SHE-HULK CLONE

Real Name: None

Identity/Class: Altered Human/Clone

Occupation: 

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Ally of the Headmen (Chondu, Gorilla-Man, Ruby Thursday, Shrunken Bones)

Enemies: She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Spider-Man (Peter Parker)

Known Relatives: Inapplicable

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Headmen Headquarters, Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: Sensational She-Hulk I#3 (July, 1989)

Powers/Abilities: The She-Hulk Clone possessed all the powers of the She-Hulk, including superhuman strength (Class 75), stamina and resistance to injury. It had no discernible autonomy and could be controlled by electronical means.

Height: 5'10" (by approximation)
Weight: 700 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: None
Hair: None

History:

(Sensational She Hulk I#1-3 - BTS) - The She-Hulk Clone was created through the combined efforts of Dr. Arthur Nagan and Dr. Jerold Morgan of the Headmen in an attmpt to restore their associate, Chondu the Mystic, to full normalcy after he was driven mad by the shock of his mutated body. For unknown reasons, they chose the She-Hulk for her superior attributes as a host body, and even hired the Circus of Crime to test her attributes for a demonstration of her abilities. They finally obtained her through the assistance of Mysterio.

(Sensational She Hulk I#3) - Unable to shear her head from her body, Nagan and Morgan used the few cell samples they were able to get from her to create a clone and age it into adulthood although they kept the head in a reduced miniature size. They then removed Chondu's head from his unstable body, kept it alive by means unknown, and began to graft it onto the She-Hulk Clone's body. In order to double-cross Mysterio, the Headmen paid him with counterfeit money and put it in a briefcase containing a device keyed to Spider-Man's spider-sense to clue the hero on to him. The web-slinger, however, tracked down the Headmen who promptly used the She-Hulk Clone on him. Although briefly knocked out, Spider-Man overheard Chondu ranting about being attached to a female body and choosing his body in exchange. He knocked Chondu's head from the She-Hulk Clone and discovered the vestigal head pointing to the preserved but sedated state of the She-Hulk. Being kept in a state that convinced her she had been decapitated, she realized the truth and helped the web-slinger to over-power the Headmen.

Comments: Created by John Byrne (writer, pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks).

It is likely the She-Hulk Clone was destroyed by the authorities once the Headmen were arrested. However, it is also conceivable someone restored its head and she became Amazon of Strike Force One seen in Heroes For Hire#2.

It is curious as to why the Headmen chose the She-Hulk to give the body to Chondu. Conceivably, they preferred the Hulk (an old foe from his Defenders years), but unable to get him, they set their sights on his cousin.

Another curiosity, how is Chondu being kept alive without a body? It would require some extraodinary miniature cybernetic devices. The idea of preserving heads without a body actually occurred around an obscure Philadelphia serial killer named Dr. Adolph Brunrichter who killed prostitutes and tried to keep their heads alive after death. When he vanished, police found several heads without bodies connected to apparatuses in his home.

   I wondered about that when first I got and read the Sensational She-Hulk I#3 way back when. I concluded that his artificial brain - created with an ejectum from Ruby Thursday's artificial head and "gifted" to him along with that monstrous body by his teammates even farther back in the Defenders I#35 - is somehow doing the trick, just as Ruby's own artificial head presumably performed certain necessary functions to keep her biological body alive until its death in I ♥ Marvel: Outlaw Love#1.
--John Rigali