Hard Knocks 4, p 3 (February 2005) By Jae Lee

Hard Knocks 4, p 3 (February 2005)
By Jae Lee (1972 -)
11 x 17 in, ink over graphite on board

Lee’s moody style is unique. He had a high visibility run at Marvel in the early 1990s on Namor, and memorable outings on The Inhumans, a one-shot issue of Hulk, the Dark Tower adaptations, and this Hulk versus Thing mini-series, Hard Knocks.

The Thing begins to conclude his story about how he defeated the Hulk in battle... Beating the Hulk into submission, the Thing was witness to something the rest of the world had never been privy to at that point: The Hulk changing back into Bruce Banner. Seeing the humanity within the Hulk, the Thing couldn't bring himself to kill Banner and left him to fight the Hulk again another day. With the story finished, the Thing explains that seeing Banner made him realize that there was still a human inside himself as well. The Hulk is almost touched by the story and before he can say anything more a military missile strikes the diner. Although the military tries to interfere, they only succeed in getting their equipment trashed as the Thing and the Hulk fight it out. However, the battle comes to an end when the Thing reminds the Hulk how he spared his life all those years ago. The two stop fighting and sit down to talk about working on a book deal together and start arguing about percentages.