CATHEXIS-RAY

Classification: Energy-siphoner

Creators: A.I.M., Doc Samson (Dr. Leonard Samson), M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton), Nadia Van Dyne (portable version)

Users/Possessors: Betty Banner, Doc Samson (Dr. Leonard Samson), Gamma Flight (Absorbing Man/Carl Creel, Doc Sasquatch/Dr. Leonard Samson, Dr. Charlene McGowan), Hulk (Bruce Banner), Intelligencia (Leader/Samuel Sterns, Mad Thinker, M.O.D.O.K./George Tarleton, Red Ghost, Wizard/Bentley Wittman), Project Green Spring (Abomination/Emil Blonsky, Dr. Alina Alba), Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Wasp (Nadia Van Dyne)

Mutates: A-Bomb (Rick Jones), A.I.Marines, Bane Troopers, Gamma Wolves, Harpy (Marlo Jones; see comments), Hulked-Out Heroes (Captain America/James Barnes, Hulklops/Scott Summers, Hulkmariner/Namor McKenzie, Hulkpool/"Wade Wilson", Icehulk/Robert Drake, Inhuman Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Susan Richards, Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers, No-Thing/Ben Grimm, Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Thor/Odinson, War Machine/James Rhodes, Wolverage/James "Logan" Howlett), Red Hulk (Thaddeus Ross), Red She-Hulk (Betty Banner), Skaar, Stockpile (Dionne Fortean), Warrior Hulk (Bill Davis)

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk II#141 (July, 1971)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Cathexis-Ray was designed to siphon gamma-ray and psychic energy from one receptacle, and transfer that energy into its second receptacle. The energy siphoned by the ray could be stored for an indefinite amount of time.

The second version worked similarly, but was connected to the Hellcarrier and military satellites to transfer or siphon gamma and cosmic rays.

Absorbing Man after absorbing the properties of the Cathexis Ray could only store the energy already stored within the destroyed Cathexis Ray temporarily and release it in a single shot.

The portable version created by Nadia Van Dyne could siphon a variety of energy forms and then shoot them at a target like a gun.

History:
(Hulk II#18 (fb) - BTS) - Leonard Samson was a mere psychiatrist with an idea for a machine that could draw off energy from one person and drive it into another.

(Incredible Hulk II#141 (fb) - BTS) - With the help of some of the nation's top technicians the machine was built.

(Hulk II#21 (fb) - BTS) - Those top technicians were none other than A.I.M., whose leader M.O.D.O.K. was instrumental in the creation of the Cathexis-Ray.

(Incredible Hulk II#141) - In order to cure Betty Ross after she had been transformed into glass by a blood transfusion from the Sandman, Dr. Leonard Samson designed his Cathexis-Ray, a device which could siphon gamma-ray energy from the Hulk and transfer it into Betty, curing her condition. Simultaneously, it would also be able to cure Banner of being the Hulk by drawing out the psychic energy the Hulk needed in order to manifest. Banner agreed to attempt to cure Betty, and in the course of the operation, was cured of being the Hulk as Samson had predicted. Samson then used the energy from Banner to restore Betty to normal.

   Samson decided to research the gamma-ray energy still within the machine, and finally determined that he would use it to transform himself into a superhuman being, the kind of brawny physical specimen he had always wanted to be. He struck himself with the gamma-ray energy, and from it, was transformed into a new superhuman form. Calling himself simply "Doc Samson", he wound up romancing Betty Ross, stealing her away from Bruce.

   To win Betty back, Bruce subjected himself to the Cathexis-Ray, and used the remaining energy to become the Hulk again. In the process, the machine was seemingly destroyed.

(Incredible Hulk III#37) - Samson broke into his old lab and seeing the Cathexis-Ray brought back some memories of how he saved Betty and gained his powers.

(Fall of the Hulks: Alpha#1 - BTS) - The Intelligencia invaded Edwards Air Force Base. Wizard found breakdowns of satellite systems and Leader told him to download them. M.O.D.O.K. eventually came up with the plan to create a Red Hulk loyal to the Intelligencia by using a combination of Cosmic and Gamma rays absorbed by the military satellites.

(Incredible Hulk II#600/1 (fb) - BTS/Hulk II#23 (fb)) - At the end of World War Hulk Tony Stark activated the military satellites that had secretly been compromised by the Intelligencia, who had been monitoring the whole battle. Instead of firing cosmic energy the satellites had been manipulated by M.O.D.O.K. to use refracted cosmic energy to absorb Hulk's gamma radiation and turn him back into Banner and collect the radiation for the Cathexis Ray at another location.

   After the war Banner was brought to Gamma Base in Death Valley, Nevada. The base was secretly an A.I.M. facility pretending to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. base guarded by LMD soldiers for authenticity.

(Hulk II#21 (fb) - BTS/Hulk II#23 (fb)) - At the base the Intelligencia's ally Thaddeus Ross was transformed by the Cathexis Ray into the Red Hulk by bombarding him with a combination of Gamma radiation drained from the Hulk and Cosmic energy.

(Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk#3 (fb) - BTS) - M.O.D.O.K. and Leader experimented on Rick Jones with DNA from Abomination and cuttlefish.

(Hulk II#21 (fb) - BTS) - The Cathexis Ray was used to finish Rick's transformation into A-Bomb.

(Incredible Hulk II#600/1 - BTS) - The Intelligencia lost Bruce Banner as power source for the Cathexis Ray when Red Hulk drained him of all gamma radiation. At the same time Red Hulk made sure that Samson and She-Hulk were caught in the reactor's explosion at Gamma Base.

(Fall of the Hulks: Savage She-Hulks#2 (fb)) - They survived due to a force field and She-Hulk was taken to the Intelligencia's Hellcarrier and put in a tank like Banner before her to turn her into the new power source for the Cathexis Ray. The constant extraction of gamma radiation from her kept her sedated.

(Incredible Hulk II#610 (fb)/Hulk II#21 (fb) - BTS) - Leader and Samson used She-Hulk as power source for the Cathexis Ray to transform Betty into Red She-Hulk. Leader then filled Red She-Hulk's mind with rage and stripped away her will.

(World War Hulks#1/4 (fb)) - As a test Samson offered the soldier Bill Davis up for a Cathexis Ray test because Bill wanted to be a hero and Samson promised him that the ray would make him one. Davis was bombarded with gamma radiation drained from She-Hulk by the Cathexis Ray and he turned into a red Warrior Hulk with immense martial arts skills due to his military training. Unfortunately Davis wasn't too happy with the transformation and the constant pain he now was in and freaked out. Samson was forced to kill the out of control Davis by breaking his neck. Leader was quiet pleased by the result of the experiment unlike Samson, who considered it a failure.

(Fall of the Hulks: Savage She-Hulks#2 - BTS) - Lyra, who had infiltrated the ranks of the Intelligencia by joining Wizard's Frightful Four, freed She-Hulk during an orchestrated assault on the Hellcarrier by multiple heroes.

(Hulk II#21) - Red Hulk infiltrated Intelligencia's Hellcarrier, but got caught after battles with the Gammadroid, M.O.D.O.K. and the Cosmic Hulk.

(Hulk II#21/Incredible Hulk II#608) - In the bowels of the Hellcarrier he was placed inside a container as the newest power source for the Cathexis Ray. Samson activated the device to drain Gamma radiation from the Red Hulk and transfer it through hijacked satellites to an army of 200 volunteers known as A.I.Marines that marched as unstable Red Hulks on Washington D.C.

(Hulk II#21) - It also bombarded the heroes attacking the Hellcarrier to transform them into Hulked-Out Heroes. Those heroes included members of the Avengers (Captain America/Barnes, Ms. Marvel/Danvers and Thor), the Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Thing) and the X-Men (Cyclops, Iceman, Storm).

(Hulk II#21/World War Hulks#1/6 (fb)) - Deadpool was transformed into a Hulk as well when the container containing the Red Hulk got destroyed during Deadpool's attempt to rescue Red Hulk before all his power got drained. Deadpool got doused by the irradiated water and turned into Hulkpool, who got mad at the weakened Red Hulk for the transformation and tossed him at the Cathexis Ray that got damaged severely in the process.

(Incredible Hulk II#608) - War Machine, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Namor were also transformed into Hulked-Out Heroes by the Cathexis Ray.

(Hulk II#22) - According to the Leader the Hulked-Out Heroes and A.I.Marines would die within hours due to the level of exposure to Cosmic and Gamma rays, but it would make the Intelligencia look like saviors in the end. M.O.D.O.K. reiterated how invaluable Samson and specifically his Cathexis Ray were for their plan.

(Incredible Hulk II#610) - Amadeus also got hit by Leader's Cathexis Ray and it grew his brain and increased his intellect immensely. He suspected that the process was deadly, which was confirmed by Samson, who told Cho and Banner that Leader had combined Samson's Cathexis Ray with Cosmic energy to create stable subjects like Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk and A-Bomb, but now had turned it up to eleven for every other mutate so they would burn out within hours. Cho surmised they would die within 24 hours.

   Bruce Banner, Reed Richards, Henry Pym, T'Challa and Henry McCoy worked together on the Intelligencia's Hellcarrier to fix the Cathexis Ray and use it to reverse the transformations of the Hulked-Out Heroes and A.I.Marines. After a successful test on Amadeus Cho, Banner absorbed the Gamma radiation to prevent the Cathexis Ray from overloading. The process worked on the Hulked-Out Heroes and A.I.Marines as well and by the end Bruce Banner turned once again into the Hulk by absorbing all the Gamma radiation stored by the Cathexis Ray while Samson seemingly died while holding together the machine long enough for it to complete the Gamma drain of all Hulked-Out individuals.

(Gamma Flight#4 (fb)) - Abomination (Emil Blonsky) founded Project Green Spring while posing as General Fortean and used parts of his body as Gamma grafts. He employed Dr. Aliana Alba, who used the Cathexis Ray to stabilize these new Gamma grafts in Hulk's son Skaar. (Gamma Flight#4 (fb) - BTS) - The process proved to be a success on Skaar and led to Alba using the stabilizing effect of the Cathexis Ray when Gamma grafts were put in General Fortean's loyal daughter Dionne Fortean, who was unaware that her father was dead and not in control of Abomination's body anymore. She mutated and received the codename Stockpile, but fled after finding out about Project Green Spring's local radio broadcast that brainwashed the citizens of Thomasville, Texas to take the project's secretly mutative Fortify supplements, which would slowly mutate them into loyal soldiers of Project Green Spring.    The Cathexis Ray was presumably further used by Alba to stabilize more military grade Gamma implants in the Bane Troopers and Gamma Wolves. (Gamma Flight#4 - BTS) - Dionne allied with Gamma Flight to oppose Project Green Spring and told them about the process that mutated her. Doc Sasquatch (Samson) recognized his Cathexis Ray was used and planned to somehow use it to disrupt the radiation and revert the mutates back to normal. Dr. McGowan suggested using Project Green Spring's own broadcast equipment to transmit the Cathexis pulse across town. (Gamma Flight#4) - Abomination, Skaar and Alba were standing next to the Cathexis Ray when they saw Gamma Flight and Stockpile arrive in Thomasville on their cameras.    Doc Sasquatch, Absorbing Man and Dr. McGowan later made it to the underground lab while their teammates fought Skaar and the Bane Troops. The three went through with their plan to connect the Cathexis Ray to the broadcast equipment, but it overloaded and exploded. (Gamma Flight#5) - The Cathexis Ray wave washed over Thomasville and led to everyone that had taken the Fortify supplement to throw up the Gamma tapeworms they were infected with. At the same time the machine's explosion led to Absorbing Man taking over the machine's properties to become a living Cathexis Ray. Absorbing Man had enough energy for one shot before changing back to human form, but instead of using it to split apart Abomination from General Fortean he used it to help his teammates Rick Jones and Del Frye, who had forcefully been merged into a single being by the Leader (Samuel Sterns) some time ago.

(Wasp I#1 (fb) - BTS) - At the Genius In Action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.) Nadia Van Dyne created a portable Cathexis Ray for Dr. Charlene McGowan. She succeeded even though she had a hard time making it because Gamma radiation wasn't her area of expertise.

(Wasp I#1) - Nadia showed the visiting Janet Van Dyne the portable Cathexis Ray and handed it to her while they talked about Nadia's biological mother.

(Wasp I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Janet used Pym Particles to shrink the Cathexis Ray further down and kept it in her suit's brace.

(Wasp I#4) - Janet embiggened the portable Cathexis Ray to its original size and charged it with Cosmic Rays created by the stolen power source of Fantasma's armor, which Nadia had tempered with. Janet then used the portable Cathexis Ray to apparently kill the Creature from Kosmos with the Cosmic radiation, which was lethal to the Gamma radiation-based Creature.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe and John Severin.

The Cathexis-Ray lost the hyphen in 2008. Probably with the creation of version 2.