Revenge, Times Two!

The Mandarin is out for revenge against the Hulk! To wit:

But after his failure to use the Hulk to ignite worldwide nuclear war, the Mandarin is looking for an ally against the green behemoth, which is where the Sandman comes in--a formidable super-villain who has recently recovered from his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four after his alliance with Blastaar didn't pan out as he'd hoped. Yet Blastaar, though a loose cannon, impressed the Sandman enough to make him want to team up with him again--so much so that he's planning to hijack the Air Force's new space-warp ship* so that he can make contact with Blastaar in the Negative Zone. (Either the Sandman is shooting in the dark in hoping that this new ship can somehow access the Negative Zone**, or we aren't giving those Air Force engineers enough credit.)

*Breakthroughs in technology in 1969 included the first Concorde test flight; the successful Apollo 11 moon landing; the first quartz watch; the first automatic teller machine; the development of UNIX; the invention of the microprocessor; and, it seems, the first space-warp ship.

**Is there actually a "NEGATIVE ZONE" setting on the control console?

To initiate his plan, the Sandman stumbles across someone he thinks will make the perfect distraction to occupy the soldiers on the missile base where the ship is stored, so that he can make his heist. He only needs to be convinced to cooperate--villain-style.

Having never faced the Hulk, the Sandman's confidence in his own might to prevail against him is perhaps understandable at this point. Still, his goal here is to coerce the Hulk into helping him get his sandy hands on that ship--and manipulating the Hulk into falling for an act is apparently as easy as it ever was to pull off.

(It'll no doubt be news to Betty Brant that the Hulk has a thing for her.)

The Sandman's plan works like a charm, as he meets only minimal resistance in taking the ship. But a complication arises when he makes the mistake of trying to ram the car that Betty Ross is driving--and since Betty Brant has never been any competition for Betty Ross in the Hulk's mind, the Sandman quickly finds that his ally has become his enemy.

In the meantime, the space-warp ship has become "the missile" off-panel, which would at least explain why something developed by the Air Force is being stored at an Army missile base. On the other hand, it's now anyone's guess why the Sandman would want to steal a missile, which wouldn't help him vis-à-vis Blastaar or the Negative Zone.

As for the battle, we have to give the Sandman props for maintaining his cool throughout this fight, having confidence in his invincibility and believing all the while that he'll eventually crush the Hulk. What's not quite registering with him is that the Hulk feels the same about him.

Which brings us full circle, as we now return to the Mandarin--and the ally he'll make use of to attain his own goal.

It's often enjoyable watching two super-villains in the initial stages of joining forces, since there's usually a question of who will be in charge. It's a given that someone has to tip the scale in terms of proving their superiority; and though a struggle between the Sandman and the Mandarin might normally be a prolonged one, under the circumstances the Mandarin prevails in short order.

Meanwhile, Bruce Banner has slipped into the missile base (let's just assume the base's security has been left in shambles from the Hulk's attack) in an effort to ascertain whether Betty Br... Ross is all right. But he doesn't reckon with Betty's virtual stalker, Major Talbot, who discovers Banner with Betty and loudly summons a pack of guards to his side--practically guaranteeing the reappearance of the Hulk, who begins battling his way through the guards but who falls to other forces this time.

We never find out what the Mandarin's "master plan" entails other than simple revenge; and since the Sandman is usually out for some material gain, we have to assume he's on board this partnership for the same reason, which is admittedly easy enough for the reader to buy. In any event, he has no reason to complain for now, since the Mandarin appears to have covered all the bases, including one very important one: keeping the Hulk contained.

But taking into consideration that Betty has also been taken captive, and how agitated the Hulk becomes when he glances over and discovers that she's a helpless prisoner, all bets are off, regardless of the sophistication of the Mandarin's technology.

In the battle that follows, the Mandarin is content to let the Sandman take the initiative against the Hulk; in fact, the Mandarin does very little here other than react and posture (not necessarily in that order). Fortunately, the Sandman isn't the type to wait for his marching orders--and we see him again wage a decent fight against the Hulk, given the nature of his power and how far that would take him against a foe of such might.

Eventually, however, both the Sandman and the Mandarin revert to type--and their alliance falls apart fairly quickly as a result.

At Betty's urging, the Hulk doesn't follow through with a blow that would most definitely slay the Sandman in his current state--but she may come to regret her actions here when she and the Sandman next cross paths.