File:Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 53 001.jpg

Description
Bounding along in the New Mexico desert, the Hulk comes across a small town, and after watching it carefully all night, he determines that it is deserted. it will be a good place to rest, he muses. When he leaps onto the town's main street, he notices a peculiar smell, but he does not notice the purple dust stirred up by his landing. The Hulk cannot understand why the place is deserted, because although the people are gone, the stores are still well stocked. Since he is there all alone, he decides that this must be the Hulk's town and not a town belonging to "puny humans." Then he decides that "his town" needs a cleaning. So when he sees an overturned truck, he tries to tip it back onto its wheels. But instead, the truck's door tears off in his hand, and a body falls out of the cab. The Hulk picks the body up and asks it why it was hiding in the truck and where the rest of the puny humans are. When he receives no answer, he shakes the body angrily. Then he smells the peculiar smell again, and when he turns around he sees its source: a brownish, purple creature, half human and half goat. The creature, who calls himself Woodgod, thinks at first that the Hulk is his father, but then he remembers that his father was killed by "Scream." Scream will take Woodgod, he says, and the green man, too. The Hulk believes that Woodgod is trying to confuse him with words, and he pitches the truck door at him. Woodgod slaps the projectile away and wonders why the green man is trying to hurt him. Then he wonders whether Scream has driven the green man mad. Thirty miles east of the deserted town of Liberty, New Mexico, Spider-Man, Professor X, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Phoenix, Storm, and Banshee are on their way back to New York after their battle with the gods of the Nest. They are flying in their X-Shuttle, which Phoenix summoned psycho-kinetically to pick them up. Spider-Man is on the hood of the vehicle, while Storm and Banshee fly alongside. Banshee chides the X-Men for being inhospitable and making Spider-Man ride on the hood, but Spider-Man says that he does not mind. When Professor X asks Spider-Man whether he wants to return to New York with them, Spider-Man answers that there is not much to do in New Mexico. All of a sudden, the vehicle's radar picks up something headed toward them at high speed, and Spider-Man soon spots a group of aircraft approaching. When Storm and Banshee fly ahead to check, they discover a formation of two-man hovercraft about five miles away. The leader of the formation, Major Tremens, radios his men that they are nearing the "infected area." His second in command, in hovercraft Floater 2, radios back that he monitored an unidentified flying object crossing at low altitude over the restricted area. Anything alive in Liberty is the enemy, replies Tremens, and the hovercraft fire a flight of missiles at the X-Men. Storm and Banshee quickly destroy the ones aimed at them, and Cyclops uses his eye-beams, set on wide focus, to explode the others. Unfortunately, one remaining missile hits the shuttle, and the explosion knocks Spider-Man off the hood. As Spider-Man plummets toward a formation of jagged rocks below, Banshee swoops down and saves him in the nick of time. Banshee then brings Spider-Man to the landed X-Shuttle, which was not damaged by the missile, and Cyclops tells Spider-Man to watch the viewscreen. On the screen is Tremens's face, congratulating his squad on downing the unidentified flying object. Then he says that the main Job now is to concentrate on the town of Liberty itself. The screen then switches to a satellite transmission that shows the Hulk advancing toward Woodgod. Something, continues Tremens, has gotten through the "dead zone." The quarantine has been broken, he says, and anything that enters Liberty cannot be allowed to Leave. When Spider-Man realizes that Tremens is talking about destroying the Hulk, he also realizes that this would destroy Bruce Banner, the Hulk's alter ego. He decides that although destroying the Hulk is a difficult proposition, they may succeed, and he cannot allow them to try. Besides, he muses, he will be able to sell Jameson photographs for his newspaper. Banshee then offers to take Spider-Man to the town while the rest of the X-Men continue their journey home. Banshee says he will catch up with them later. Meanwhile, in the town of Liberty, the Hulk tears away a section of a wall with which to smash the "puny human with horns and funny goat legs." Woodgod maintains that Scream has taken the green man the way it took Woodgod's mother and father and tried to take him as well. He fought Scream, he says, and he fought man when he came in his ships and brought Woodgod pain. The Hulk aims a blow at Woodgod but misses, but Woodgod kicks the Hulk into a building with shattering force. This is only a minor inconvenience to the green-skinned giant, and he quickly returns to resume the battle. But suddenly he feels dizzy. Shaking off the momentary spell, the Hulk picks up the truck to throw it at Woodgod, but the truck accidentally contacts a live wire and sends a powerful electric shock into the Hulk's body. This causes the Hulk to change back into Bruce Banner, and as soon as he does, he finds himself feverish. Wondering what the Hulk has gotten him into this time, Banner suddenly collapses onto the purple dust that coats the town. Woodgod is mystified, and when he approaches Banner he wonders whether the man has been claimed by Scream like the others. Then the hovercraft formation carrying Tremens and his troops appears overhead. Banshee finds Spider-Man a heavier load than he bargained for, and as they pass over a stand of charred trees, Spider-Man gets caught on one of the branches. But Spider•Man quickly makes a web-net that keeps them from hitting the ground. When he examines the trees more closely, he discovers no sign of fire. The trees are still alive, but they are badly deformed. Banshee leaves Spider-Man to figure out why by himself, and Spider-Man thanks him for the ride. A few seconds later, the Floater hovercraft pass overhead. and Spider•Man guesses that they did not see him because they were not looking for anyone in the "dead zone" around Liberty. But if nothing is supposed to live in the dead zone, asks Spider-Man, how can he? Just then Tremens sees Wood-god in the street below and radios his troops that he has found the monster that wrecked "A" Group yesterday. When Wood-god sees the troops overhead, he picks up a telephone pole and slams it into Floater 1, Tremens's hovercraft. Spider-Man arrives just as the aircraft drops out of the sky, and before it hits the ground, he spins a web to catch it. When Tremens and his co-pilot emerge, they are astonished that Spider-Man is there. Both men are dressed from head to toe in protective suits, and Tremens tersely explains that the town of Liberty ceased to exist 36 hours before, after a drunken farmer broke open a tank of nerve gas. Spider-Man should be dead, says Tremens. Spider•Man muses that the anti-radiation mist that the Soviet scientist Mishkin sprayed on him and the X-Men is somehow keeping him alive. Then he demands to know how Tremens expects to keep such a disaster from the American public and who the monster is that knocked the Floater out of the air. Tremens replies that Spider-Man is a wanted man back east, and it would not be difficult to blame the entire crisis on him. Suddenly Tremens's eyes open wide in surprise, and Spider-Man feels his spider-sense tingle. Before Spider-Man can turn around, Woodgod knocks him into a water trough. Spider-Man emerges spoiling for a fight, and Woodgod points out that he will kill him just as he killed the green man behind him. Then Spider-Man sees Bruce Banner lying on the street, and he realizes that Woodgod is someone to be reckoned with. Then he webs up Woodgod's hands, but the creature tears the webbing apart like paper. Spider-Man again feels his spider-sense tingle, and when he turns around, he sees the Hulk about to attack him as well.