Exiles: New World (Marvel NEW)/Issue 11

The eleventh issue of the Marvel NEW ongoing series, Exiles: New World. It is preceded by Exiles: New World Issue 10 and succeeded by Exiles: New World Issue 12.

Synopsis
''Justicer Bull and her Exiles have decided to join forces with the original Maestro, seeking to take down the imposter. Unfortunately, Greenskyn Smashtroll's fate lies dormant. Rojhaz's on the other hand, faces the judgment of the Kree Empire's notorious Accuser and his rag-tag team of aliens. All after the last man on Earth-2081 died. However, they couldn't return to the Panopthicron even after his death...''

Continuity
The issue is set after Exiles: New World Issue 10 and it's the second part of the story arc, The Hulk of Two Worlds.

Earth-2081
Continuing from the last issue, the trio of Rojhaz, Strange, and Castle see the floating Ronan yelling at them that they're accused with a band of aliens behind him. Three Kree Sentries are also present near the Gamma Cave, backing up Ronan with extra firepower. Castle reacts to Ronan's threat by cocking his assault rifle while asking the Kree who the hell he thinks he is.

The Centaurian Archer beside Ronan asks the Accuser whether or not he's really famous on this planet. Ronan says no matter what, these strangers will die all the same. He also adds that he doesn't want this fight to be long, for he doesn't want to be bothered by a long, dead race. In an instance, Ronan orders his Kree Sentries to rain fire upon them before Rojhaz can speak a word.

Luckily, Rojhaz exclaims to both his comrades to evade and they dodge their onslaught in a nick of time. After dodging, Punisher asks the Captain what are they supposed to do now. Rojhaz briefly looks at the dead Bruce Banner and turns to Strange, asking him if he can confirm that he's dead. Strange tries to say yes to the Captain, but the Centaurian Archer shoots her yaka arrow at him, penetrating his stomache.

A Galadorian Spaceknight proceeds to try finish off the injured sorcerer, but Doctor Strange is still without his tricks. Before the knight can reach hiim, he generates a portal right in front of the rushing knight that apparently leads to the universe's Dark Dimension. Once the Spaceknight sees this, his eyes widen and he screams out in terror as he's unable to stop his thrusters from plunging him into the Dread Dormammu's realm.

On Rojhaz and Castle's side, Warstar of the Imperial Guard descend upon their position and smash their cover. The Punisher curses him to eat sh*t and rains down a hail of energy bullets upon the metallic giant and his small rider friend. Warstar tanks the energy blaster and immediately smacks the Punisher aside. Rojhaz rushes to aid Castle, distracting C'cll (the big one) by jumping over him and throwing B'nee (the small one) away.

Although his rider is dislodged, C'cll still goes on to fight the Super-Soldier, with Rojhaz holding his own and even shattering bits of his face plate. Angered, B'nee tries to smash him but Strange blasts a Bolt of Balthakk at the Shi'ar Guardsman, sending him flying miles away. Strange, kneeling while covering his wound, tells Rojhaz that he'll assess Mr. Banner's condition in a moment. For now, Rojhaz has to help Castle.

Handing over Castle some help, Rojhaz asks if he's still fit to fight. Punisher tells him that "petty, alien b*tches don't hurt him now" before he proceeds to whack the incoming Centaurian using the stock of his gun. He then demonstrates his proficiency in Earth's martial arts, knocking out the fragile archer with a combination of Systema, Krav Maga, and Judo moves. After throwing her off a ledge, Punisher soundly feels the air shifting behind him and dodges the attack of a Super-Skrull with the powers of Whirlwind and Living Laser. In the mean time, Strange engages in combat with the three Sentries.

Seeing how the alien's body looks like, Punisher switches his gun's ammunition to dark matter rounds, Rojhaz taunting the Skrull to distract him by telling him that the "secret invasion" failed. This instantly provokes the Skrull and prompts him to blast a beam of energy at him, but Rojhaz narrowly evades it and calls Castle out. Punisher quickly diminishes a large portion of his health by unleashing forty projectiles composed of dark matter.

Laying weakened on the ground, the Skrull begs for his life as Castle chucks a grenade. Not willing to give mercy, Castle stomps on the Skrull's throat and prompts him to open his mouth. In this gap, Castle throws the grenade to the Skrull's throat and rolls away in time as a large explosion ensues. Rojhaz sees this and asks Castle what the hell did Uatu provide him with. Castle smirks and tells him "Power Cosmic Grenades" do the trick.

Castle's joy abruptly ends when Ronan blasts him with a powerful beam emitted from his Universal Weapon. This sends Castle crashing on to the sides of the Gamma Cave's entrance, where Strange is seen detecting Banner's condition. Castle's fall prompts the sorcerer to call out his nickname. Standing up and turning to Ronan, Strange hears the Accuser's question of how can they survive a genocide engineered by themselves.

Strange thinks to tell him the team's real intention, but decides to tell him that they're not really the engineers. In an instance, Ronan blasts another beam which Strange colorfully deflects with a mandala, deflecting them and hitting the Kree. Ronan is knocked back but enraged, rushing to Strange with his Universal Weapon in hand. When he gets in range of attack, Strange blocks his attack with another mandala and his second strike is repelled when Strange conjures an orange dragon-shaped blast from the mandala that stumbles him and makes him roar in pain.

Ronan takes a breath, getting himself back together. Strange on the other hand, begins to float and tells him that he's facing the Sorcerer Supreme now so he better surrender, or dire consequences will follow. Ronan rebuffs, telling him that this is a dire consequence. Ronan's Universal Weapon pulls Strange towards him and his face gets smashed by his giant hammer.

Thrown back miles away, Strange gets a bloody face thanks to Ronan with his survival being attributed to his magical nature. Rojhaz yells out his name and all he gets is a small sigh from Strange. Ronan turns to the Captain with his hammer pointed at him and ready to fire another blast. Ronan tells Rojhaz that he looks similar to a patriotic hero from this planet, but he knows that he's not him. However, Ronan cares not for he will die all the same. Rojhaz's eyes shrink as he reveals to Ronan that he is him, trying to goad him into trying to melee him (where Rojhaz has a form of advantage).

Ronan is goaded, indeed, but he still goes to unleash a multitude of projectiles which Rojhaz dodges as he tries to close the gap. Unfortunately, Rojhaz, leaping at him to kick his face into kingdom come, gets stunned mid-air by a force-field Ronan materializes.

As he struggles to free himself, Ronan gradually shrinks the field to slowly crush his bones. As Rojhaz yells in pain, Ronan states that he usually doesn't like needless, painful deaths. However, he admits that he has always wanted to kill "heroes" this way. While Rojhaz's agony continues, the injured Frank arms a Desert Eagle he brought. His mind reveals that he's still got it when Barracuda was screwing him up, and he's been waiting all week long to use it.

Taking aim, Castle struggles to keep the pain away and holds firm his wound while crunching his teeth. When Rojhaz opens his eyes for the "last time", he sees Castle with his hand cannon firmly aimed at Ronan's neck. Cursing him as a motherf*cker, Punisher pulls the trigger and sends the .50 Action Express round to do its job. Too bad Ronan is superhuman and his armor is too powerful, though. The Desert Eagle's round simply bounces off him and attracts his attention.

He turns his head to the Punisher, who curses himself while his face turns pale. Ronan scoffs him, asking him if a mere human weapon will kill him. Ronan's question is answered by Strange, who tells him that it won't, but this will. Ronan loosens his grip on Rojhaz and his curiosity makes him turn to Strange's voice source. He sees Strange, enraged and back on his feet, casting an eldritch spell that surrounds Ronan with a sphere of energy.

Ronan's field de-materializes and Rojhaz finally hits the ground. Ronan struggles to break free of the energy, but Strange's incantation that gets louder and louder every second begins to fill the sphere with a purple gas. Ronan notices this but fails to hold his breathe as he inhales the mysterious gas. Ronan begins to suffocate as his skin turns white from its blue complexion. Strange says that for his ravenous blood thirst, he has sentenced him to breathe the Black Mists of Raggadorr.

Rojhaz coughs and breathes in satisfaction, looking at Strange trying to catch his breathe and Castle pressuring his wound. Rojhaz calls them both and dashes to them, asking if they're alright. Strange says that the Power of the Vishanti sustains him, and Castle will have the same sustainment right around now. After saying so, Strange gestures to Castle and his wounds recover. Castle sees to this and says that it felt weird. Nevertheless, he thanks Strange and the two help him get up.

Punisher tells them that "that's that", seeing Banner's body. Rojhaz sighs and does a facepalm, telling him that this is just bad. Strange reminds the Captain that their mission is a success, indeed. Banner is dead and someone from his own universe did so, and the Tallus should allow them to return or regroup with Bull's team. Punisher bluntly states that they should have returned right away after Bruce's death.

Rojhaz gives him an awkward stare but tells him that he's right. He however, feels that it's just wrong and "rushed". Punisher raises an eyebrow and asks him if he prefers a slow death. Rojhaz says that it's not what he meant; he's just quite surprised.

-

As Rojhaz's words are finished and the rest of their conversation is veiled, the view pans towards the frail old man's body, zooming into his eyes. In the next moments, a void of empty space is seen with Bruce Banner in the middle. Banner is seen posed with the same pose as his death recently. Banner gets up, grunting in pain as he grasps his chest which was blasted by Ronan.

Banner sees the void around him and stands up. He feels cold, yet aside from the brief pain he felt there's no more pain within his body. The pain that the Hulk wrought upon him when he tries to transform, the pain of the wastelands' radiation, and the pain his entire life has endured. Banner asks himself is this is Hell, Heaven, or Limbo. Banner guesses that it's the last one and thinks that he has died.

Banner becomes silent for a few seconds before sitting down, suddenly bursting out in laughter. He yells out his gratefulness for the Kree putting him out of his misery. He sighs, asking where can he find Rick and the others if this is the afterlife. To his horror, a voice responds to him that this isn't the afterlife. The voice, is one Bruce recognizes: the voice of the Hulk.

In an instance, the Hulk's titanic footsteps are heard and the elderly green giant himself appears in front of puny Banner out of the shadows. Surprised, Banner crawls away from the titan and tells of his impossibility. In his own vocabulary, the Hulk scolds Banner for his weakness and cowardice; Banner always thinks that the Hulk can be wished away, thinking that even with all their separations in the past they can never be connected. The Hulk despises Banner for his weakness, and tells him that if he does not want to live, then the Hulk will because he is the strongest one there is and no one will challenge him on that.

The eyes of the old man widen as he mutters "no", before the scene snaps back to the material realm.

-

Back to real life, Rojhaz and Castle are seen surrounding Strange, who's working on Doctor Banner's body. Rojhaz asks if he's truly dead. Strange brings forth quite a bad news by mentioning the fact that there's something going on with his body. From his aura, he feels something shifting, changing its own identity and nature. Rojhaz is taken aback and left silent by the statement. Punisher looks at him and asks if anything bothers him with that, 'cause he can just end the mission and get back to Bull with a single bullet. Rojhaz turns down, and Strange's question follows. He asks his superior if this is him trying to turn to the Hulk Uatu mentioned.

Before Rojhaz can answer, an arrow suddenlly sticks up his knee and cripples him. Strange and Castle turn to its origin point and see that Ronan's personal intergalactic lackeys have returned. The Centaurian tells them that they can't turn their backs on them. Punisher responds by mocking her, making fun of her "skills" in combat (as he beat her earlier). Strange advises Punisher to stay put as he telekinetically removes the yaka arrow and heals Rojhaz to a combat ready state.

Strange then confronts them and asks them if they want to suffer the same fate as their leader. Warstar (both B'nee and B'nee and C'cll) and the Archer look at Ronan's now-deceased body, his skin turned white and his eyes swollen like black holes. Strange also reminds the surprised alien duo (trio with C'cll) that there's only the two of them. Responding to the Sorcerer Supreme's words without fazing, C'cll tells him that they've come prepared.

Seconds later, a cadre of alien warriors consisting of two Kronan mercenaries, a swarm of Brood creatures, the three Kree Sentries that Strange simply spelled away, a giant Flora Colossus, and five Dire Wraiths. Seeing the situation, Punisher once again curses and asks Rojhaz if he can get the Tallus working. Rojhaz tries to operate the Tallus the way it was like in the previous world. Apparently, it can't work and Rojhaz concludes that Bruce is not dead yet, which by now means something really bad is gonna happen.

As the aliens prepare to attack, Strange conjures two mandalas and asks Rojhaz if they're supposed to fight both these otherwordly aberrations and the Hulk. Rojhaz sighs and tells him maybe, such possibility turning into reality moments later. When the Kronan Mercenary goes for the first rush into battle, Bruce suddenly yells out in pain and everyone turns to his body.

The Exiles back away from Bruce, Punisher immediately cursing out that this day's getting worse every second. Doctor Strange says that they will fight the "Hulk", and he asks Rojhaz if the Hulk has anything strange in him. Rojhaz states that aside from being strong and more durable than titanium, nothing else. Strange turns to the alien warriors who are prepared for the coming fight. He turns back to Rojhaz and reveals to him that the Eye of Agamotto hasn't given him any visions about this ever since they arrived here. Rojhaz asks if that scrying device predicted their previous battle, and Strange said no; he doesn't think it works in other universes.

Moments later, Bruce eventually turns into the Hulk himself, delivering a devastating roar that stuns everyone there. Seeing the Exiles and the aliens, the Hulk roars and in a fit of anger kept within Banner for centuries, delivers a titanic smash that levels the entire cliff everyone's on. The Exiles are unable to react to this as the structure crumbles and everyone fall down to the wastelands below. Unluckily, the summoned dust from the resulting smash obscures what happens to our heroes and villains, as well as the Hulk himself.

Earth-9200
TBA