Random Happenstance

We checked out #310 back in 2014 and #312 in 2015, but we're just getting around to #311 today! From 1985, Incredible Hulk #311, "Life is a Four-Letter Word!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Mike Mignola, inks by Gerry Talaoc.

When last we saw the Hulk, in a world accessed from the Crossroads nexus, the mostly-mindless savage Hulk had saved a girl from human sacrifice, only for her to turn on him and Bruce Banner ending up on the sacrificial altar! Bruce had been gone for about a year, buried in the Hulk, and greets this startling return with a hearty, weary shrug. The ongoing insanity of his life was old hat to him at this point, and he was getting mighty tired of it. Even his sudden rescue by a strange, Scottish-accented human is met with crushing ennui: Bruce feels like he's been saved just so his suffering can keep going.

The Scot was a Dr. DeCyst, an alchemist from over two centuries prior, who magically transported himself to this alien world, and started harvesting their blood for his immortality. But he was still aging, and thought the Hulk's blood might restore his youth. Bruce greets this story the same way you would hearing a joke for the fortieth time, but since DeCyst's plan would keep the Hulk alive as a blood donor, Bruce can't go along with it: he wants to die. Or, at least that's what he tells himself, but chased by DeCyst's skeleton troops, he turns into the Hulk again, his way of choosing life. As the Hulk goes to town on the troops, the "savage" alien that was going to sacrifice Bruce, breaks DeCyst's control long enough to kill him, freeing her people. Guided by the manifestations of his psyche, Glow, Goblin, and Guardian; the dissatisfied Hulk triggers the spell that returns him to the Crossroads. Which sets up the extra-dark next issue; considering a lot of this issue was Bruce's suicidal thoughts, that's saying something.