Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk #3

In "They Dwell in the Depths!", the Hulk is dragged into the hidden underground realm of Tyrannus, a once-mighty ruler now weakened by age and exile. With the Mole Man in control of the Fountain of Youth, Tyrannus offers the Hulk a chance to reclaim it—but only if he helps free his captured allies, including Rick, Betty, and Glenn. When Betty mentions Bruce Banner, the Hulk’s rage erupts, but it’s cut short by a sudden assault from the Mole Man’s fearsome Octo-Sapien robot.

In "The Stage Is Set!", the Secret Empire sends Boomerang to steal the Orion missile plans, setting off a high-stakes race as a new villain targets gamma base. With Rick, Betty, and Glenn just returned from the underground kingdom, Boomerang captures Betty, using her as leverage. Banner fights through chaos between the Mole Man and Tyrannus, desperate to reach the surface and save his friends—only when he becomes the Hulk does he accidentally discover the key to getting out.

In "Less than Monster, More than Man!", the Hulk finds himself caught between duty and suspicion when General Ross wrongly believes he’s taken Betty, sending gamma base’s full force after him. As the military hunt rages, the real threat emerges—Boomerang, exploiting the chaos to seize the Orion missile.

In "Rampage in the City!", the Hulk, searching for answers after discovering the gamma base abandoned, makes his way to New York City, hoping to reconnect with old allies in the Avengers—only to be met with gunfire from the police. Meanwhile, Rick, a new driver for a shadowy stranger, takes a ride into the city with a cryptic warning: don’t look in the trunk.

In "The Missile and the Monster!", when General Ross tests the new Orion missile, a foreign spy named Gorki hijacks its trajectory using a device hidden in a car Rick Jones is driving to New York. As the missile hurtles toward the city, the Hulk intercepts it—only to be caught off guard and transformed back into Bruce Banner just as he’s about to stop the threat.

In "The Birth of... the Hulk-Killer!", Bruce Banner finds himself in a desperate race against time as he struggles to redirect the Orion missile hurtling toward New York City—just before his transformation into the Hulk. With General Ross convinced the Hulk is behind the attack, he unleashes the Leader’s most advanced humanoid robot, while Boomerang, now armed with upgraded weapons, prepares to confront the jade giant.

In "The Humanoid and the Hero!", the Hulk faces off against the Leader's deadly Hulk-Killer Humanoid, a mechanical menace built to destroy him. As the battle rages, General Ross and his team uncover the shocking truth behind their own misguided mission—sending the android was based on a terrible miscalculation. Meanwhile, Boomerang dons a fresh new look, hinting at a shift in his role.

In "Boomerang and the Brute!", the Hulk finds himself at a crossroads when the President offers a pardon if the threat he poses is truly over—only for the cunning Boomerang to exploit the moment, reigniting the Hulk’s rage and plunging the city into chaos once more. With the military still wary and the hero’s fate hanging in the balance, the Hulk must face off against the ever-underrated Boomerang in a clash of brute strength and cunning.

In "... Then, There Shall Come a Stranger!", an otherworldly figure known only as the Stranger descends upon Earth with a chilling directive: to turn the Hulk into an instrument of human extinction. As tensions escalate between General Ross and the Hulk, Betty pleads for reason while Major Talbot’s rage grows, stoked by jealousy and a thirst for vengeance.

In "The Abomination!", the Hulk runs rampant after the Stranger abandons him, leaving destruction in his wake. When Banner, overwhelmed, attempts to end his own life with a gamma blast, the device is seized by a foreign spy—transformed into the monstrous Abomination. Now more powerful than the Hulk, the Abomination defeats him and takes Betty hostage, vanishing into the shadows.

In "Whosoever Harms the Hulk...!", General Ross and his team attempt to revive the Hulk after his brutal clash with the Abomination. As the Hulk nears death, Rick Jones' desperate plea brings him back to Bruce Banner, who uses his intellect to lure the Abomination back to Gamma Base with Betty in tow. The two titans clash once more in a furious battle that shakes the facility. From a distant galaxy, the Stranger watches, then intervenes—choosing the Abomination over the Hulk and teleporting him away, abruptly ending the fight.

In "Turning Point!", Betty mourns the loss of Bruce, unaware he's hiding in plain sight, disguised and tormented by his own dual nature. When the strain becomes too much, he transforms into the Hulk, bursting through the hotel wall in a desperate bid to escape—only to leap at what he thinks is a flying saucer, crashing down on the Silver Surfer instead.

In "He Who Strikes the Silver Surfer," the Hulk, convinced the Silver Surfer is an alien threat, charges into battle with the only being on Earth he can't overpower. The Surfer, unimpressed, subdues him and, sensing the pain of gamma radiation, attempts to heal Bruce Banner—only for Hulk to awaken and attack again, mistaking the gesture for an assault. Now more determined than ever, Hulk vows to track down the Surfer and force him to take him beyond Earth.

In "... To the Beckoning Stars!", the High Evolutionary faces a dire threat on Wundagore II as his New Men descend into primal chaos. Desperate, he captures the Hulk, hoping the gamma-powered giant might be the key to reclaiming control over his unraveling experiment.

In "A World He Never Made!", the Hulk, transformed into Bruce Banner during transport to Wundagore II, is brought before the High Evolutionary, who seeks the Hulk’s power to fight his monstrous New Men. Though disappointed by the sight of a mere human, the Evolutionary sees potential and decides to evolve Banner a million years into humanity’s future—ushering him into a world he never made, and never could have imagined.

In "What Have I Created?", Bruce Banner finds himself at the mercy of the High Evolutionary, who attempts to force his transformation into a weaponized Hulk. When the New Men intervene, Banner unleashes the Hulk, leading to a brutal clash that tests both his rage and his humanity. As the Evolutionary faces his own end, he makes a desperate choice—evolving himself into a being beyond time and form, undoing his creations in a final act of transcendence. Back on Earth, the Hulk awakens with no memory of the ordeal, still wrestling with the weight of his existence.

In "The Legions of: The Living Lightning," the Hulk, after rescuing a downed pilot, is captured and manipulated by the extremist militia known as the Living Lightning. Trapped in a web of mind control, he becomes a weapon against the very forces he once sought to protect.

In "The Puppet and the Power!", the Hulk, manipulated by the Living Lightning's mind control, turns on his longtime enemy General Ross, launching a furious assault. While the military scrambles to contain the rampaging giant, the enigmatic Lord of the Living Lightning seizes control of Thunderbolt's base, trapping the unconscious Hulk and Betty Ross together in a cell. With Ross forced to obey the puppet master’s demands, the fate of both prisoner and commander hangs in the balance.

When the Monster Wakes! finds the Hulk and Talbot racing against time to reclaim a military base overtaken by the Living Lightning and his storm-powered forces, as a deadly missile barrage threatens to engulf the surrounding area. With the fate of the base—and everyone in it—hanging in the balance, the Hulk must confront his electrified adversary in a brutal clash of strength and will.

In "Let There Be Battle!", Namor seeks an unlikely ally in his war against the surface world—turning to the Hulk, only to find his old enemy already under the Puppet Master’s control. With the Hulk mindlessly driven to battle, Namor must confront both his ancient foe and the unseen hand manipulating him.

In "Where Walk the Immortals!", the Hulk is dragged to Asgard by Loki, forced to battle the might of the realm’s defenders. Though the Warriors Three initially fight him with fury, a flicker of reason reveals the truth: the Hulk is no true enemy, and they choose not to strike him down. Enraged by their defiance, Loki casts the jade giant into a bottomless pit, leaving his fate uncertain.

In "--This World Not His Own!," Bruce Banner finds himself falling through a bottomless pit back to Midgard when the Enchantress pulls him from the abyss. With the help of the Warriors Three and Oldar the Oracle, Banner learns the truth behind the Hulk’s origins, only to transform mid-quest and draw the ire of the Executioner, who’s fought the Hulk before. As the villainous duo unleash an army of trolls upon Asgard, the Hulk arrives in time to turn the tide, proving his worth—yet even his heroism isn’t enough to earn the favor of Odin, who sends him back to Earth, still a stranger in a world not his own.