SH'MBALLAHSH'MBALLAH
Real Name: Sh'mballah
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial ("Sephlods") energy-manipulator
Occupation: Former would-be conqueror, former ruler
Group Membership: Former leader of his race
Affiliations: (Former pawns) Sheriff Anmar, Linda Connelly, Gilbert Fox, Doc Hedley, "Slim" Reisberson, Alma Snell, Dr. Rudolf Stern
Enemies: Hulk (Bruce Banner), Rick Jones, Clay Quartermain, Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Dr. Rudolf Stern
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Stalker from the Stars
Base of Operations: Currently
unknown;
formerly Crater Falls, North Dakota;
formerly his extraterrestrial world
First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars (November, 1978)
Powers/Abilities: Sh'mballah vaguely resembled an octopus, though it was many times larger. Its outer skin was rough and crusted, though partially transparent, allowing glimpses of its internal organs. Inside the bulbous portion of its body that served as its head, an enormous pink brain floated, knobby black nerves twisting away from it. There were eyes--several of them--all bulging and yellow, clustered above a jagged mouth hole which was packed with a multitude of spiky teeth. It propelled itself with multiple tentacles, each of which was encrusted with sucking discs oozing a yellowish viscous fluid. In dragging its vast blob of a body it left trails of amber slime in its wake. While his skin was bulletproof, the tissue beneath its skin had a jelly-like consistency.
Its tentacles could also unleash a powerful electrical current. It could also manipulate gamma radiation.
Sh'mballah had great psychic powers, enabling him to project its thoughts and to detect the presence of others. It could control the minds of others, sometimes as many as hundreds at a time. It was easier for Sh'mballah to control people when they were sleeping because they would not consciously oppose it. It could still control people while they were awake, but it took much more effort. In addition certain people--though not clearly stated, it seemed to be those previously exposed to gamma radiation--could resist Sh'mballah's control.
Sh'mballah's metabolism was such that he could survive centuries in a deep sleep without any nourishment.
History:
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Nineteen (fb)
- BTS) - Sh'mballah's people had long ago mastered space travel,
exploring planet after planet, system after system, and even the
most remote of galaxies. Their world was colored with rich blues
and crimsons, and pulsing yellows and purples. Their grass was a
lush golden.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Nineteen (fb) - BTS) - Centuries ago, Sh'mballah had ruled an entire planet. Ruling wisely and justly (in his own opinion), he destroyed any he saw as a hindrance. Eventually a large group--whose mental powers surpassed his own--attempted to ambush and kill him in the night, but he managed to flee and escape in his emergency spacecraft. He had extensive travels, rambling through the void in search of a new world he could rule. His ship eventually malfunctioned and he crashed on earth, causing a massive crater and sinking several hundred feet into the ground, which closed up over him. Sensing few people around, he passed into unconsciousness, his ship forming a metal cocoon around him.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Ten - BTS) - Eventually a community built up around the crater, and it was named Crater Falls.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: prologue) - In recent years, Sh'mballah awakened (perhaps due to the thoughts of the people above him). Though still confined, he could sense others far above. Reaching out with his mind, he began to take control of these people and command them to free him.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Nineteen (fb) - BTS) - Sh'mballah worked all of the townspeople of Crater Falls at night, having them dig into the crater.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Fourteen (fb)- BTS) - When anyone approached Crater Falls at night, Sh'mballah psychically drove him or her away.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Nineteen (fb) - BTS) - When old or infirm people began to die from exhaustion, Sh'mballah realized that everyone needed sleep, some more than others, so he tailored the work schedules to provide enough sleep that his slaves would not die.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Sixteen (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Stern investigated the crater in Crater Falls, coming to believe that there was something alive within it, despite the massive quantities of gamma rays being released from the crater.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Sixteen (fb) - BTS) - Stern learned that the townspeople had been digging at the crater.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Sixteen (fb) - BTS) - Stern proved resistant to Sh'mballah's control.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Sixteen (fb) - BTS) - Sh'mballah was able to cause Stern enough pain to prevent him from returning to the crater.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Sixteen (fb) - BTS) - Sh'mballah prevented Stern from notifying anyone else what was going on the city, though he did allow Stern to record his thoughts in his journal.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Sixteen (fb) - BTS) - Sh'mballah wracked Stern with pain, forcing him to return to the crater.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter One - BTS) - Rick Jones arrived in Crater Falls in search of Dr. Stern, hoping that he might be able to cure Bruce Banner. He was directed to the Connelly boarding house by Alma Snell.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Four - BTS) - Rick introduced himself to Linda Connelly, who took him in as a boarder and hired him as a handyman while he waited for Dr. Stern to return.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Six - BTS) - "Slim" Reisberson complained about feeling exhausted, and later that night Rick observed Linda walking around at night. She ignored his calls, and when he tried to follow her, someone clocked him in the back of the head, knocking him out.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Eight - BTS) - Rick revived back in his room at Linda's house, and Linda had no idea what had happened.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Ten - BTS) - Rick and Linda went searching for Dr. Stern, finding only his gamma radiation-glowing corpse.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twelve - BTS) - Sheriff Anmar, assisted by Gilbert Fox, investigated Rick and Linda's report, but Dr. Stern's corpse was nowhere to be found.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Thirteen - BTS) - Rick called Gen. Ross to report what was going on in Crater Falls, but he was struck down by someone controlled by Sh'mballah in mid-call. Learning of the call, Banner (under confinement at Gamma Base) drugged Clay Quartermain, stole his jet, and escaped.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Fourteen - BTS) - As Banner approached Crater Falls on foot, Sh'mballah sensed his presence and attempted to drive him away. Banner resisted fiercely, and the stress turned him into the Hulk.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Fifteen (fb) - BTS) - The Hulk passed out from the stress and turned back into Banner.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Fifteen - BTS) - Sheriff Anmar found Banner, who convinced him to take him to find Rick Jones, and they found him to be missing from the Connelly house.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars:
Chapter Sixteen - BTS) - Banner broke into Dr. Stern's house and
found and read his journal. Sh'mballah sensed this and sent a
number of townspeople to stop him.
Rick awakened bound to a chair in Linda's
basement, and he managed to free himself.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Seventeen - BTS) - Banner turned in to the Hulk to fight off the increasing numbers of attackers.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty - BTS) - The Hulk overpowered all attackers and headed towards the crater to stop Sh/mballah.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars:
Chapter Eighteen - BTS) - Clay Quartermain and Gen. Ross tracked
Quartermain's plane to just outside Crater Falls.
Rick freed himself.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Nineteen) - Sh'mballah noted that he would soon be free, though something must be done to destroy the Hulk.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty - BTS) - Ross and Quartermain found Rick, and they followed the trail of knocked out people towards the Crater.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars:
Chapter Twenty) - Sh'mballah tried in vain to mentally stop the
Hulk. When the Hulk approached the crater, Sh'mballah freed
himself.
Ross summoned helicopters from Gamma Base to
assault Sh'mballah.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-one) - Sh'mballah climbed out of the crater and attacked the Hulk, wrapping a tentacle around and shocking him, but the Hulk tore the tentacle from Sh'mballahs' body. When the Hulk was distracted by the approaching helicopters, Sh'mballah wrapped another tentacle around him.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-two) - Sh'mballah tossed the Hulk away and slithered off into the woods. He sent the townspeople under his control--including Linda and Sheriff Anmar--to stop Ross, Rick, and Quartermain.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-four (fb) - BTS) - Sh'mballah released all of those under his control to focus on escaping.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-five) - Sh'mballah made his way into the town, choosing a church as the spot from which he would make his stand. As a jet approached he took control of its pilots, forcing them to crash. It swatted Rick and Linda out of the way as it passed them.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-six) - Banner, Ross, Quartermain, Rick, and Linda tracked Sh'mballah to the church, and Banner turned into the Hulk as he approached the alien. The two fought fiercely, with the Hulk tearing off pieces of Sh'mballah and Sh'mballah blasting him with electrical currents and psychic assaults. Sh'mballah attempted to retreat to the town hall, but the Hulk stopped him by Leiber's Garage, where the force of their battle caused a gas pump to explode. Sh'mballah's body was consumed in the flames, and its death throes caused psychic pain to rip through everyone present.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-seven (fb) - BTS) - Sh'mballah transferred its mind into Rudolf Sterns' corpse and reanimated it.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-seven) - Sh'mballah caused the radiation within Sterns' body to build towards critical mass as it made its way towards the center of town. Realizing it had lost its final battle, it resolved to take as many others with it as it could.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-eight) - Linda Connelly convinced the Hulk to save Crater Falls from Sh'mballah. However, the Hulk found that even his mighty hands burned with agony as he touched Sterns' radioactive body. Trees, bullets, and even rockets used against him failed to harm his body. When the Hulk attacked again, Sh'mballah managed to reach deep into the recesses of the Hulk's mind and to take control of Banner.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Twenty-nine) - Ross directed his pilots to use Operation: Peapod--an assault involving a powerful synthetic plastic casing which had previously proved sufficient to contain and subdue the Hulk--against Sh'mballah. While Sh'mballah used all of his power to try to burn through the casing, Ross had Rick instruct the Hulk to grab the "peapod" and the helicopter's winch, and they flew him out towards a nearby lake.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Thirty) - Sh'mballah attempted and failed to take control of the Hulk again, then sent its mind after Gen. Ross, but the Hulk furiously shook Sterns' body, breaking Sh'mballah's concentration. Ross found that the winch was stuck and couldn't be released, so he aimed the helicopter at the stars and jumped out of the copter with a parachute. Sterns' exploded soon after, destroying the last remnants of Sh'mballah and seemingly killing the Hulk as well.
(The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars: Chapter Thirty-one (fb) - BTS) - The Hulk survived the explosion, dropping into the lake from which Banner soon emerged.
Comments: Created by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and Joseph Silva.
I'd name Sh'mballah's race the Sephlods (based on cephalopod ("head-foot"), the scientific name for creatures like octopuses (octopi?) and squids).
It has been suggested that Sh'mballah was another name for
M'nagalah, a Lovecraftian Old One created by Wein for DC's
Swamp Thing#8, "The Lurker in Tunnel 13."
--Per Degaton
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
The odds of a scientist named Sterns working at Gamma Base not being related to:
Linda Connelly
A resident of Crater Falls, she did secretarial work for Dr. Rudolf Stern and lived with her aunt Maud who ran a boarding house. After Maud died, Linda ran the boarding house herself. Her boarders included "Slim" Reisberson and Rick Jones. She was an unwitting pawn of Sh'mballah, one of many digging into its crater at night. She was able to appeal to the Hulk's kinder side, befriending and convincing him to save Crater Falls from Sh'mballah.
--The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars
Dr. Rudolf "Rudy" Stern
One of the world's leading researchers in gamma rays, he was a former employee at Gamma Base, but he left to begin private research in Crater Falls. Clay Quartermain described him as one of the few people at Gamma Base to have a sense of humor. He employed Linda Connelly for secretarial work; though he was mostly preoccupied with his research, he was often kind to Linda. He determined that there was something alive within the crater. He proved resistant to Sh'mballah's control, though Sh'mballah could cause him great pain and eventually was able to force him to return to the crater, and he slew him with gamma radiation. Sh'mballah later transferred his mind into Sterns' body, reanimating it and causing the radiation to approach critical mass. Ultimately, his body was contained by Operation: Peapod and the Hulk held his body while Ross flew them towards a lake. Ultimately, Ross sent him flying into the upper atmosphere, where he exploded relatively harmlessly (to everyone else).
--The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars
images:
The Incredible Hulk: Stalker from the Stars (and that's the ONLY
image)
Last updated: 11/22/05
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