Charlie,
pursued by the Skinwalkers and hidden under the altar, prayed to God for help.
She was answered by Lycana, the god whose altar it is and given power…and when
Charlie comes back to her senses, she is surrounded by dead werewolves and her
hands are soaked in blood….
Meanwhile, Hulk
and Bruce Banner are being tortured by the Eldest and her minions, Hulk planted in the
ground and Bruce growing out like a tree trunk sprouting branches with hearts
hanging from it like fruit, which the demons are plucking off and eating.
Charlie is brought in to see if a threat to her will compel Banner to reveal
whose force is protecting him. Charlie is defiant so Eldest levitates her from
the ground and orders one of her flunkies to fetch Lycana’s skin for one to wear
while killing Charlie. Teelget is chosen to end Charlie’s life and he rips his
skin off, revealing Charlie’s abusive father, terrifying the girl. Bruce tells
her that a Skinwalker can take the form of anyone it has consumed and Charlie
finally realizes that she is not responsible for her father’s death. The flunky
returns to tell Eldest that Lycana’s skin is missing—because Lycana gave it to
Charlie who transforms into a winged werewolf and tears into the minions.
Eldest reacts to Teelget’s death by unleashing a bolt of energy that sets the
Hulk tree aflame. While Charlie is fighting Eldest who has assumed her giant monster
form, Hulk recovers and bashes Eldest over the head with a flaming tree. Eldest
tells Hulk he has broken the Pactum Aeternus and it will be the death of him.
Hulk responds, “Who’s going to do it? You?” and hits her again, square in the
head with both fists….
Bruce awakens
in a deserted shop with Charlie’s Captain America backpack beside him; he opens
it to find Charlie’s skin while we discover Charlie in her lycanthrope form is
out hunting. Meanwhile, Eldest’s threats echo in the darkness….
Excelsioring your collection
Story #2Foul-Weather Friends
Writer:
Greg Pak. Penciler/Inker:
Lan Medina. Colorist:
Romulo Fajardo. Letterer:
Cory Petit.
Synopsis
Camped in the
woods at night, Bruce Banner is suddenly attacked by living skeletons; he calls
out to the Hulk for help and he is answered by the arrival of Amadeus Cho,
former Totally Awesome Hulk, now known as Brawn. Amadeus clobbers the skeletons
and carries Bruce to safety while chattering in a friendly fashion. Bruce warns
him away, telling him the Hulk is no longer his friend, that Bruce and Hulk are
now enemies. A giant skeleton appears from beneath the ground, spearing both of
them with bones. Bruce transforms into Hulk and smashes the skeleton to bits.
Banner picks up the device which Amadeus uses to transform and fires an energy bolt
into Brawn’s chest, telling him that he (Bruce) is now a monster on the outside
as well as the inside. When Brawn recovers, he knows Bruce is not entirely a
monster for having left him alive and wants to assure Bruce he is still his
friend….
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Brawn (
Amadeus Cho).
Story #3Night Eternal
Writer:
Torunn Gronbeckk. Penciler/Inker:
Lynn Yoshii. Colorist:
Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. Letterer:
Cory Petit.
Synopsis
At
her law firm, Jennifer “She-Hulk” Walters is shown some heirlooms from the
Dawson family, items collected by their patriarch, explorer Harold Dawson,
which they say are cursed. Dawson’s instructions were to return the items to
Henunder after his death but no such place seems to exist so the box has been
kept for decades since the old man died but are now given to Jen. She picks up
a small gold medallion and is transported to an arctic waste where she is met
by a small child; Jen asks after the kid’s mom but the child doesn’t know what
that is and asks Jen if she has a mom. Jen recalls her mother’s death in an
auto accident and the child becomes aware of it as well. The child takes her to
the gateway out, which is now closed but Jen can see sailors from an earlier
period before her, led by Harold Dawson. When Jen mentions that Dawson is
technically her client, the child erupts in anger, transforming into a giant tentacled
creature putting images of her mother’s death into her mind. Jen calms the kid
down and learns that Dawson, heading back through the gate to his own world,
stole the small golden medallion, which was the sun of this world, Henunder.
The world turned dark and Dawson escaped, leaving his crew behind. Jen replaces
the sun and she and Dawson’s crew are returned to her office, resulting in some
confusion.
Story #4Prisons
Writer:
Benjamin Percy. Penciler/Inker:
Geoff Shaw. Colorist:
Bryan Valenza. Letterer:
Cory Petit.
Synopsis
A Russian
prison called “The Bear:” a cop brings in a hooded suspect. The cop reports
that he had broken into a police station and was going through the files and he
sounds American. The hood is taken off and the suspect gives his name as “Thunderbolt
Ross but you can call me Red Hulk!” Ross transforms and kills all the guards.
He then heads to a luxurious cell where he extracts the prisoner and takes him
out to the snowy wastes. He is Gustav Bulgar, arms dealer and terrorist who
shot down a transport plane full of American soldiers. To deescalate tensions
Russia imprisoned him but he was still conduction his business operations from “The
Bear.” And now that he has eliminated all witnesses, he executes Bulgar with a
gunshot to the head. Ross flies off in a helicopter but everything goes dark.
He awakens in a castle where he is welcomed by Doctor Doom….