Immortal Hulk #3 reintroduces the duo through a series of experimental, multi-perspective vignettes that explain how a fight between Hulk and Hotshot went down in a South Dakotan church on “Mercer Avenue.” The story is told from the perspectives of a cop, an elderly woman, a bartender and a priest — and you better believe everyone has their own way of spinning the yarn. Everyone seems to be in agreement about one thing, though, which is that Hotshot showed up at the church demanding the priest do something for his dying girlfriend.

The old woman claims he said, “all I want is to know her immortal soul is saved” even though he “never believed in that stuff before.” The priest is a little less eloquent. He says Hotshot insisted that “the devil” was inside Jailbait, “or something like the devil. Something underneath… below everything.” He says Hotshot demanded an exorcism because “the One Below got into her somehow.” The priest even mentions that Hotshot cited seeing a green door in his dreams, one in the “Below-Place.”

Uh-oh.

Immortal Hulk readers will likely recall Del Frye’s dying words in Issue #2, just after the boy’s father injected him with what was seemingly a gamma-based miracle drug that ended up killing him on the spot. A green ooze began to pour from the boy’s eyes and he claimed he was able to see a green door and that “there’s someone looking through it.”

RELATED: Immortal Hulk May Be A New Take On A Classic Version of the Jade Giant

Del also volunteered the location of the door before spewing out a thick, green slime: “Below us.” That sounds eerily familiar, and, given the state of Jailbait upon law enforcement’s arrival (her head twisted around and a serene smile on her face), it appears nothing good can come from laying eyes on the green door. The elderly woman recounts Hotshot’s own end after he discovers Jailbait has died. The boy hangs himself in his cell, though she’s not sure how exactly he managed that.

Immortal Hulk #3 is a tragic tale made all the more staggering by the decision to include Hotshot and Jailbait, two people whose lives effectively ended the moment the Leader nuked their town. From living weapons to sad, desperate kids hounded by seemingly supernatural forces, the two escaped Middletown but never actually got to live the lives they wanted — or anything amounting to a proper life, really. Their sacrifice wasn’t in vain, though, because now the Immortal Hulk has one more clue in the grand puzzle box that is this slowly unfurling Green Door mystery.

One sale now, Immortal Hulk #3 is written by Al Ewing, with art by Joe Bennett, Leonardo Romero, Paul Hornschemeier, Marguerite Sauvage and Garry Brown. Ruy Jose is the issue’s inker. Paul Mounts is the colorist. Cory Petit is the letterer. Alex Ross provides the cover, while Mahmud Asrar and Edgar Delgado illustrated the issue’s variant covers.