The Hulk is furious, rampaging a city on the southern coast of Europe. He wants to go home, so he plummets into the sea to swim back to the US. A Russian destroyer ship sees him, and tries to kill him! But the Hulk sinks it, causing a tidal wave that reaches the shore, causing destruction.
After crossing the Mediterranean, Hulk finds himself in the Sahara Desert witnessing a movie production scene. Mistaking a staged attack for the real thing, the Hulk intervenes and the director of the movie convinces the Hulk to star in his movie. During the first scene, the Hulk transforms back into Bruce Banner, ruining the director hopes of filming the Hulk.
Bruce Banner eventually hangs around the movie set and comes across what he thinks are several statues of old Egyptian gods. But when the statues start moving, Banner realizes they are for real!
The beings stun Bruce and teleport him away to their spaceship in orbit where they probe his mind for information, discovering about his connection to the Hulk (flashback retelling the Hulk's origins).
At this point, they explain to Banner that they are part of a civilized alien race that abandoned interplanetary war long ago. In its place, they constructed a process of gladiatorial games for opposing factions to settle disputes. Each side picks a champion and whoever's champion wins the contest, wins the argument between their two worlds.
They also explain that thousands of years ago, they planted the seeds to two such champions in the Sahara desert which are now finally mature enough to face off. When all but one of the aliens leave to view the contest from the judgment room, the one called Qebehsenuf stays behind to monitor the games using a helmet that allows him to see the battlefield.
Believing that the contest could decimate the Earth, Banner grabs Qebehsunef's weapon and turns it on him. He then places the monitor helmet over his own head to find a way of stopping the contest. Through the helmet, he sees one of the contestants rise from the sands, the Colossus, which resembled the statue at Rhodes of the same name. Realizing he is too late to stop the Colossus from animating, he seeks out the second combatant and realizes that is in fact the legendary Sphinx statue.
Banner sees it beginning to come to life. Using the helmet and his strength of will, he is able to nullify the combatant's life force, returning it to the state of being a mere statue of historical legend. The other aliens discover what Banner has done and are about to punish him when the stress from using the helmet triggers the transformation into the Hulk!
Discovering himself on a spaceship, the Hulk attacks the aliens who are quick to transport him back down below before he destroys their vehicle.
Once on the surface, the Colossus confronts the Hulk as if he were the second combatant it was meant to face. The Colossus attacks the Hulk but he easily defeats his big opponent by breaking it into tiny self animated pieces that continue to fight even when broken in two.
Also in this story: Thunderbolt Ross, Betty Ross, Glenn Talbot; in flashbacks, Igor Starsky (named Igor Drenkov), Rick Jones.
The Hulk opens a fissure on the ground and knocks the still-struggling pieces into the fissure, burying them for all time.