be okay! It's never going to be okay." There'll be the Army looking for me and hearings and inquiries. I saved your life, but it's ruined mine!"

-- Bruce Banner, to Rick Jones, from Hulk: Gray #1

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Hulk: Gray vs. Iron Man: Gold

(Click panels for larger images.) _________________________

Featured Characters:

  • Bruce Banner/The Hulk
  • Rick Jones
  • Betty Ross
  • General "Thunderbolt" Ross
  • Tony Stark/Iron Man
  • Doc Samson
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From the Inside Dustflap:

Long before the world would know him as a green monster, Bruce Banner turned into HULK: GRAY.

Lost between the black and white world of his greatest enemy's army and the General's daughter he desperately loved, Banner searches for answers in the days following the Gamma Bomb...only to uncover a secret that would change him forever.

The Eisner Award-winning team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS, BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE, and DAREDEVIL: YELLOW bring their extraordinary storytelling skills to the most tragic hero in the Marvel Universe, the Hulk, in this action-packed, heart-wrenching story about a monster's love for a woman he could never understand.

 

 

Hulk: Gray


Reprints: Hulk: Gray #1-6

List price: $21.99 (US) • $35.25 (Canada)
ISBN: 0-7851-1314-2
160 pages

Current In-Print Edition: First Print
Original Release Date: 5/26/04

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURES: (19 pages total)

  • Introduction by Marie Severin (1 page)
  • The Sketchbook: Loeb and Sale discuss the creation of Hulk: Gray (12 pages)
  • Each chapter also is offset by pages showing Tim Sale's original cover sketches for that issue (6 pages)

CREATOR CREDITS:

Script: Jeph Loeb
Pencils/Inks: Tim Sale
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Richard Starkings and John Roshell


Buy From:
TALES OF WONDER: $15.39 • AMAZON USA: $21.99
AMAZON UK: £11.03 • AMAZON CANADA: $18.83

SYNOPSIS:

Book 1: "A Is For Apple"
22 pages + cover • December 2003

Bruce Banner consults with Dr. Leonard Samson for some therapeutic conversation. Bruce goes over his early days of life as the Hulk with "Doc" Samson and shares with him his feelings over those moments.

First, the explosion of the Gamma Ray Bomb and his rescue of young Rick Jones, which led to exposure to radiation that threatened his life. Checked out by a doctor at a local clinic he and Rick had wandered to, he gets a clean bill of health. Banner flies into a rage at young Rick Jones, which causes him to turn into a huge, hulking gray creature. As "the Hulk", he leaps into the distance and comes into contact with a group of MPs. He totals their jeep and tosses them around like dolls; their bullets bounce of his skin.

General Thunderbolt Ross has been looking for Banner since he disappeared after the blast, as has his girlfriend Betty Ross, the general's daughter. Ross hears about the monster and tells his daughter to go home and lock her doors, and to steel herself for news of Banner's death. Meanwhile, the Hulk's feeble mind is focused on one thing: finding Betty Ross.

* * *

Book 2: "B Is For Boy"
22 pages + cover • December 2003

The Hulk stands outside Betty Ross' home. She answers the door, seeing him standing in her doorway. He says her name "Betty," and she figures he has something to do with Bruce Banner's disappearance, so she screams at him demanding to know where Banner is. The Hulk says he hates Banner and she faints. He picks her up, and at that moment, Ross is there with a cadre of MPs with their guns sighted on the Hulk. The Hulk slams his foot against the ground, knocking everybody over, then he leaps into the sky and away from them.

The general gives his daughter some medication and puts her to sleep. Rick Jones follows a path of destruction to find Bruce Banner passed out among the desert hills. They realize that Banner is the Hulk, and Banner decides to do something to protect the world from his monstrous alter ego. They walk to an underground nuclear waste site and locks himself into a chamber. Inside, he turns into the Hulk and pounds away at the walls, while Rick Jones sits outside in shock and despair over what to do next.

* * *

Book 3: "C Is For Cry"
22 pages + cover • January 2004

The Hulk sits alone on a desert plateau, where he accidentally kills a bunny rabbit he had taken to be his friend. Rick Jones is apprehended by MPs outside the chamber. He is taken to General Ross for interrogation, but pretends he knows nothing of the Hulk, or the disappearance of Bruce Banner. Outside, Tony Stark waits to discuss a secret plan to fight the Hulk.

The Hulk decides to go look for Rick and heads to the jailhouse. He crashes into the building and busts Rick free, in the process injuring General Ross. Betty Ross lambastes him for causing such harm and destruction. The Hulk grabs Betty and leaps into the distance. He makes it all the way to a desert lake where he tries to revive her from fainting. Shortly, he receives a concussive blast from a repulsor ray: Iron Man is there to stop him!

* * *

Book 4: "D Is For Dog"
22 pages + cover • February 2004

Iron Man and the Hulk wage a blistering battle across the desert panorama, but the Hulk winds up getting the edge, bashing Iron Man's armor to bits. In the process, he accidentally knocks out Betty Ross, causing her to bleed like the bunny rabbit he innocently killed. He picks her up and is determined to help "fix her", leaping off into the distance. Ross comes upon the inert body of Iron Man, more resolved than ever at finding out why the Hulk is interested in his daughter.

* * *

Book 5: "E Is For Elephant"
22 pages + cover • March 2004

Hulk busts into a gas station to get a first aid kit for Betty. He attends to her in his primitive way while she rests up in the nook of a rock formation. She tries to understand his interest in her, as well as lash out at him for being so destructive. She begs him to let her go, but he won't allow it; all he wants to do is protect her. Suddenly, from behind them, a helicopter gunship lifts up behind them, revealing General Ross ready to take out the Hulk.

* * *

Book 6: "F Is For Father"
22 pages + cover • April 2004

The Hulk reacts viciously and violently to Ross' provocation. He leaps up to the gunship and tears it apart, pulling Ross from inside and holding him in his grip. Ross bellows orders to his men to shoot, but they worry they will hit him with gunfire. Betty tells Hulk to put her father down, but the Hulk wants to hurt him. He is confused why Betty wants him to not hurt a man that always seems to hurt her. He tosses Ross aside and leaps away into the distance.

Banner arrives back on the base, wandering in on foot with Rick Jones. Ross and Betty are there, and Ross lets him have it for keeping such a low profile since his disappearance.

Banner and Doc Samson wrap up their conversation with Banner realizing that the only reason Betty ever loved him was that she was projecting her feelings for her father to Bruce Banner. This causes him to go into a rage and he turns into the Hulk. He leaps away from Samson's office and is alone in the desert. He pulls a picture of Betty from his pocket and sheds a tear, thinking that she loved him all those years for the wrong reasons.

-- synopsis by Gormuu


       
     

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