RED She Hulk Respect Thread

A few posters have been creating threads featuring Red She Hulk in a lot of "Versus" forum matches lately.
They seemed to want to know more about the character than anything else so I figured, "What they hey ... I'll show them some scans from the Red She Hulk respect thread so they can get their questions answered."

Problem.

There WAS no Red She Hulk respect thread.

So I figured I might as well take the next step in the days and weeks to come and simply MAKE one here. Seems like a good time to do so, too, what with Betty getting her own limited series for the present time, so ...

So.....nothing to start with?

So, as many people know, Bruce Banner, aka the Incredible Hulk, was married to a woman named Betty Ross. Some years ago, the Marvel Comics company seems, for whatever reason, to have decided that marriage was a bad state for it's characters to be in. Hence the injection of storylines where people not only divorced or spouses died, but also storylines where people's spouses were mind-swapped with the form of their arch-villains, marriages were annulled or determined never to have happened, deals made with the devil to reverse time, and such like that. The marriage of Betty Ross and Bruce Banner suffered an extraordinarily cruel end, even by the standards of that day.
Hulk's body, grown to mammoth size and strength due to gamma radiation, was determined to radiate low-level gamma radiation in any state. Harmful rays that ... would eventually irradiate and/or make sterile and/or give cancer and/or cause death due to accumulated radiation poisoning. Hence, Betty Banner died, and not due to some super-villain or outside event, but due to simply wedding and living with the man she loved.

Such was the case for many, many years.

Or ... so it was thought.

In a happy turn of events that actually makes me appreciate retcons of a certain class, Betty was brought back to life!

Thanks, ironically, to the efforts of one of Hulk's greatest enemies, and the foresight of Betty's dear old dad ...

She-Rulk hasn't been along for many years, but she's already been handled by several writers and artists. The creative team that has impressed me so far with her is that of Greg Pak and Paul Pelletier.
Actually, Greg Pak writing a Hulk character with almost anyone save McGuinness often proves a treat, but Pelletier manages to give Betty the aesthetic and pleasing look Aaron Lopresti managed during his run with Gail Simone over at DC.

At any rate, continuing with the in-story narrative, the Leader-resurrected-Betty-Ross-Banner made her debut as a somewhat mysterious villain. She was first seen matching against her dad Thunderbolt Ross, aka Red Hulk, though neither apparently knew the identity of the other at first; later she would be matched against a who's who of Marvel's famous heroes. Most notable on the list were the Avengers, whom she faced in Incredible Hulk #607 ...

I originally thought to include the scenes leading up to this one.

As some of you know however, I am committed to first presenting any visual information through KMC's own image hosting program, which is the most stable program I know of, but, unfortunately, somewhat limited in terms of how quickly scans can be rendered and likewise limited in terms of the size of images that can be displayed.

So I decided I'll let "prequel" scenes remain absent until the time is right to do a respect thread for the Leader. The scenes are self-contained enough that they can do most of their own storytelling, after all...

She Hulk versus Avengers, Round 1, respite ...

Pak and Pelletier are surprisingly good at pacing and small details.
They also have an odd ability to switch out power while adding impact; they all but force the reader to slow down and notice what is happening, on a level only recalled by me now by John Byrne before them. They also have the ability to more or less "clean slate" what appeared before them without sacrificing the dignity of supporting players. For instance, Wolverine debuted in the pages of Hulk #181.
The first time we see him he actually takes on the Incredible Hulk himself AND a supernatural monster known as the Wendigo. He would take these 2 on many times in future appearances, occasionally even winning against one or the other. Actually, if I'm remembering right, Wolverine even took on Red She Hulk herself in a Loeb/McGuinness book, warning her and others that he would kill anyone that stood in his way.

Here? There is none of that braggadocio. Wolverine is handled as a threat by She Rulk WHILE She Rulk eliminates 2 powerful others. He has to be pulled from the battle to safety behind a thick steel barrier despite the fighting strength of least 4 other allies, and is worried after he does that it won't be enough to keep She Rulk from getting to himself and the rest of his group:

.

Amazingly, despite the scheme enacted by Pym, SheRulk gets through.
Steel doors, Avengers team, dimensional barriers, whatever, her sheer physical power sees her through. It will do so for a lot of engagements to come.

But we'll get to those later.

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14066344

Red She-Hulk versus Avengers

(URL format with reference information.)

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067091
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067101
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067104
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067115
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067120
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067128

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Source: Incredible Hulk #607, Volume 1
Writer: Greg Pak
Penciller: Paul Pelletier
Date: February 17, 2010
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http://marvel.wikia.com/Incredible_Hulk_Vol_1_607

Click-able link format for previous entries.
Note that if you are accessing the archive edition of this thread, you will be unable to use these or the attachments but can still retrieve my images via the URLs of my previous post.

Red She-Hulk origin

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14066344

Red She-Hulk versus Avengers

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067091
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067101
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067104
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067115
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067120
http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067128

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Incredible Hulk #607, Volume 1
Writer: Greg Pak
Penciller: Paul Pelletier
Date: February 17, 2010
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://marvel.wikia.com/Incredible_Hulk_Vol_1_607

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14067138

It's at least somewhat instructive to examine the capabilities of Rulk himself to see what Betty can do.

Ross's daughter has some differences from her dad; nevertheless they were created by the same people and share far more similarities than any other 2 characters roaming Marvel U.

One of the most amazing properties the Red Hulk USED to have, for instance, was the ability to absorb various forms of energy, including sound, cosmic, and gamma energy. Such enabled him to defeat the Incredible Hulk himself (Bruce Banner) with relative ease, and not just once but twice. The first time can be found in the Red Hulk Respect Thread. I'll show the 2nd one here ...

Someone asked in a hypothetical match-up between Killer Frost of DC and Betty's group, if Betty, like her father before her, generated significant amounts of heat. To be honest, I don't really know.
I would suppose that Betty, being a more advanced experimental being than her father, has, at the very least, some means of preventing such heat generation from becoming a debilitating circumstance.

The fight that reveals father and daughter Ross as the alter egos of Marvel's "Rulk"s certainly suggests as much ...

Red She Hulk defeats Rulk ...

She Hulk versus Rulk. Thunderbolt reveal. Url version.

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14085197

http://www.killermovies.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=14085206

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Source: Hulk #22, Volume 2
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciller: Ed McGuinness
Date: July 2010
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http://marvel.wikia.com/Hulk_Vol_2_22

Although I'm pleased that Betty has been given a shot at her own series for the present, I'm thinking it's going to be a long year for anyone waiting for pure, noteworthy strength feats from her, a la hubby Bruce.

In the meantime, fans can relive some of the cooler moments from Greg Pak, who, as noted earlier, really seems to like to give Hulk characters their due. Witness husband and wife at what is essentially play in the following scenes. Note how surprisingly equal a partner Betty actually IS to Bruce in every sense of the word, including, ultimately, her innate sense of compassion and heroism.

Betty and Bruce. Beach play.

Tidalclap1.

Great scene.

Betty counters one of Bruce's thunderclaps with her own.

Notice that hers is not only powerful enough to cancel Hulk's own, but the spillover creates a tidal wave that nearly washes Bruce's son, Skaar, some several hundred yards apart, out to sea.

Accidental -- Betty instantly leaps to and saves Skaar from drowning or other harm, even before Hulk himself can manage an attempt.

Especially noteworthy given what Skaar tried to DO to Betty only an issue or few before this point.
Bygones are bygones the moment she sees him in danger.

Note the entirety of this scene plays out long before the "Wishing Well" episodes.

Betty may or may not have enjoyed an "amp" to her abilities in THAT series.

Here, without the aid of any outside device, she proves she is a surprisingly good match for Marvel's main "strongest there is" character ...