STALKER
STALKER
Real Name: Unrevealed (aspect of Gil Jeffers)
Identity/Class: Ectoplasmic manifestation
Occupation: Murderer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Gil Jeffers (host)
Enemies: Hulk (gray/Mr. Fixit aspect), Adria Wagner, three other women
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed (a small town in the USA)
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk II#335 (September, 1987)
Powers/Abilities: The Stalker appears to be a subconscious manifestation of the dark desires and impulses of Gil Jeffers. He can manifest himself whenever Jeffers was asleep or unconscious. He possesses great--though not necessarily superhuman--strength, is a savage attacker, and has sharp, claw-like nails, which can easily rend flesh. His touch leaves others feeling an unnatural cold. His resistance to injury is unknown, but he can be destroyed by conventional attack. When Jeffers is awakened, the Stalker fades out of this plane of existence. The apparent destruction of the Stalkers has a severe psychic backlash on Jeffers.
History:
(Incredible Hulk II#335 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Stalker began to
manifest himself, acting out the dark desires and impulses of Gil Jeffers.
(Incredible Hulk II#335 (fb) - BTS) - The Stalker slew three women, presumably one at a time.
(Incredible Hulk II#335) - The Stalker pursued Adria Wagner, slashing her eyes and then chasing her when she fled. However, Adria ran into the Hulk, who shielded her from the Stalker, and the Stalker vanished when police sirens awakened Jeffers. The next night, the Stalker manifested himself again, again encountering the Hulk, who had, as Banner, tracked down Jeffers as potentially being connected to the Stalker. The Stalker tried to form an alliance with the Hulk, encouraging him to act out his darker impulses. The Stalker led him to a bar and showed him four men who had assaulted a girl months before and escaped justice due to corroborating each other's stories. The Hulk challenged the Stalker to see if he could take the four men; the Stalker rose to the challenge, assaulting and overpowering the group. With the four helpless, the Stalker held one up, encouraging the Hulk to let himself go and kill something. The Hulk agreed, but then made it clear that he intended to kill the Stalker. The Stalker fled, screaming to Jeffers to wake up, but his host had passed out from alcohol consumption and wasn't getting up any time soon. Finally, standing right in front of the Stalker, the Hulk explained the difference between he and the Stalker: "You're terrified. Now me...I just terrify." The Hulk then punched his hand through the Stalker, apparently destroying him. Jeffers lapsed into a coma from the psychic backlash of the Stalker's destruction.
Comments: Created by Peter David and John Ridgway.
Banner saw the similarities between the gray Hulk and the Stalker: "There but for the grace of God, go I."
Gil Jeffers, the Stalker's alter ego, was shown in the
issue renting an unspecified film verison of Doctor
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well as Friday the 13th,
Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. Those films featured Freddy Krueger,
Leatherface, and a madwoman attacking counselors.
Leatherface was homaged in the Secret Empire character
Chainsaw, in one of the Dominus Desert Dwellers
issues, an issue of War Journal volume 1, Excalibur
I#9 and Generation X#41. Krueger was homaged in many
other places such Excalibur I#6-7.
--Per Degaton
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
Gil Jeffers
Tom Jeffers - Code: Grey. Wall Street, bonds expert --Thunderstrike#16/2
Adria Wagner
Gil
Jeffers
The human host of the Stalker, he had a penchant for violence and gore and was likely a mutant. He once decided that since he had heard that watching violent films made you want to kill people, that maybe he'd be more affectionate if he watched "mushy films." Instead, he just wanted to strangle the women and stab the men. At some point, he began manifesting the Stalker to act out his subconscious desires. By day he worked as a gas station attendant, in the evening he'd rent slasher films and drink until he passed out, at which point the Stalker would come out. However, the Stalker persona continued to grow, becoming progressively more evil, until it began to take over Jeffers completely. Jeffers was left without joy, and virtually without a soul...just overwhelming hatred. When the Stalker was destroyed, he was left with nothing more than a shell. Jeffers was left comatose.
--Incredible Hulk II#335 (335 (fb) - BTS, 335
Adria
Wagner
A local neighborhood girl, her eyes were lacerated by the Stalker, but her life was saved by the Hulk. She mentioned to Banner--posing as a psychologist--that the Stalker had called her "Addy-Addy," a nickname only Jeffers had used before. Even though Jeffers had been imprisoned during the time of the Stalker's assault, Banner correctly suspected a connection between the two. There was hope that partial vision could be restored via laser surgery.
--Incredible Hulk II#335
images:
Incredible Hulk II#335, p18, panel 4
p5, panel 1 (full body)
p9, panel 5 (Jeffers)
p2, panel 3 (Wagner)
Appearances:
Incredible Hulk II#335 (September, 1987) - Peter David (writer), John Ridgway (artist), Bob Harras (editor)
First Posted: 07/21/2004 Last updated: 07/21/2004
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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