Betty Ross (Earth-199999)
Doctor Elizabeth "Betty" Ross is an American scientist and professor in cellular biology at Culver University in Virginia. She is best known for participating in the experiment that produced the Hulk, as well as being Bruce Banner's love interest before said experiment. She is the daughter of General Thunderbolt Ross.
Biography
On April 16, 2005,[1] Dr. Elizabeth Ross was involved in an experiment led by her romantic partner, Dr. Bruce Banner, and commissioned by the military through Betty's father, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. The goal of the experiment, to reproduce the super-soldier serum, was obfuscated to the scientists. Dr. Banner was enthusiastic about the project, perhaps overly so, and ended up taking it beyond Ross' recommended threshold to his own peril: Banner transformed into a large, green, virtually mindless monster that would come to be known as the Hulk. Several scientists and soldiers were killed, and Dr. Ross was badly injured. Overcome with remorse, Banner fled the project, and remained on the run and wanted by the government for years to come.[1]
In the meantime, Dr. Ross moved on: after recovering from her injuries, she continued teaching, and eventually began dating Leonard Samson. She also copied all of the data on her father's project on to a USB drive; a shrewd decision, as all of those data would soon be deleted from all public records. In 2010, she suddenly saw Banner working at a local restaurant. She approached him, they embraced, and he spent the night at her home. Banner was searching for a cure for his condition, and explained that he had to leave the following morning or he would be found. She gave him her USB drive, and the next morning drove him to the university near the bus station. There they were met by military forces led by General Ross; Banner transformed into the Hulk and easily fought off the significant onslaught as Betty pleaded with her father to stop the attack. The Hulk, seemingly more cognizant than once thought, physically protected Dr. Ross from a crashing helicopter, carrying her off relatively unharmed.
Now an accomplice in Banner's crimes, Dr. Ross went with him across the country in search of a cure. The two went to Grayburn College in New York City, where Banner had arranged a meeting with Dr. Samuel Sterns, with whom he'd been discussing a potential cure for months through encrypted internet messages. The experiment that Sterns carried out was a success, utilizing data on a "primer" that Dr. Ross had developed to immediately counteract the effects of Banner's transformation. General Ross and his forces soon caught up with them however, as head soldier Emil Blonsky tranquilized Banner and took him into custody. Betty chided her father and accompanied Banner onto a military helicopter; the general spared her any criminal charges.
As Banner awoke, a new threat appeared in the streets of New York. Blonsky, already the subject of significant biological testing, had taken a dose of Banner's blood from Dr. Sterns and become what Sterns had dubbed an Abomination: a huge, pale, malicious beast rivaling the Hulk in sheer power. Banner gained General Ross' reluctant blessing to fight the creature, eventually subduing him and threatening to strangle him to death with a chain. It was Dr. Ross who convinced him otherwise, and the Hulk spared the Abomination. Hulk fled across the rooftops, never to be chased again, as the Abomination was taken into military custody. Dr. Ross' fate since then is unknown.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Incredible Hulk: The Big Picture. (October 2008) David, Peter (w), Ross, Dave (p), Hubbs, Troy and Victor Olazaba (i), Sotomayor, Chris (col), Caramagna, Joe (let), Boose, Nicole and Nathan Cosby (ed).
- ↑ The Incredible Hulk. Dir. Leterrier, Louis. Perf. Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and William Hurt. Universal Pictures, 2008.