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scans_dailyOn the one side, you've got the Red Hulk, Thunderbolt Ross: formerly a four-star general in the Air Force hunting the Hulk, currently a dead man turned Rulk being hunted.
On the other, the technomorphic transhuman Zero/One, Dr. Parul Kurinji: once working for the shady super-scientific Omnisapient Systems, now for the future's betterment.
They're a natural protagonist/antagonist pair, opposites that they are; one's raw power and just-in-time tactics, the other's refactored intelligence and long-term strategies. Until this month's Hulk #40, they hadn't yet had a direct confrontation, Zero/One only sending her attack augment Black Fog time and again in bids to eliminate him.
Rulk, who'd already been hammered from New York to Vermont's Victory State Forest in the issue before that by the Worthy Ben Grimm, swung back; the Omegex's tractor beam carried him along to KA-SHOOM! in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.
A clash of titans thundered in the streets, merely making rubble, and was interrupted by the Black Fog's definitely sharp swords futilely impaling Omegex from behind. For now, it seemed, he'd arrived to exterminate a greater threat to the future.
The two monsters went at it again, the murderous wraith 'porting and slicing, when a rain of missiles courtesy of a very discretionary Air Force budget let fall payloads of "self-constructing infantry" units which promptly set to work on the wreckage.
When Rulk's own Hulkbuster (and Ross's former ally) General Fortean arrived piloting his upgraded Redeemer armor, the two-on-one turned into a three-way, bleeding-edge weapons brought to bear on everything monstrous in sight.
And on the sidelines, Rulk's LMD companion Annie and Uravo the Watcher (colleague to Uatu) exposited on the Omegex's nature as a superweapon of a long-gone civilization, rebuilding itself per genocide, at each iteration targetting the species of the first lifeform it senses.
Uravo's come because Uatu, in observing its latest birth, exposed it to imprints that Rulk's fists left; she believes (and it's implied) that her colleague "[exploited] a loophole" to take his vengeance, so she's come to give warning.
Annie, though, can't do anything with that knowledge to save anyone.. until Zero/One drops in on their time-shifted selves, having refined her technology following #38's meeting of the minds with fellow big brain MODOK Superior.
(I have to admit, her bindi concealing a neurological connector cable is better than a head-laser, at least for someone like her.)
She joins their conversation, explaining that she's sent the Black Fog to prevent the termination of her recent thought experiment, inspired by a question MODOK posed her- if she's such a champion of brains, why does she keep so much meatsack brawn around?
More importantly, she's thinking, does Rulk really threaten her future just by virtue of his existence? Is it logical to destroy the force that created you, because it is your perceived opposite?
Annie's response to this pontificating, as Boston BOOOMs and BLAAAMs with ZZRSHs and ZZAKTs, is entirely practical:
(Yes, the military and the space monster are ganging up on the Red Hulk. It's amazing the alliances in the heat of battle common enemies can make, isn't it?)
It's interesting that Zero/One sees data in Rulk's actions, but not in Rulk himself; I suppose it makes sense that she just doesn't think the rampaging monster is worth taking the time to listen to, especially for someone with her state of mind.
(And yes, Zero/One is doing the same thing to time the Watcher there is. She's a very transcendent technomorph, she is, though not very morally ambiguous. Of course, she doesn't try to work from a recognizable set of morals to start with.. she's got dead people wired up to move stuff around in her base, after all.)
Annie brings her around, though, with an appeal that suggests a good understanding of the human mind for a fake one:
And so she shifts Rulk out of sync; with him gone, Fortean and his rockmen set themselves against the Omegex. Black Fog leaps into the fray, and Annie brings her big red friend up to speed.
She suggests that he use his enervation abilities to drain its power, but he rebuffs that; he knows MODOK the original rigged that so that its usage would prevent turning back into Thunderbolt Ross, as a double-cross, and he'd like to keep his humanity.
Zero/One, who doesn't see sense in trying to preserve the past, demands explanation.
She opens, though, with an unexpected declaration. It's an interesting one that makes me wonder if Parker's not intending to use the character after the Omegex saga's come to a stop, but it's also one that could easily be worked around for reuse.
It's a nice bit of growth, at any rate, which she underlines with that "frail human" bit. She can't see why Rulk would even want to be able to roll himself back.
So Rulk tells her:
("Friend"'s not sarcastic; Fortean's been retconned in as one of Ross's subordinates during his Hulk-hunting days, to the point that he was there during "Ross jacks into Zzzax's brain to use it to take down Hulk". It's a well-done retcon, especially since it's the motivation for his Rulkbusting: he believes the cover story that Thunderbolt Ross was killed by Rulk, and has been using all his resources to seek vengeance.)
She can't follow him, I think, because he's coming at her from an entirely different standpoint; he sought power to surmount a great obsession, and regrets what he had to pay for it, while she was a scientist who suffered an accidental ascension and sees no problem in continuing to improve herself beyond humanity.
(I love how she recognizes the bombs in his head, without offering to do anything to remove them; it's possible that she can't, or that she doesn't want to, but noting their life-threatening existence without doing anything else's a nice way to show that she's moved beyond her "human stage".)
So while the Omegex crushes Fortean's infantry, she uses her new temporal technology to call up images of the past (it's kind of an extension of this neat hologram trick she had going), both hers and his in order to better understand him.
" Here. " she says, taking him back to the MODOK-caused technozombie attack of #26.
" This is the point of differentiation for me, facilitated by you. "
She's called up his past, him making the deal that he did to become the smart guys' catspaw he ultimately was for Loeb's run, to pose him a sort of question: "You have all the abilities you had before, and now the power of a Hulk. How is this state not preferable to that?"
She continues with his daughter Betty's transformation into the Red She-Hulk, maybe to present him another case of someone for whom the transformation was advantageous:
(Yes, the fervent military man and the scarred techno-organic terror have teamed up against the space monster. Heat of battle, yo.)
Unfortunately, she's forgotten that she's dealing with a Hulk, one that's never had any patience for logosophic blue-skying like this. He's already told her as much as he wants to, already dealt with all of that, and now he wants to smash the spaceman:
And so their little dialogue ends, with Zero/One no closer to understanding him than she was before. Had she a little more humanity left, "Logic prevails." would perhaps sound a bit sarcastic.
Of course, it did: something needs to bring down the Omegex, and if a bit of humanity is what'll get him to do it, then maybe it isn't something to be easily cast aside.
It's certainly a great motivator:
Just a shame it isn't enough to take down the Omegex, who as a feared and inexorable destroyer of species can naturally respond rather debilitatingly to touch attacks like that.
Now there's a way to cap it: neither the tricky, augmented terror nor the direct and musclebound smasher are able to pull it off on their own..
(I'm definitely looking forward to see how it's done, and hoping it doesn't involve Uatu showing up all contrite.)
On the other, the technomorphic transhuman Zero/One, Dr. Parul Kurinji: once working for the shady super-scientific Omnisapient Systems, now for the future's betterment.
They're a natural protagonist/antagonist pair, opposites that they are; one's raw power and just-in-time tactics, the other's refactored intelligence and long-term strategies. Until this month's Hulk #40, they hadn't yet had a direct confrontation, Zero/One only sending her attack augment Black Fog time and again in bids to eliminate him.
Rulk, who'd already been hammered from New York to Vermont's Victory State Forest in the issue before that by the Worthy Ben Grimm, swung back; the Omegex's tractor beam carried him along to KA-SHOOM! in downtown Boston, Massachusetts.
A clash of titans thundered in the streets, merely making rubble, and was interrupted by the Black Fog's definitely sharp swords futilely impaling Omegex from behind. For now, it seemed, he'd arrived to exterminate a greater threat to the future.
The two monsters went at it again, the murderous wraith 'porting and slicing, when a rain of missiles courtesy of a very discretionary Air Force budget let fall payloads of "self-constructing infantry" units which promptly set to work on the wreckage.
When Rulk's own Hulkbuster (and Ross's former ally) General Fortean arrived piloting his upgraded Redeemer armor, the two-on-one turned into a three-way, bleeding-edge weapons brought to bear on everything monstrous in sight.
And on the sidelines, Rulk's LMD companion Annie and Uravo the Watcher (colleague to Uatu) exposited on the Omegex's nature as a superweapon of a long-gone civilization, rebuilding itself per genocide, at each iteration targetting the species of the first lifeform it senses.
Uravo's come because Uatu, in observing its latest birth, exposed it to imprints that Rulk's fists left; she believes (and it's implied) that her colleague "[exploited] a loophole" to take his vengeance, so she's come to give warning.
Annie, though, can't do anything with that knowledge to save anyone.. until Zero/One drops in on their time-shifted selves, having refined her technology following #38's meeting of the minds with fellow big brain MODOK Superior.
(I have to admit, her bindi concealing a neurological connector cable is better than a head-laser, at least for someone like her.)
She joins their conversation, explaining that she's sent the Black Fog to prevent the termination of her recent thought experiment, inspired by a question MODOK posed her- if she's such a champion of brains, why does she keep so much meatsack brawn around?
More importantly, she's thinking, does Rulk really threaten her future just by virtue of his existence? Is it logical to destroy the force that created you, because it is your perceived opposite?
Annie's response to this pontificating, as Boston BOOOMs and BLAAAMs with ZZRSHs and ZZAKTs, is entirely practical:
(Yes, the military and the space monster are ganging up on the Red Hulk. It's amazing the alliances in the heat of battle common enemies can make, isn't it?)
It's interesting that Zero/One sees data in Rulk's actions, but not in Rulk himself; I suppose it makes sense that she just doesn't think the rampaging monster is worth taking the time to listen to, especially for someone with her state of mind.
(And yes, Zero/One is doing the same thing to time the Watcher there is. She's a very transcendent technomorph, she is, though not very morally ambiguous. Of course, she doesn't try to work from a recognizable set of morals to start with.. she's got dead people wired up to move stuff around in her base, after all.)
Annie brings her around, though, with an appeal that suggests a good understanding of the human mind for a fake one:
And so she shifts Rulk out of sync; with him gone, Fortean and his rockmen set themselves against the Omegex. Black Fog leaps into the fray, and Annie brings her big red friend up to speed.
She suggests that he use his enervation abilities to drain its power, but he rebuffs that; he knows MODOK the original rigged that so that its usage would prevent turning back into Thunderbolt Ross, as a double-cross, and he'd like to keep his humanity.
Zero/One, who doesn't see sense in trying to preserve the past, demands explanation.
She opens, though, with an unexpected declaration. It's an interesting one that makes me wonder if Parker's not intending to use the character after the Omegex saga's come to a stop, but it's also one that could easily be worked around for reuse.
It's a nice bit of growth, at any rate, which she underlines with that "frail human" bit. She can't see why Rulk would even want to be able to roll himself back.
So Rulk tells her:
("Friend"'s not sarcastic; Fortean's been retconned in as one of Ross's subordinates during his Hulk-hunting days, to the point that he was there during "Ross jacks into Zzzax's brain to use it to take down Hulk". It's a well-done retcon, especially since it's the motivation for his Rulkbusting: he believes the cover story that Thunderbolt Ross was killed by Rulk, and has been using all his resources to seek vengeance.)
She can't follow him, I think, because he's coming at her from an entirely different standpoint; he sought power to surmount a great obsession, and regrets what he had to pay for it, while she was a scientist who suffered an accidental ascension and sees no problem in continuing to improve herself beyond humanity.
(I love how she recognizes the bombs in his head, without offering to do anything to remove them; it's possible that she can't, or that she doesn't want to, but noting their life-threatening existence without doing anything else's a nice way to show that she's moved beyond her "human stage".)
So while the Omegex crushes Fortean's infantry, she uses her new temporal technology to call up images of the past (it's kind of an extension of this neat hologram trick she had going), both hers and his in order to better understand him.
" Here. " she says, taking him back to the MODOK-caused technozombie attack of #26.
" This is the point of differentiation for me, facilitated by you. "
She's called up his past, him making the deal that he did to become the smart guys' catspaw he ultimately was for Loeb's run, to pose him a sort of question: "You have all the abilities you had before, and now the power of a Hulk. How is this state not preferable to that?"
She continues with his daughter Betty's transformation into the Red She-Hulk, maybe to present him another case of someone for whom the transformation was advantageous:
(Yes, the fervent military man and the scarred techno-organic terror have teamed up against the space monster. Heat of battle, yo.)
Unfortunately, she's forgotten that she's dealing with a Hulk, one that's never had any patience for logosophic blue-skying like this. He's already told her as much as he wants to, already dealt with all of that, and now he wants to smash the spaceman:
And so their little dialogue ends, with Zero/One no closer to understanding him than she was before. Had she a little more humanity left, "Logic prevails." would perhaps sound a bit sarcastic.
Of course, it did: something needs to bring down the Omegex, and if a bit of humanity is what'll get him to do it, then maybe it isn't something to be easily cast aside.
It's certainly a great motivator:
Just a shame it isn't enough to take down the Omegex, who as a feared and inexorable destroyer of species can naturally respond rather debilitatingly to touch attacks like that.
Now there's a way to cap it: neither the tricky, augmented terror nor the direct and musclebound smasher are able to pull it off on their own..
(I'm definitely looking forward to see how it's done, and hoping it doesn't involve Uatu showing up all contrite.)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 02:46 am (UTC)All the while still nodding when everyone in the room drops what they're doing to gang up on.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 11:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-13 07:42 am (UTC)There needs to be an icon on this universal fact.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 03:33 am (UTC)And btw, lovely art.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 07:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 10:51 am (UTC)A shame about the wonky origin (not the first in comics) but at least we are getting five star material now.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 12:07 pm (UTC)That is a nice touch. Though now I want to see Zero/One and Vision interact (fighting, talking, sexy times, whatever).
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 01:24 pm (UTC)Vision: I was only saying hi, I swear!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 04:48 pm (UTC)Vision: *the look*
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 11:44 am (UTC)