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Current Status: Deceased?
Real Name:
Elizabeth "Betty" Ross Talbot Banner
History: Born in a house in California, Betty Ross Banner was the only child of Air Force General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross and his wife Karen |
She returned to her father's home after finishing school, but then, as for much of her life, she was dominated by her father. By now General Ross was in charge of the top secret Gamma Bomb Project at Desert Base in Nevada. Betty Ross greeted the bomb's creator, Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, when he arrived at the base. A strong attraction grew between Banner and Betty Ross. However, General Ross had contempt for the quiet, slender, nuclear physicist, thinking him a physical and emotional weakling. The general's dislike of Banner intensified when he realized that Betty was falling in love with him.
Exposure to intense gamma radiation caused Banner to transform repeatedly form then on into the monstrous Hulk. Although Banner managed at first to keep his double identity secret, his activities as the Hulk led to circumstances that caused General Ross and his security chief, Major Glenn Talbot, to suspect Banner of being a traitor. Talbot fell in love with Betty Ross himself. However, Betty remained devoted to Banner through all of his trouble, even when it became known that Banner was the Hulk.
At one point, Banner's condition change so that he could now control his changes into the Hulk and could maintain his normal personality and intelligence when he was in the Hulk's form. Reluctantly, General Ross consented to the wedding of Banner with his daughter, which was held in the house in which she had been born. However, during the ceremony, just before Banner and Betty Ross could be pronounced husband and wife, the Hulk's archenemy the Leader, seeking vengeance, fired radiation that returned Banner to his previous condition, turning him into a savage Hulk. The enraged Hulk tore the house apart, and hopes for the wedding to occur were smashed.
Betty remained in love with Banner, but she eventually learned that he also loved Jarella, a queen from a sub-atomic world. Believing she had lost Banner to another woman, Betty finally allowed herself to fall in love with Talbot, and they were soon married.
While the Talbots were on their honeymoon, General Ross continued his pursuit of the Hulk, only to be captured by the Soviet scientist known as the Gremlin and sent to a Soviet prison. Major Talbot joined a mission that rescued General Ross, but Talbot himself was captured. General Ross and the other Americans on the mission incorrectly believed that Major Talbot had been killed. When Betty Talbot learned of her husband's death, she suffered a nervous breakdown.
MODOK, then the leader of the subversive organization called AIM, took advantage of Betty Talbot's condition to use gamma radiation to transform her into the monstrous and insane Harpy, who then battled the Hulk. Betty's transformation was reversed shortly afterward, apparently permanently, after an encounter with the Bi-Beast, and she regained both her normal form and her sanity.
Major Talbot was finally rescued, but Betty Talbot realized that se was still in love with Banner, and the Talbots' marriage soon ended in divorce. For a time Betty Ross lived on her own, apart from her father. Ultimately, she returned to Banner. As for Glenn Talbot, he blamed the failure of his marriage on Banner and died in trying to destroy the Hulk.
Again Banner achieved a state in which he could control his transformations and maintain his normal personality and intelligence while in the form of the Hulk. This time, however, Betty Ross was upset because she wanted Banner to be rid of the Hulk, not to be in control of him. When Betty learned tat General Ross conspired with MODOK to kill the Hulk, she accused her father of treason. Realizes she was right, General Ross nearly committed suicide and then disappeared.
The Hulk disappeared from Earth for an extended period, and Betty Ross became the lover of a man named Ramon. Upon learning that the Hulk had been sighted on Earth again. Betty left Ramon and returned to Gamma Base, where the Hulk was subjected to a process that split him and Banner into separate entities. Believing himself cured, Banner proposed to Betty, and she accepted. General Ross appeared at the wedding, armed with a gun and demanding that the marriage not take place. Courageously, Betty confronted her father, accused him of tyrannizing her throughout her life, and cowed him into surrendering the gun to her. Then, finally, Bruce Banner and Betty Ross were pronounced to be man and wife.
However, Bruce Banner began dying as a result of being physically separated from his other self, the Hulk. Banner and the Hulk secretly merged together once more. Betty knew that Banner was again the Hull.
General Ross died before his daughter's eyes when he sacrificed his life to destroy an unnamed mutant that nearly killed both herself and her husband.
Betty was distraught on learning that Banner had sometimes consciously triggered his transformation in the past and was even now willing to become the Hulk in order to deal with certain menaces. She left Banner and returned to Ramon, but then changed her mind and abandoned Ramon as well. She was then captured by the Leader, who set her free after learning that she was pregnant with Bruce Banner's child. She was reunited with Bruce Banner, but soon afterward, the Hulk seemingly perished in a tremendous explosion. Believing the Hulk dead, Betty left for New York City, where she eventually began training to become a nun.
The Hulk, meanwhile, had found a way to prevent Banner from ever surfacing again while in the sub-atomic world of Jarella. Returning to Earth, the Hulk adopted the identity of "Joe Fixit," and began a romantic relationship with Marlo Chandler (later, Marlo Jones), although Bruce was still technically married to Betty. Marlo later ended the relationship, growing uncomfortable with the secrets Fixit would keep from her.
After many months, Banner learned of Betty's whereabouts during the Hulk's encounter with the villain Madman, and was soon reunited with her, but not before the green-skinned savage Hulk reappeared as well, in an encounter with the hero Prometheus. Banner and Betty searched for Rick Jones and were similarly reunited, as was the Hulk with Rick's new girlfriend Marlo.
Soon afterwards, the various personalities of the Hulk were fused to one whole, and the Hulk was contacted by the enigmatic leader Agamemnon to join his clandestine hero team Pantheon. The Hulk served with the Pantheon for a long tenure. During this time, his relationship with Betty became strained. She was not comfortable with the "merged" persona nor did she agree to live at the Pantheon's headquarters with the Hulk. With time and effort, however, the Hulk and Betty's relationship improved.
After many months, the Pantheon had a falling out with their former leader, Agamemnon, and in the subsequent battle the Pantheon's headquarters was destroyed and Betty was fatally wounded. The Hulk lost control over his form and the savage Hulk reassumed control. Returning physically to Banner's alter ego, Banner was remanded to SHIELD custody and Betty was hospitalized.
At some point, the Hulk snuck Betty out of the hospital that she was in and they began living as fugitives. They eventually settled in Sunville, Florida under assumed identities. The Hulk managed to keep their identities secret despite several adventures in Florida and New York. Eventually, however, Betty was captured by the U.S. Army's Matt Talbot who succeeded in capturing the Hulk despite the re-emergence of the Hulk's fractured personalities.
Betty was freed by the Leader's former lackeys, collectively known as the Headshop. Betty and the Headshop, in turn, freed the Hulk, but in the process the Hulk jumped on a live grenade, which left him with shrapnel in his brain and a subsequent penchant for turning into a physical alter ego of the Maestro. The Hulk left to begin a series of adventures, ultimately leading to Doc Samson and the U.S. Army hunting the Hulk once more.
As Banner continued his life under the Hulk's curse, Betty learned that her long association with the Hulk had left her dying from gamma radiation poisoning. The Hulk's archenemy, the Abomination, out of revenge for his brutal defeat by the Hulk, learned of this and then somehow used a transfusion of his own gamma-radiated blood to poison her, and Betty died.
Height: 5 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 110lbs.
Eyes: Blue (as the Harpy, green)
Hair: Brown (for a time dyed
blond; as the Harpy, green)
Strength Level: Betty Ross Banner possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. As Harpy she possessed the superhuman strength, the exact extent of which is unknown.
Known Superhuman Powers: None
Former Superhuman Powers: As the Harpy, Betty Ross had the body whose upper half resembled her normal one, except that it was green, and whose lower half resembled that of an enormous bird. She had large wings enabling her to fly, and could project concussive energy blasts from her hands that were powerful enough to harm the Hulk.
