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The Coming of the Hulk
Series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Release Date September 23, 2010 (Online)
October 11, 2010 (Television)
Episode Number M 02
Writer Kevin Burke
Chris Wyatt
Director Sebastian Montes
19 images

Ruthlessly pursued by the military, Bruce Banner makes his way to Las Vegas in search of one man, one who escaped from a prison where they did experiments that may help Bruce. But this man is only interested in one thing, making Bruce angry. He won't like him when he's angry.

Story[]

A man walks over a lizard while wandering down a road through the desert. He carries a large backpack and a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes to hide his face.

Bruce comes to civilization.

As a car passes him he looks up to see that he is entering Wonderful Las Vegas, Nevada. He looks around and then pulls his sweater hood over his head before entering the city.

The man wanders through a group of tourists. They all look at the sights while some take pictures. The man continues to look down.

On the run again

As he walks down the street he sees a police car driving by. He looks scared and tries to hide his face. The cop sees the man, turns on his siren, and stops the car behind him. The man sighs and runs as the cop gets out of the car. The cop then begins to follow.

The cop begins to chase the man through the crowds of people, who don't even bother to look at them. The man knocks down a trash can forcing the cop to jump over it.

Ignoring the locals

He runs past a man who tries to hand them fliers for prostitutes, and the cop knocks the fliers out of his hands.

A taxi stops in the road as the man runs towards him. The man slides across the hood and away. The car begins to pull forward again when the cop comes up and has to run around it.

The cop runs past an alley. He speaks into a walkie-talkie trying to give the man's directions. However, the man is hiding behind a dumpster.

Getting worked up

He looks up and his eyes are glowing green. His eyes quickly return to normal and he grabs his head. He tells himself to breathe and calm down then relaxes.

Just then the man hears a loud rumbling. He stands and looks to see a large, heavy vehicle driving down the street. He gets scared and runs the other way down the alley.

The army arrives

The vehicle passes by showgirls at the Mesa Hotel. Armored men stand atop the thing with large guns.

A man leaning on a taxi and another on a nearby bench look in shock as three of the tanks followed by a large carrier drive down the street.

Inside the large vehicle, a general asks a soldier to report. The soldier states that the police found a man fitting their description but lost him. The general is then sure that the Hulk is in Vegas. He tells the solider to radio Doc Samson at the Cube to ready a containment cell.

A monster looking for a monster

The soldier then asks General Ross why Dr. Bruce Banner, the man running, would come to Vegas. He notes that Banner has stayed away from populated places for months, including leaving the country. Ross tells him that he doesn't care why until after he's locked up.

Bruce sits in a doorway furiously typing on a laptop. He hears a police siren and stops to look around. He goes back to his computer where he's looking up information on the desert, the Cube, Leader, and Abomination. He then pulls up the information on Carl Creel.

Found a great wifi hot spot

He then minimizes the data to see that his laptop is pointing him to a location in the desert. He closes his laptop and puts it away. He looks around and runs away.

Later Bruce walks up to the Vital Sign Diner out in the desert. He enters causing the bell over the door to ring. He looks around taking off his hood and spots Creel at the counter eating soup.

Just doing her job

Bruce sits down next to him and takes off his hat. The waitress walks up and asks for his order. Bruce orders a coffee and tells her to make sure it's decaf not regular. As she walks away he then looks over at Creel still eating his soup.

Creel could lift Bruce with one arm

He tries to get Creel's attention, but the man just continues to eat his soup. Bruce tells him that he's been trying to find him for weeks, and knows S.H.I.E.L.D. has been too. He tells Creel that he's not with S.H.I.E.L.D., that he's just there to help, and introduces himself.

Creel then asks how Bruce was able to find him but not the government group. The waitress walks by and hands Bruce his coffee. Bruce tells him he's an expert in gamma radiation and that Creel is emitting it.

Already quite the enemies list

Bruce goes on to say that he knows about Creel's record, that he was held in the Cube, a prison specializing in holding those exposed to radiation, and escaped. Bruce thinks to the captured Abomination, Leader, Zzzax, Radioactive Man, and the U-Foes comprised of Ironclad, Vapor, Vector, X-Ray. He laments that radiation turned men into dangerous monsters.

He asks Creel to tell him whatever he knows about the gamma experiments going on in the Cube. Bruce is afraid that S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to turn the people into weapons rather than cure them. Creel continues eating his soup and suddenly stops.

Last bit of humanity

Creel holds up his spoon and stares into the reflection. He notes that Bruce never asked him out he got out. Then, starting with the hand holding the spoon, his entire body becomes the same metal as the spoon.

David and Goliath

Creel, revealed to be the Absorbing Man, stands and towers over Bruce. Bruce tries to say that Creel is sick and needs help. But Creel simply smiles and reaches out to Bruce. Absorbing Man laughs as he throws Bruce out the door of the diner.

Absorbing Man strolls out of the diner towards Bruce, who is struggling with himself in the middle of the road. He walks to the road, with the Las Vegas cityscape off in the distance. He states that he knows exactly who Bruce is and has been looking forward to killing him for some time.

Just made him angry

Just then Bruce looks up, his eyes having gone completely green. Deep inside Bruce's brain, something triggers. Suddenly Bruce is jolted forward as his body greatly expands. His arm rips his shirt apart as it grows then slams into the ground. His skin goes green as his voice deepens. Bruce's pants rip and his shoes are torn apart. He flexes his back and his shirt is torn to shreds. He opens his eyes and growls.

New David and new Goliath

Absorbing Man looks up as a shadow looms over him. He smiles at the Hulk towering over him. Hulk leans over and lets out a mighty roar.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Quotes[]

"Suspect, on foot. Heading west on..."

-Cop, first line of episode

"Breathe...calm down."

-Bruce Banner, first line

"Report soldier."
"Local police report that a man fitting the description was sighted. They pursued, but lost him."
"It's him. The Hulk is in Vegas."

-Thaddeus Ross and Soldier, first lines

"But General Ross, sir, why would Dr. Banner come here? He's stayed away from populated places for months now. He stayed out of the country. Why come back now."
"Right now, I don't know and I don't care. We can get all the answers we want when he's locked away."

-Soldier and Thaddeus Ross

"Mr. Creel? Carl "Crusher" Creel? I've been trying to find you for weeks. And I know S.H.I.E.L.D. has been looking for you too, but I-I'm not with them. I'm here to help you. I'm a friend. My name is Bruce."
"And how do you find me when S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't? Bruce."
"Cause you're emitting gamma radiation, Mr. Creel. I know more about gamma radiation than them. I guess you could say I'm an expert on the subject."

-Bruce Banner and Absorbing Man, first line

"The Cube is a supervillain prison, specializing in subjects that have been exposed to radiation, which created monsters from men. Dangerous abominations."

-Bruce Banner

"It's funny. You never asked me how I escaped."

-Absorbing Man

"Ah. Creel. You're sick. Let me help."

-Bruce Banner

"One more thing, I know exactly who you are, Bruce. And I've been looking forward to taking you down for a long time."

-Absorbing Man, last line of episode

Trivia[]

  • Bruce gets worked up after running. The same happened in The Incredible Hulk, which explained that he transforms due to his heart rate.
A tribute to Bill Bixby

Goofs[]

  • The rock formations seen around Las Vegas are not seen anywhere near Vegas. The Vegas desert is quite flat with mountains, not like the ones shown, off in the distance. In "Hulk Versus the World (Micro-Episode)", they claim to be in Monument Valley, which does feature such formations. But that is a three-hour drive away and no where near Vegas.
A trusting cop
  • When Bruce Banner takes off, the cop leaves the car there and doesn't even bother to close the door. An incredibly stupid move considering that he has no partner to watch the car or call the situation in.
  • Since a spoon is curved, looking at your reflection would distort the image. Crusher Creel's image is a perfect, non-distorted reflection.
  • Absorbing Man absorbs the properties of his spoon to fight Hulk. The metals used to make a spoon, especially one for a cheap diner, would be too soft to handle any stress, let alone for fighting Hulk. After all, any normal person can bend a spoon.

Continuity[]

Three introductions, one stone

Background[]

The micro-episode first aired online on September 23, 2010. It would not debut on television until October 11, 2010.

This episode along with the other micro-episodes "Hulk Versus the World (Micro-Episode)", "This Monster, This Hero", and "Beware the Widow's Bite" combined to become the season one episode "Hulk Versus the World".

Odd that they would go with a gamma-based origin given that the series does include Loki and the Asgardians

In the comics, Carl Creel became the Absorbing Man when he drank a liquid that the Asgardian god Loki laced with rare Asgardian ingredients. Here, he is apparently just another gamma-based villain. Additionally, in the comics he is typically an enemy of Thor. Ironically, Rick D. Wasserman, who voices Absorbing Man, also voices Thor.

Video[]

The Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes!, Micro-Episode 2

External Links[]

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