Earth-523000 (General Ross Had Become the Hulk)

EARTH-523000 (GENERAL ROSS HAD BECOME THE HULK)

Type: Divergent Earth

Environment: Earth-like

Usual means of access: Presumably vibrational attunement

Dominant Life Form: Humans

Significant Inhabitants: Dr. Bruce Banner, Igor Drenkov, the Hulk (Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross), Rick Jones, Betty Ross, Major Glenn Talbot

Significant Locations: U. S. Military base in New Mexico

First Appearance: What If...General Ross Had Become the Hulk? (February, 2005)

History: (What If...General Ross Had Become the Hulk? (fb)) - As Doctor Bruce Banner was about to test his newest invention, the Gamma Bomb, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross and his daughter, Betty, appeared inside the test bunker to ask why there were so many delays. As Ross and Banner argued, Bruce's assistant, Igor Drenkov, noticed a teenager out on the test site. Already angered enough, General Ross decided to go get the kid himself and he took his leave, ordering Betty to return to their home. While Ross drove out onto the site, Igor revealed his true nature as a Communist spy and sprayed gas into the bunker, knocking out Banner and all inside. General Ross soon found young Rick Jones sitting in his car on the test site, playing harmonica. Ross quickly put a gun to Jones's head and ordered him off the premises, as Rick asked what the noise was. A panicked Ross quickly realized that Igor had not stopped the G-Bomb countdown and ordered Rick to run. Just as Rick made it to the protective trench, General Ross was hit by the Gamma Bomb and bombarded with Gamma radiation.

(What If...General Ross Had Become the Hulk?) - As soon as Ross was hit, he began to transform into a grey-hued monster and passed out. Unfortunately, when he passed out, he landed on top of Rick in the trench and Ross's sheer mass crushed Jones. Back at the bunker, newly-elected security chief of the desert base, Major Glenn Talbot, woke up the gassed scientists and explained to Banner that the G-Bomb had detonated. After Ross awoke, he went to the first place he knew of, his own home. Betty was horrified to find the grey monster breaking through the house and tried to call 9-1-1. General Ross soon passed a mirror and upon seeing his newly-transformed self, he became terrified and fled the scene. The military soon discovered Rick's splattered body in the protective trench, but before Banner could explain his theory about Ross, a soldier came up and told Major Talbot about a monster attacking Betty Ross. Talbot mobilized the soldiers at the base, while General Ross confronted the escaping Igor Drenkov. After a mighty leap, Ross landed right in front of Drenkov's car, causing a wreck that killed Igor. Ross then threw the car into a gas station in a fit of rage, causing an explosion that notified the military of his presence. Following an attack by the military on him, Ross fled the scene once more, thinking that if anyone could understand what had happened to him, it was his daughter. On his back to his home, Ross was attacked once again by the military and this time, Ross grabbed a tank and hurled it away. Escaping the military once again, Ross leapt to the site of his home, which had been destroyed by the tank that Ross had thrown. Ross fell to the ground in terror as Bruce Banner walked next to him, explaining that Betty was inside when the tank landed on the house. Mournful at the thought of accidentally killing his own daughter, Ross transformed back into his human form and begged Banner to tell him how to fix the problem. Banner responded that he was convinced that Ross was too dangerous and shot him in the back of head.

Comments: Created by Peter David, Pat Olliffe, and Sal Buscema.

The divergent point for this Earth happened during the events seen in Incredible Hulk I#1 (May, 1962).

Profile by Proto-Man

Clarifications:

Earth-General Ross Had Become the Hulk had no known connection to

any other alternate or divergent Earth

DOCTOR BRUCE BANNER

Doctor Bruce Banner was the inventor of the Gamma Bomb and was on site to test it until Rick Jones managed to make his way onto the test site. When General Ross went onto the site to retrieve Jones, spy Igor Drenkov gassed Banner, who woke up soon after to find out that the G-Bomb had went off. Theorizing that the G-Bomb had transformed Ross into a monster, Banner made his way to the Ross residence in time to see a tank that the monster Ross had hurled crash down on top of the house, killing Betty Ross inside. Seeing Ross as a dangerous threat after that moment, Banner shot Ross in the head as soon as he had transformed back into human form.