Witness the birth of the monster as the origin of the Hulk is re-told!

At a bomb testing site in the New Mexico desert, scientist Bruce Banner, along with military personel, prepare to test launch Banner's new Gamma bomb. The project keeps mysteriously being delayed by Igor Raminski, an assistant on the project from Russia.

Part of that delay turns out to be a teenager named Rick Jones, who trespasses on the test site after being manipulated by Igor, in the form of another teenager. Igor is really a Skull in disguise.

After Rick succeeds in getting onto the test site, Dr. Banner sees him in the danger zone and rushes out to get him out of there before the bomb goes off, but General Ross goes ahead with the launch at the specific time, despite Banner being out there. The radiation nearly kills him, and eventually turns him into the Hulk.

The Hulk and Rick escape their hunters, only to be captured by Igor the Skull, who takes the duo to Russia to his partner's base, where they find the Gargoyle, a Russian scientist who wants to use the radiation to reverse his own Gargoyle transformation. The procedure works, but the Gargoyle (now in his human form) is killed by Russian soldiers who invade the complex, and Bruce and Rick escape with their lives, but not with a cure.