And They Called The Wind Pariah! A gunslinger rides into the town of Whispering Wells after hearing stories of great wealth to be found there. Instead, he finds that town a charnel house, all the people dead. Going into a nearby saloon, he finds what appears to be a large chunk of gold in the head of a man who appears to have shot himself in the head. The gunslinger takes the gold and finds himself overwhelmed by the living presence within the rock. It turns out it is not gold but some strange unseen material and it has consumed all the lives in town out of revenge. Discovering that the gunslinger has no soul to speak of, the presence in the rock strips away the gunslingers flesh and transforms him into their agent, the Pariah. Since then, the town of Whispering Wells remains untouched for over 100 years....
Now
At Banner's secret lab, Rick Jones and Betty Ross are exposing the Hulk to another dose from the Gamma Ray Projector to force a transformation back into Bruce Banner. With the transformation complete, Banner is weakened after the ordeal. Banner hopes that he can find a cure for his transformations into the Hulk. However, Rick Jones is not quite sure that the Hulk should be destroyed and thinks that a happy medium between the two: Banner's mind in control of the body of the Hulk. Rick then points out the potential benefits of having a Hulk with Banner's mind: fixing damaged infrastructure, fending off invasions, even space exploration. However, Bruce bursts the bubble of this idea pointing out that he is tired of sharing his life with the Hulk. Banner wants to settle down and have a family and get back to his research without having the persona of the Hulk looming over him. This is something which Betty also hopes to achieve as well.
