Devolution! Having purchased a vintage car, Rick Jones, Betty Ross and Bruce Banner are driving across New Mexico in the hopes of reaching the birthplace of the Hulk in the hopes of helping Bruce and the Hulk reconcile their differences. As they drive, Rick onces more thinks about the guilt he feels for being responsible for Banner becoming the Hulk. Betty, meanwhile wonders when it was she fell in love with Bruce: when he first arrived to work for her father, or when she first discovered that he was the Hulk. She also recalls how her love for Bruce has brought her nothing but misery, even when she tried to get away from it by marrying Glenn Talbot.
Their reflective thoughts are soon cut short when they come across an abandoned military blockade that is in close proximity to Bruce Banner's secret lab. They then begin to look around for clues and find that the soldiers apparently stripped off their clothing before they disappeared. When Rick checks a overturned military truck he is shocked when a monkey leaps out. While Rick and Betty find this amusing, Bruce recognizes the creature the ape as Dryopithecus Africanus, a precursor the modern day humanity that has been extinct for millions of years. It's then that he notices a strange glow coming from his old lab, and that said glow is giving Betty and Rick pounding headaches. To make matters worse, the ape that they have encountered has stolen the keys from their car and bolted off into the desert. Unaffected by the strange light, Bruce tells Betty and Rick to wait at the car while he tries to recover the keys. No sooner is Bruce gone do Betty and Rick suddenly devolve into primates, strip their clothes off and wander into the desert.
As Bruce tries to follow the ape that stole their keys, he is surprised to see that there are many prehistoric animals in the area and wonders what happened to cause this de-evolution in the local wildlife. As he approached his old lab, he discovers that some soldiers came here and also apparently abandoned their post. However, when he sees more of the apes, he realizes what has been happening. Going into his lab, Bruce is shocked to find the High Evolutionary. Surprised to see Bruce Banner unaffected by the wave of de-evolution, the High Evolutionary explains that he has returned home to Earth in order to end his life. He recounts how his creation, Counter-Earth was stolen from the solar system. Tracking it along with the Thing, Starhawk, Alicia Masters and Her, they caught up with an alien calling himself Sphinxor. Sphinxor explained that he was taking Counter-Earth for his masters, the god-like Beyonders. In the end, the High Evolutionary agreed to accompany him to meet the Beyonders. Once in the realm of these beings, the High Evolutionary, who has spent his entire life trying to ascend to godhood, witnessed the Beyonders. Seeing powerful beings more powerful than anything he could ever attain, the High Evolutionary went mad and decided to kill himself, by returning to Earth and de-evolving himself. However, the safety measures in his armor, have prevented him from harming himself, and instead of de-evolving, the armor has been deflecting the rays outwards.
After hearing this, Bruce demands that the High Evolutionary stop and return everything to normal, but the Evolutionary refuses.
