Betty Ross

Not to be confused with Betsy Ross.

Red She-Hulk redirects here. For the Golden Age Betty Ross, see Golden Girl.

Betty Ross
Betty Ross sharing a laugh with the Hulk on cover of The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #373 (September 1990). Art by Dale Keown.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Incredible Hulk #1 (1962) Hulk vol. 2 #15 (September 2009) (as Red She-Hulk)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby Red She-Hulk: Jeph Loeb Ed McGuinness
In-story information
Alter ego	Elizabeth "Betty" Ross-Banner
Team affiliations	Defenders (as Red She-Hulk)
Notable aliases	Elizabeth Ross, Elizabeth Ross-Talbot, Harpy, Mr. Blue, Red She-Hulk
Abilities	As Red She-Hulk: Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability Regenerative healing factor Energy-absorption

Betty Ross (Full name Elizabeth Ross, later Betty Talbot and then Betty Banner) is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe, and love interest of Bruce Banner. In the 2003 film, Hulk, she was played by Jennifer Connelly, and in the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk, Betty is portrayed by Liv Tyler.

Publication history

Betty Ross first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Betty Ross Banner received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #1.

In Hulk vol. 2 #15 (September 2009) Betty Ross for the first time appears as Red She-Hulk, who was created by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness.

Red She-Hulk's existence was revealed at the 2009 Comic-Con International, where promotional photos were released of her wearing a torn black jumpsuit, wielding an assault rifle and a sai, leading to immediate speculation towards her identity.

Fictional character biography

The only daughter of the renowned General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, Betty spent her formative years firmly under her father's strict supervision. Thunderbolt Ross had wanted a son, and his disappointment at having a daughter was reflected in the way he raised her. After her mother died during Betty's teenage years, she was sent away to boarding school. After graduating, the introverted young woman returned to her father's side. Thunderbolt Ross was then in charge of a top-secret project to create a new type of weapon involving gamma radiation. The head scientist on the project was Robert Bruce Banner, whom her father detested. An attraction between Betty and Bruce soon developed.

Their relationship was forever changed when, during the test of a gamma radiation bomb, Bruce was struck by the full force of the detonation and became the Hulk. Banner tried to keep his condition secret from Betty, which alienated them. Betty was then romantically pursued by Major Glenn Talbot, the new aide attached to her father's Hulkbuster task force. Eventually, the secret of Banner's dual identity became public knowledge, and his transformations and rampages created a rift between him and Betty. Betty married Major Talbot out of desperation. Their union soon ended in divorce, however, and Talbot died trying to destroy the Hulk.

Betty continued to find herself entangled in the lives of Bruce Banner and the Hulk. At one point she was transformed by the villainous MODOK into a gamma-empowered flying menace known as the Harpy. In this form, she was an insane green creature with a woman's head and arms, but the wings and body of a giant bird of prey. She could fly and fire energy blasts.

Despite these events, and the protestations of her father, she eventually married Bruce Banner. The two conceived a child, but after being tormented with terrible nightmares by the demons Nightmare and D'Spayre, Betty loses her unborn baby.

Betty spent some months in a monastery to recover from the ordeal, but eventually reunites with Bruce. They spent years living together as fugitives until the Hulk's enemy Abomination used his own blood to poison Betty, which would appear to be the work of the Hulk himself (due to the high levels of gamma radiation present in both of their bodies). Betty was placed in cryogenic suspension by her father.

In a later retconned storyarc Betty was seemingly revived by the Leader; underwent surgery which considerably altered her appearance; was granted superhuman strength; and for a time aided her fugitive husband as his shadowy contact, Mr. Blue.

The "Tempest Fugit" story arc explains her resurrection as a reality-distorting hallucination created by Nightmare, and also introduces Betty's daughter Daydream, supposedly magically conceived when the entity raped her in her sleep. This version of events was confirmed in stories by later writers.

Red She-Hulk

Betty Ross as Red She-Hulk. Art by Ian Churchill.

During the 2010 "Fall of the Hulks" storyline, Betty is revealed to have been resurrected by the Leader and MODOK, due to the urgings of their new ally, her father Thunderbolt Ross, who had previously kept her body in cryonic stasis. She also undergoes the same process that turned her father into the Red Hulk, which grants her vast superhuman physical power. The now villainous Doc Samson also helps Leader to brainwash Betty into an extremely confused and aggressive state. Ross' allies are aware of his intentions to betray them and send Betty, as the "Red She-Hulk", to help assassinate her father, who was hunting the mercenary Domino, after she witnessed him transform from his human form. Their encounter ended with Red She-Hulk kicking Red Hulk off the Empire State Building.

After Ross fakes his own death, Betty also appears as herself at his "funeral", accompanied by a Life Model Decoy of Glenn Talbot to constantly monitor and control her, and expresses distrust of Bruce due to his recent marriage to Caiera on Sakaar and his subsequent attack on Manhattan. During the 2010 "World War Hulks" storyline, after Skaar stabs her with his sword, the new She-Hulk reverts back to her human form, officially revealing her true identity. Betty explains how she was brought back to life, and asks that Bruce allow her to die. However, when Samson arrives, Betty's anger at his betrayal transforms her back into the Red She-Hulk, thus healing her injuries. Now once again in control of her own mind Betty (as Red She-Hulk) helps Bruce/Hulk to reconcile with his son Skaar. When Bruce gains the upper hand in the ensuing final battle against Ross, Betty turns worried for her father, which, combined with her heightened aggression when transformed, leads into conflict with the original She-Hulk, who prevails. After Ross is defeated and imprisoned, Betty nonetheless convinces Bruce to grant her father an opportunity for rehabilitation and redemption.

In the aftermath of the Leader's attempted takeover, Betty tells Bruce that they are no longer married, since she was declared legally dead and everyone else knows that Bruce had married Caiera. However in the last issue of The Incredible Hulks series #635 the hulk family defeat Fing Fang Foom. Afterwards Betty and Bruce Banner (The Hulk) resume their relationship.

Red She-Hulk is also present in the "Chaos War" and "Fear Itself" storylines in 2010 and 2011 respectively. She is subsequently a cast member in the ongoing Defenders series (volume 4) that debuted in December 2011 under writer Matt Fraction.

Powers and abilities

As the Red She-Hulk, Betty has enormous superhuman strength, stamina, durability, and a healing factor that allows her to easily survive what would normally be fatal injuries to humans, such as stab wounds to the leg and abdomen by Wolverine's claws. Similarly to her ex-husband, Betty's strength level is so vast that it warps the laws of physics even further than standard for other characters in the same fictional continuity, for example allowing her to punch her way through dimensional barriers between different universes. She shares the Red Hulk's ability to absorb energy, such as the gamma radiation from other Hulks, thereby reverting those beings to human form, and at least temporarily boosting herself. According to Banner, there were plans to remove this ability through the same process that removed the Red Hulk's based on the fact that this ability would eventually kill her. Also like her father, Red She-Hulk has yellow blood, produces yellow energy from her eyes when angry, and can discharge energy by touch. Red She-Hulk can only revert back to human form if she is suddenly startled or frightened, though she can revert back to her hulk form at will.

Other versions

"Heroes Reborn"

Ultimate She-Hulk (Betty Ross) in Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #3. Art by Leinil Francis Yu.

In the "Heroes Reborn" Universe created during 1996-1997 storyline by Franklin Richards in the aftermath of the Onslaught crisis, Betty was known as Liz Ross, and served as the head of security for Stark International. As a result, she took Iron Man's apparent appointment as Tony Stark's personal bodyguard as a personal insult, and was also present when Bruce Banner was exposed to the gamma radiation that would turn him into the Hulk (The same accident that resulted in Stark donning the Iron Man armor in the first place). Shortly before the heroes returned to their world, it was revealed that Liz was dying of cancer as a result of the gamma exposure, Banner being particularly affected by news of the disease to the extent that he turned back from the Hulk to embrace her as Banner after learning about her condition.

"House of M"

In the "House of M" universe, Betty Ross is married to Major Glenn Talbot.

Ultimate Betty Ross

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Betty is the daughter of General "Thunderbolt" Ross. She was the college roommate of Janet van Dyne. She earned a degree in communications at Berkeley and dated Bruce Banner until his failed attempts at cracking the super soldier problem turned him into the Hulk.

When the Ultimates were assembled, she became their Director of Communications/Public Relations Officer. After being spurned by Betty, Bruce responded by injecting himself with a version of the Hulk formula that incorporated the recently discovered Captain America's blood, and went on a rampage as the Hulk, during which he killed more than 800 civilians. During his trial, Betty declared her love for Bruce, who was eventually convicted, and sentenced to death, but Bruce escaped the nuclear bomb intended to execute him by turning into the Hulk and escaping. Bruce returned during the Ultimates 2 miniseries, after the Fury, the President of the United States and Washington D.C. and New York had been captured by the Liberators. Bruce, now exhibiting greater control over his transformations, helped repel the Liberators, and Betty was seen tending to an exhausted Bruce after the battle with the Liberators and Loki in Washington DC.

In the Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk miniseries, Nick Fury sends Wolverine to find and kill the Hulk, but their battle was interrupted by She-Hulk, who is revealed to be Betty, having injected herself with the Hulk serum. Nick Fury reveals that S.H.I.E.L.D. is working to keep her transformations under control.

In other media

Television

• Betty Ross appears in "The Incredible Hulk" portion of the 1966 animated The Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Peg Dixon. In this series Betty is shown as a civilian hanger on with no apparent function at Gamma Base, like in the comics, other than the fact that she was General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross' daughter and only child.
• Betty Ross appears in the 1982 Incredible Hulk animated series voiced by B.J. Ward. In this incarnation, Betty is a research scientist working alongside Bruce Banner at Gamma Base. Like the 1966 series, Betty (as are most of the series regulars, other than Rick Jones) is unaware that Banner transforms into the Hulk.
• Betty Ross appears in the 1996 The Incredible Hulk TV series voiced originally by Genie Francis and later voiced by Philece Sampler. Like in many comic book incarnations, Betty is seen here trying to find a cure for Bruce Banner, who becomes the Hulk whenever enraged. She is a main character, appearing throughout the entire series.

Film

• In the 2003 film, Hulk, Betty Ross is played by Jennifer Connelly and by Rhiannon Leigh Wryn (as a child). She is Bruce's girlfriend and scientific colleague. She is the second person to learn about the Hulk, when Banner saves her from his father's gamma-enhanced dogs, and is the only person capable of calming the Hulk down. At the conclusion of the film, when Banner has been declared dead, she is contacted by her father, asking if she has heard from Banner, but she coldly informs him that, even if Bruce was alive, she hopes he wouldn't contact her (her phone lines are all being tapped), and that she loves him.

• Betty Ross appears in the animated films Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2 voiced by Nan McNamara.

• In the 2008 The Incredible Hulk (which is not directly related to the 2003 film) film, Betty Ross is played by Liv Tyler. Like Banner, Ross is a Harvard graduate and is now a cell biology professor. In the time she and Banner were separated (clips in the opening credits sequence imply that she was injured during Banner's initial transformations into the Hulk, although she doesn't seem to hate or distrust him for his actions), she began dating Dr. Leonard Samson. After Bruce's sudden return, she begins desperately trying to help him in any way she can. She believes that the Hulk isn't a true monster (though Bruce still sees it that way), due to him not hurting her in his second transformed state, and even takes him to Samuel Sterns, who attempts to cure him, but with no success; Sterns's treatment merely halts Banner's transformation at the time rather than curing him permanently. By the end of the movie she and Bruce are separated once more, although the two remain in contact with each other in secret.

• An older Betty Ross appears in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow voiced by Nicole Oliver. She helps an elderly Tony Stark and the children of the dead Avengers convince Hulk to help fight Ultron and his Iron Avengers.

• In Hulk vs. Thor, Betty (again voiced by Nicole Oliver) appears in Bruce's dream in which he's married and has a young son.

Video games

• Betty Ross first appears in the Hulk video game voiced by Katie Bennison. She has been captured by Madman as a hostage to prevent the Hulk attacking them. She later helps Bruce escape captivity in the military base and develop an antidote for the serums they have given him to suppress his transformation into the Hulk.
• Betty Ross appears in video game adaption of The Incredible Hulk voiced by Liv Tyler. One mission features Banner attempting to rescue her from military forces after arriving at her university. Another mission has her captured by Hulkbusters on Glenn Talbot's orders. When she tells the Hulkbuster fighting Hulk that she is General Thunderbolt Ross' daughter, the Hulkbusters stop their attack and free her.
• The Red She-Hulk and Ultimate She-Hulk forms (both Betty Ross) are available as alternate costumes for She-Hulk in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.
• The Red She-Hulk is a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online.

External links

• Betty Ross-Banner at the Marvel Universe wiki