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Quote1 Whatever... if I can get the Hulk's strength and Banner's genius at my beck and call -- Superman will be doomed! Quote2
Lex Luthor

Appearing in "Double Lives"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Races and Species:

  • Humans (Main story and flashback)
  • Asgardians (First appearance chronologically; on-screen)
  • Kryptonians (Main story and flashback)
  • Birds (Only in flashback)
    • Chickens (Corpse, skeleton or other remains) (Only in flashback)
    • Ducks (Toy) (Only in flashback)
    • Vultures (Only in flashback)
  • Lions (First appearance; recap)
  • Monkeys (First appearance; recap)
  • Astrans (First appearance; recap)
  • Toad Men (Mentioned) (Only in flashback)
  • Robots (Only in flashback)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Synopsis for "Double Lives"

In her apartment, Lois Lane is watching a news broadcast about the Hulk. her husband, Superman, comes home through the window, and tells her about his eventful day. Superman remembers is first encounter with Bruce Banner, and says he wishes he could've done more for the man. He realizes how similar he and Bruce are, and he begins to recount his first encounter with the Hulk to Lois.

In his secret cave, Bruce wakes up from a nightmare, and Rick Jones runs in and tells hi it's alright. Bruce suddenly turns into the Hulk, and lumbers out of the cave into the sunlight. Despite Rick's pleading, Hulk leaps away. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is interviewing a Professor Carson at a university. Carson shows Kent that one of his machines is picking up tremors across Southern Mexico and towards Arizona. The machine shuts down, and Clark leaves and changes into Superman, racing to Arizona. In Arizona, several people are having a cookout at a general store, when the Hulk lands, in search of food. Hulk raids the place and begins eating, but looks up to see Superman looking down on him from a large rock. Superman recognizes Hulk, but he doesn't recognize Superman. Superman jumps down to face Hulk, trying to talk, but Hulk, unprovoked, attacks him. Superman dodges the Hulk's blow, but Hulk throws him through the store. Superman quickly recovers, and flies up and wraps his arms around Hulk. Hulk breaks free of his hold, and knocks him into orbit. Superman flies back down to the store, and finds all the civilians recovering, and the Hulk is nowhere to be found. He returns to the Daily Planet, and changes back into Clark Kent. Perry White assigns Lois to the Hulk story, despite Clark's complaining. Clark opts to interview Dr. Bruce Banner about the seismic tremors, and Perry gives him the ok. Clark flies to New Mexico as Superman, while Lois interviews a sheriff in New Mexico about the Hulk. She interviews several more people, and then leaves in search of more people. Elsewhere, Rick Jones uses a machine created by Bruce Banner to create a hologram of Hulk, to lure the real Hulk to him. Hulk finds that Rick tricked him, and he attacks Rick, but Rick tosses a tranquilizer in his mouth, tranquilizing him and making him revert back to Bruce Banner. Rick gives Bruce a change of clothes and drives him back to the military base he's supposed to be at, just as Clark shows up. Clark introduces himself, and they begin talking but Bruce is suddenly accosted by General Ross, who asks where Bruce has been. The three are then approached by another major player who has shown up at the base, as well as a familiar face to Clark, Lex Luthor. Lex leaves with Bruce, and Clark wonders what Lex is up to.

Elsewhere, at a biker bar, Rick Jones is getting a meal when he is approached by Lois, who tries to ask him some questions about the Hulk. Not wanting to give Bruce up, Rick drives away, to the annoyance of Lois. She turns to see Superman ordering an ice cream float at the window, and she asks him what he's doing there. He explains that he's there getting a line on the Hulk, since he ran into Clark Kent down the road (Lois doesn't know Clark is Superman at this time). Lois tries to ask what's going on, but Superman flies off, back to the base. At the base, Bruce and Lex are talking inside. Bruce is showing Lex the cannon he made to repel the Toad Men's invasion, and Lex marvels at Bruce's genius. He starts to offer Bruce a job, but Bruce excuses himself to answer a phone call from Rick, who tells him that Lois was asking questions about the Hulk. Bruce runs out of his building, and runs into Clark, and the two bump into each other. Bruce asks where General Ross and Betty Ross went. Clark says they were with Lex, but that the three went their separate ways. Meanwhile, one of Lex's henchmen gives him photos taken of the controls of Bruce's cannon. Lex reveals that he plots to use Bruce's genius and Hulk's strength against Superman. Clark interviews Bruce in the lab, and he asks about the Hulk. Bruce dodges the questions, and Clark brings up Hulk's recent fight with Superman. Bruce begins to get stressed, and he makes a hasty excuse about a migraine, and asks if they can dot his another time. Clark leaves, and Bruce calms down. That night, Lex, General Ross and Betty watch old films of the army's encounters with Hulk. They are unaware that they're being watched by Lois, who decides to interview Betty and tell her to stay away from Luthor. The next day, Lois tracks Betty down, and interviews her. They drive in Lois' car, and she tells Betty to stay away from Lex, and explains how evil of a man he is. Suddenly, a small whirlwind kicks up front in front of the car, and the two women are shocked to see what emerges from the wind, the Hulk. Meanwhile, Clark interviews Bruce at the base again, over coffee. They talk about Bruce's experiments, specifically his gamma bomb, but Clark gets a call on his cell phone from Lois, who tells him that the Hulk showed up, flattened her rental car, and kidnapped Betty Ross. Clark tells Bruce, and the two rush off in separate directions. Bruce leave with Rick, and Clark changes into Superman. Superman lands at the site where Lois' car was wrecked, and Lois asks him if he can stop Hulk. He says he intends to try, and he leaves, following Hulk's heat trail with his x-ray vision.

Meanwhile, in Rick's car, Bruce's anger over the situation causes him to become the Hulk, and he jumps out of Rick's car, exclaiming that no one passes themselves off as him and gets away with it. As Hulk bounds through the desert, Luthor's scanners pick up Hulk, and they prepare to reel him in. Hulk lands atop one of the canyons and finds an unconscious Betty, who is with another Hulk. The other Hulk refuses to give up Betty, and Hulk attacks him. Hulk tears the fake Hulk apart, and the other Hulk breaks into parts, apparently having been a robot. Just then, Superman arrives, and, finding the real Hulk with betty, can only assume that the real Hulk did in fact kidnap Betty. Superman plows into Hulk, knocking the brute through a mountain. He grabs Hulk by the foot, and throws him into a cactus, and he bounces between several of them. Superman tends to betty, and finds one of the robot's limbs, and realizes his mistake. A medical helicopter lands near Tim and collects Betty, and Superman leaves to apologize to Hulk. Superman finds the jade giant and tries to talk to him, but Hulk uses his incredible breath and blows several quills from the cacti into him. Superman and Hulk's right takes them close to the base, where Ross' men are ready to attack. The military pens fire on the pair, but this does little to stop them. The two crash into a missile truck, and Hulk's begins throwing the missiles at Superman. He avoids them, and punches Hulk into another truck. Luthor drives up in his limo, and, despite Ross' orders, doesn't leave, and tells Ross to use the game cannon against Hulk. Superman lands on a pile of rubble that the Hulk is under, but the monster punches out of the rock and knocks Superman off. The military fires the cannon, and it causes great pain to both of them. Superman uses his last ounce of strength to throw the Hulk free, and he flies out of the blast. The operator tries to shut down the cannon, bur Luthor tells him not to, and Ross tries to stop him. Hulk crashes into the cannon and destroys it, and everyone runs out. Superman lands, and stops Luthor and his henchman from escaping. Hulk escapes, and unobserved, changes back into Bruce Banner and finds Rick, and he changes back into some good clothes. Superman tells Lois all about what happened, including the robot, and Lex leaves in a fury. Betty tells General Ross that the Hulk wasn't responsible for what happened, but he blows her off. Back at the Daily Planet, Lois gloats to Clark ever her victory of getting her Superman vs. Hulk story on the front page.

In the present, Superman and Lois recall how surprised they were when the news came out that Bruce Banner and the Hulk were one and the same. They remember how Bruce and Betty got married, and how it all ended in tragedy when Betty died. Superman broods, wondering where Bruce is now. On a street corner somewhere, Bruce watches the same Hulk broadcast that Superman and Lois are watching. Saddened when the broadcast recalls Betty's death, Bruce walks off into the rainy night.

Solicit Synopsis

  • It's the first-ever book-length battle that the fans demanded as the most powerful icons in all of comicdom take each other on in all-out war!

Notes

Continuity Notes[]

  • This version of Hulk originally first met, and fought, Superman in Marvel Treasury Edition Vol 1 28, and in that encounter, Superman appeared to be much stronger than Hulk. However, their first meeting was apparently retconned, as of this issue.

See Also

Links and References

References

Marvel DC Crossovers
Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man Superman and Spider-Man Batman vs The Incredible Hulk Marvel and DC Present featuring The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans Batman and Punisher: Lake of Fire
Punisher / Batman: Deadly Knights Darkseid vs Galactus: The Hunger Spider-Man and Batman Green Lantern / Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances DC Versus Marvel
All Access Silver Surfer / Superman Batman and Captain America Daredevil / Batman Batman and Spider-Man
Unlimited Access Superman / Fantastic Four The Incredible Hulk vs Superman Batman / Daredevil: King of New York Avengers/JLA


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