One of the 77. Hulk is dead! Can’t believe they’d kill, at the time, their 2nd-most-popular character, and not even in his own comic! Wild. Oh well, sorry, Hulk fans. Same team as last time, as Spider-Man is caught in the crossfire between Hulk, Woodgod, and whoever these guys trying to kill them all are. In a 2-page spread, Spidey swings out of the way and the government guys shoot a net “designed to increase its mass in direct proportion to the resistance of what it has ensnared” at the other 2. Sure, man, why not?
Spidey frees the monsters, as Tremens says these delays could bring a government inspection team, which would be bad news for them. So he fires some missiles at the 3 stars of the book, but Hulk realizes Spidey’s on their side and takes the missiles for the team. Tremens tries to claim he wants to help the monsters, saying they’ve inhaled a lot of nerve gas, but that’s not working for Spidey, so Tremens just gases them. Huk & Woodgod go down immediately, but soon even Spider-Man’s radiation spray immunity fails, and he passes out, too.
Major Tremens seems to be played by Leonard Nimoy. The thing I like about the belt camera gambit is it’s kind of improbable that Spider-Man would have a belt camera, and when he busts loose, they’ll probably assume he didn’t. Spidey bounces around the room beating everyone up and talking kind of manic, prompting several of the goons to say he’s crazy before he flees further into the base. His Spider Sense leads him to Woodgod (For some reason???), who he frees, and in return, Woodgod shatters the big shackles on his arms & legs, somehow without hurting him in the process.
Before the heroes can do anything, Tremens & Goons appear with an “atomic cannon,” and tell them all the back into the next room if they don’t want to be shot by it. The next room turns out to be the rocket Tremens planned to shot Woodgod into space with. But, as he declares to the bad guys, “Hulk is Hulk,” so he just shrugs off the fire of the atomic cannon and destroys it. It, and the entire floor beneath himself. While he falls, Woodgod attacks the troops, babbling constantly about “the scream” as usual, until he causes an explosion.
Spider-Man’s surely had his share of cliffhangers, but being launched into space is a pretty serious one. Why is that guy called “Woodgod?” I don’t actually care. And Hulk never even SEEMED dead, let alone died! Next time: and adventure with Warlock that is surprisingly consequential, if by accident.