FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
Classification: Mystic fountain
Creator: Unrevealed (if any)
User/Possessors: Brutus, Hulk (Bruce Banner), Archer Leopold, Mole Man (Harvey Elder), Heather Ryan, Tyrannus (Romulus Augustulus);
after it became a Wishing Well: Arm'chedon, Bi-Beast, Amadeus Cho, Fin Fang Foom, Hulk (Bruce Banner), Monica Rappaccini, Red She-Hulk (Betty Ross), Umar the Unrelenting, Wendigo
Aliases: Wishing Well
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk I#5 (January, 1963)
Location: Three miles beneath Las Vegas, Nevada (when last seen; see comments)
Powers/Abilities/Functions: The water in the Fountain of Youth was altered by an unidentified chemical or mystical element. Regular consumption of the water from the Fountain of Youth granted longevity by keeping the consumer young or could revert an older person to their youth in an instant. A person that only drank once from the water, but even a regular consumers like Tyrannus began to age regularly again when they stopped consuming the water.
The water from the Fountain of Youth also possessed healing properties that could save anyone from lethal wounds.
After it was turned into a Wishing Well the consumption or contact with the water granted the person wishing powers, which were very unpredictable due to the inexact nature of wishes.
History:
(Incredible Hulk I#5 (fb) - BTS) - Centuries ago Tyrannus discovered the Fountain of Youth in Subterranea where he had been banished to by the sorcerer Merlin. The water kept him alive and young for many centuries while he ruled over an obedient subterranean species (later dubbed Tyrannoids) and planned his conquest of the surface world.
(X-Men I#34 (fb) - BTS) - He had to drink daily from the Fountain to survive.
(Incredible Hulk I#5) - Tyrannus drank a goblet of water from the Fountain of Youth before leaving his kingdom to take Betty Ross hostage and blackmail her father General Ross to not interfere with his conquest plans. The Hulk saved Betty and ruined Tyrannus' day and plans.
(Tales to Astonish I#80/2 (fb) - BTS) - Mole Man took control over the Fountain of Youth by diverting the water into an actual fountain built in his kingdom. Mole Man and his Moloid forces kept his archenemy Tyrannus away long enough for him to age rapidly, but Tyrannus set a plan in motion to force the Hulk to aid him to regain control over the Fountain.
(Tales to Astonish I#80/2) - Though the Fountain was under his control, the Mole Man didn't dare to touch or consume the water himself. He just ordered the Moloids to keep Tyrannus away so he could grow his army for his invasion of the surface world by adding Tyrannus' forces as well.
(Tales to Astonish I#80/2 - BTS) - Tyrannus feared for his life and couldn't wait any longer to drink from the Fountain of Youth. He tried to use the abducted Rick Jones, Betty Ross and Major Talbot to force Hulk to recapture the Fountain for him, but Hulk didn't even recognize them. When Mole Man's forces attacked Tyrannus' kingdom it was motivation enough for the Hulk to fight them.
(Tales to Astonish I#80/2) - Mole Man sent the robotic Octo-Sapien against the Hulk. During their battle the Hulk tackled the Octo-Sapien into the Fountain of Youth, but the water made the robot's circuits to explode. Though the Fountain was destroyed, the waters still held their magnificent powers with a surprising effect on the Hulk as Bruce Banner emerged from the water without a clue where he was.
(Tales to Astonish I#81/2 - BTS) - While Mole Man ordered his forces to make sure that Tyrannus would not find the source of the Fountain, the aged Tyrannus was looking for the Fountain and ran into Bruce Banner, who was looking for Rick, Betty and Talbot. Tyrannus revealed that they had been transported back to the surface via his Matter Transmitter because they were no use to him. Tyrannus saw some moisture on the ground after Banner, who had inadvertently taken a bath in the Fountain of Youth earlier, had left. Tyrannus was sure that he had found the Fountain of Youth and would soon be young and handsome again.
(X-Men I#34) - Tyrannus drank from the Fountain of Youth before sending the Super-Cobalt Robot Ralph Roberts was forced to build for him into battle against Mole Man's Diamond Android. He already planned for the days when he would drink these waters on the surface world after conquering it following the defeat of the Mole Man.
(Incredible Hulk II#127 (fb)) - Mole Man and the Moloids captured the Fountain of Youth once again and went to war against Tyrannus.
(Iron Man Annual I#12 (fb) - BTS) - Kala learned of Tyrannus and the Fountain of Youth.
(Fantastic Four I#127 (fb) / Fantastic Four I#128 (fb) - both BTS) - To get close to both she feigned interest in the Mole Man, who had enslaved Tyrannus. She eventually turned on Mole Man to get with Tyrannus, who immediately turned on her in return and got into a battle with Fantastic Four. (the Fountain was neither mentioned nor seen in these issues, but is BTS)
(Incredible Hulk II#241 (fb)) - Following the battle with the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four I#128) Tyrannus fled in Mole Man's Magma-Cruiser, which was rigged to blow up if any other person than the Mole Man or Kala used it. The Tyrannoids found the comatose Tyrannus and took him to the Fountain of Youth. They tended to him while he was fully immersed in the waters until he regained consciousness, but he had grown older because healing his mortal wounds somehow canceled out the Fountain's usual longevity effect. Tyrannus was unable to find a way to reverse his aging process until he learned about the Flame of Life. He traveled to el Dorado and in his aged form became part of They Who Wield Power as the aged Des and ultimately created an elixir using the Flame of Life to regain his youth.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25 (fb) - BTS) - After Tyrannus' disappearance Mole Man once again took control over the Fountain of Youth. To gain immortality the Queen of the Netherworld Kala sought control over the Fountain of Youth and waged with her Lava Men army a war on the Mole Man, but couldn't break through his Moloid army and the superhuman Outcasts.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25 - BTS) - Kala kidnapped a group of Olympic athletes and also lured the Hulk to her domain to add him to her army.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25) - The Outcasts caught Spider-Man and brought him to Mole Man, who explained to the hero how Kala was behind the kidnappings of the athletes and waged war on his domain to gain control over the Fountain of Youth.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25 - BTS) - Kala drugged the Hulk and used her aging ray on the kidnapped girlfriend of American skier Brad Rossi to force him and his fellow athletes to fight for her because now Rossi's girlfriend Heather needed the Fountain of Youth to regain her youth while Kala still sought immortality. The athletes agreed to serve her and participated in a contest between the athletes and Outcasts in the Olympic Village after Mole Man and Kala agreed to settle control over the Fountain of Youth this way instead of destroying each other's kingdom.
Spider-Man on Mole Man's side and Hulk on Kala's side joined the contest as well. The Lava Men cheated for Kala to help some of the athletes win against the Outcasts in their respective competition without much success.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25) - In Subterranea Heather Ryan escaped the Lava Men and fell off a ledge right into the Fountain of Youth.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25 (fb)) - The waters broke through the barrier containing the Fountain of Youth as soon as Heather climbed from the pool and drained away into the depths of the Earth.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25 - BTS) - The competition continued until Heather, who had regained her youth, teleported to the surface using Mole Man's transporter. The athletes turned on Kala and her life-preserving helmet got damaged and she aged rapidly. Kala begged Mole Man to grant her access to the Fountain of Youth and he had no problem granting her wish.
(Marvel Treasury Edition#25) - Heather revealed the fate of the Fountain of Youth to Mole Man and a despairing Kala. Despite her aged form Mole Man offered Kala to make her his queen and she finally agreed to take his offer.
BTS - The barrier was fixed and the Fountain of Youth refilled.
(Avengers Annual I#20 (fb) - BTS) - The Deviant army of Brutus cut off Tyrannus from the Fountain of Youth once again. He formed an alliance with Mole Man, Grotesk and their respective armies of Moloids and Lava Men to stop the Deviants from conquering all Subterranea and regain access to the Fountain of Youth.
(Incredible Hulk Annual I#17 (fb) - BTS) - The Deviants put up a blockade around the Fountain of Youth and Tyrannus began to age like a normal person again because he had regularly drunk from the Fountain for such a long time.
(Incredible Hulk Annual I#17) - Tyrannus was devastated by the aging process and together with Mole Man came up with a plan to get the Hulk to help him regain access to the Fountain of Youth. Mole Man kidnapped Rick Jones and Betty Ross to lure the Hulk to Subterranea, but Brutus learned about it and personally checked on the barricade with Gort as his bodyguard. Accompanied by Mole Man and a group of Moloids, the Hulk fought his way through Brutus, Gort and his Deviants and filled a flask with the water from the Fountain of Youth before causing a cave-in that buried the Fountain. Though Tyrannus was not happy that the Fountain had been buried, he was desperate to take the last flask of water from it, but Hulk just poured it on the ground. Tyrannus desperately lapped up as much of the water from the ground as he could. Tyrannus at first felt the positive effect, but then realized that the water had been poisoned by Brutus and dropped to the ground. Mole Man called over Moloids to help him.
(Avengers West Coast Annual#6 - BTS) - Tyrannus remained in a delirium from the poisoned water. Mole Man eventually gave him the antidote. Tyrannus decided to travel to Kala's domain Netherworld after learning that she had given up eternal youth by leaving it.
(Hulk II#9) - Tyrannus used a machine he had found to control the Hulk (starting with the series), but when he lost control he reserved the tracking signal he used to track down Hulk's radioactive signature with the aid of his Tyrannoids to bring Hulk to him. Hulk was locked in a fight with the Thing and crashed through a wall in an abandoned coal mine filled with radioactive waste in the Apalachian mountains and landed in a stream filled with the water from the Fountain of Youth. Thing had lost a teleportation device given to him by Nick Fury and it was picked up by Hulk's new friend, an elderly moonshine making man named Archer Leopold, who followed them through the opening.
(Hulk II#9 - BTS / Hulk II#10 (fb)) - Archer fell face first into a stream filled with water from the Fountain of Youth and swallowed some of it. His elderly form was rejuvenated by the water.
(Hulk II#9) - Archer used the teleportation device to get rid of Thing and remained unaware that he had been rejuvenated by the water until the Hulk didn't recognize him as his friend Archer. Hulk calmed down, transformed back into Banner and was then captured by Tyrannus and his Tyrannoids. Tyrannus had Archer taken captive as well for having the gall to drink Fountain of Youth water.
(Hulk II#10 - BTS) - Tyrannus decided to eventually kill Archer, but not before threatening him to make Banner angry enough to turn into Hulk. Not killing Archer backfired massively for Tyrannus because not only did Archer damage the machine to transfer Hulk's powers to Tyrannus, but he then convinced the Tyrannoids to turn on Tyrannus and use the machine to transfer the Hulk's powers to them. One of the Tyrannoids led Archer and Banner back to the surface.
(Incredible Hulks#630) - Tyrannus took Red She-Hulk to his domain three miles beneath Las Vegas and showed her the Fountain of Youth inside a temple. He offered her a goblet of water because he considered her worthy to become his partner for eternity. Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini and her agents of A.I.M. invaded the underground city, knocked everyone out with tranquilizers, including Tyrannus and Red She-Hulk and then took control over the Fountain of Youth. Monica had some of her agents use a transmuter machine to turn the Fountain of Youth into a Wishing Well and then shot them because she wanted to be the only one tapping into the fundamental power of the water to fix the world. The tranquilizer weren't enough to keep Red She-Hulk down for long though and she dumped Monica into the Wishing Well and inadvertently made a wish that summoned giant monsters and turned Monica into an old woman.
Monica went to the Hulk (Banner) for help and told him about the Wishing Well and that Red She-Hulk was in danger. Amadeus Cho suspected that the Wishing Well probably granted wishes in a twisted, unexpected way because of the wishes' inexact nature. They arrived in Las Vegas and were pulled down by monsters through a fountain to the Wishing Well three miles beneath it. Amadeus fell into the Wishing Well, saw Red She-Hulk and wished for a little help and accidentally summoned some of Hulk's deadliest foes to their location including Arm'chedon of the Troyjans, Bi-Beast, Fin Fang Foom, Umar and a Wendigo.
(Incredible Hulks#631) - A-Bomb and Hulk received help from Fin Fang Foom against the monsters they were currently fighting while the other Hulk enemies didn't know why they were even there except for Umar, who understood the magic of the Wishing Well and knew that it was Amadeus' doing. Monica and Amadeus were attacked by Arm'chedon, Bi-Beast and Wendigo and fell into the Wishing Well again while they were protected by a Bannertech energy shield. Umar asked Amadeus to hand over control of the Wishing Well to her because unlike him she understood the magic. Hulk jumped into the Wishing Well and accidentally splashed his the summoned enemies with the water, granting all of them temporarily wishing powers as well. Umar sent Hulk and Amadeus back to Las Vegas with her first wish. Bi-Beast wished for a replacement for Sky Island and part of Las Vegas broke off and became a floating island. Wendigo wished for food and there were enough people on Bi-Beast's floating island to satiate him. Hulk attacked the two beings and wished for a real fight, which turned Bi-Beast and Wendigo into giant monsters. Amadeus wished all the people threatened by the situation on the floating island to safety and they ended up in Washington D.C. in front of the White House where he contacted the POTUS. Hulk defeated the monsters by turning them against each other and then wished for the floating island of Las Vegas back to the surface. It landed perfectly and according to Hulk's wish nobody on the ground got injured, remained calm and celebrated him at least for the moment. Meanwhile Arm'chedon wished for his spaceship to be on Earth to get his revenge on the Hulk and kidnapped Hulk's allies She-Hulk and A-Bomb. Seconds later he found himself aboard his giant spaceship to aid him in his goal.
(Incredible Hulks#632 - BTS) - Arm'chedon poisoned She-Hulk and A-Bomb to drive the Hulk mad by making him watch his friends die in front of him, but Hulk turned into Banner, asked Amadeus to have Monica help him save Rick and Jennifer and then turned into Hulk again to stop Arm'chedon and destroy his ship after Red She-Hulk was shot by it. Umar offered to help save Earth from the out of control Hulk.
(Incredible Hulks#633 - BTS) - Umar wished to convince Hulk to take him to the Dark Dimension where he could thrive fighting monsters, which was all he wished for anyway while he was all she wished for in a lover. She made it clear to Red She-Hulk that this whole situation started with her wish at the Wishing Well and Red She-Hulk was responsible for all of this. She followed them to the Dark Dimension. Umar also captured the other enemies summoned to the Wishing Well and kept Arm'chedon, Bi-Beast and Wendigo imprisoned in her dungeons.
On Earth Monica began work on an antidote for Jennifer and Rick and built with Amadeus a machine that could help phrase wishes to guarantee their correct fulfillment that could be used by those splashed with the Wishing Well water as long as some of its power was left in them, which Dr. Sofia di Cosimo could detect with a device. Amadeus and Monica were those on Earth that still had some wishing power left. Monica just wanted to undo all the damage caused by the Wishing Well and sent Doctor Strange, Amadeus and Sofia to the Dark Dimension to save the Hulk, but she stayed behind on Earth with machine. Strange was surprised that they looked like Dungeons & Dragons characters when they appeared in the Dark Dimension and blamed Amadeus for it. They witnessed Hulk get attacked by Red She-Hulk, Tyrannus and their mindless steed Fin Fang Foom, who had wished for the power to conquer Earth only to lose the brainpower to do so and fall under Tyrannus' control.
(Incredible Hulks#634 - BTS) - Tyrannus explained Foom's unfortunate situation and Red She-Hulk cut right through Hulk with her sword. Umar's wish finally backfired when Hulk when he accidentally destroyed the barrier keeping the Dark Dimension safe from the Mindless Ones. Foom, Tyrannus and Red She-Hulk were drawn into battle with them. Umar took Hulk, Strange, Cho and Sofia to her castle to decide what to do with them. Sofia made it clear again that Umar's wish will destroy everything she cared for and this was when Hulk asked her if any creatures in the Dark Dimension were innocent. She told him that none were innocent, which was all he wished for. A world where no innocent beings could be hurt by him. He told Strange, Amadeus and Sofia to leave because they wouldn't survive his next step. He released Arm'chedon, Bi-Beast and Wendigo from prison and began to fight them and all the other monsters on the planet without holding back until he broke the world apart and slew them all. Umar and Strange were the only survivors, but Hulk brought Sofia, Amadeus, Red She-Hulk and his fallen enemies back from the dead only to get locked in battle with Red She-Hulk, the woman he loved and hated. Sofia explained to Hulk's enemies that their wishes were part of what brought Hulk and them to this realm. They were now trapped in an eternal cycle of battling Hulk only to die and be reformed by him over and over again. Tyrannus finally revealed that he had never made a wish because he knew enough about that kind of magic to know that it would backfire. Tyrannus fled from the Dark Dimension with his steed Fin Fang Foom, who burned a portal from the Dark Dimension back to Earth.
(Incredible Hulks#635 - BTS) - Hulk fought Red She-Hulk and they both enjoyed it! Strange froze time had a quick meeting on the astral plane with Bruce Banner's astral form. Bruce asked Strange to get Sofia and Amadeus out because this eternal death by incineration and reincarnation wasn't what they wished for. He suggested to keep Foom there though. Strange returned to Earth where he tried to force Rappaccini with the aid of Jennifer Walters and Rick Jones to wish for Amadeus and Sofia to be brought back as well, but they were already back due to the portal created by Foom, who was munching on Gamma Bombs at the base and then launch them by spitting them out again. Rappaccini was the only one left with wishing powers and suggested to bring back the Hulk, but Strange was against it because he was now where he wanted to be. He instead tried to stop the Gamma Bombs with the help of Jennifer and Rick, who absorbed the Gamma radiation to become charged up versions of She-Hulk and A-Bomb, which made the situation even worse. Rappaccini used her last wish to open a portal to the Dark Dimension that showed Hulk and Red She-Hulk how Foom had become a threat to Earth. Hulk and Red She-Hulk jumped through the portal. Back on Earth they defeated Foom by absorbing the radiation from his rockets and became giants. The giant She-Hulk, A-Bomb and Red She-Hulk threatened to destroy Earth along with Hulk when Sofia told him that he still had some wishing power left to stop this. Hulk touched Rappaccini's wishing machine to revert his friends to their human forms with the power to transform into their powered forms at will, but seemingly didn't include himself. Betty tried to amend this because she had some wishing power left as well, but her wish to give Bruce what he wanted didn't work the way she expected because Bruce and the Hulk actually liked the way they were.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers.
Pure assumption, but maybe the water in all the Fountains of Youth on Earth originate from one specific subterranean spring and in some of them the water is more diluted than in others, which is the reason they vary in effectiveness.
Was Tyrannus' Fountain of Youth always beneath Las Vegas? Los Diablos Missile Base is in New Mexico, which is a few states away from Nevada. Lake Placid is in New York, which is even further away. The Appalachian Mountains are definitely not in Nevada either. Did Tyrannus just divert the water to wherever he lived and then put a barrier around it or did we always end up beneath Las Vegas without realizing it through a portal. The fountain in Las Vegas seemed to act like a portal before Hulk and friends dropped into the Fountain of Youth, but the story clearly stated that we were three miles beneath Las Vegas so that seemed to be the location at this point.
In Incredible Hulk I#5 Tyrannus believed that his Fountain of Youth was the one Ponce de Leon searched for and never found because it was in Subterranea.
Whatever was inside the Fountain of Youth's water was apparently also in the atmosphere of Kala's subterranean domain Netherworld.
The president of the United States at the time of Incredible Hulks#631 was Barack Obama, which is topical at this point.
It is unknown what the current status of the Fountain of Youth is after the Wishing War storyline. Was it permanently changed into a Washing Well? Was Rappaccini's machine needed to keep it that way? One day a writer will use it again and we will get the answer.
This profile was completed on 12/03/2025, but its publication was delayed for Stan Lee's birthday on 12/28.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Fountain of Youth should not be confused with:
images:
Incredible Hulks#630, p8, pan2 (main)
Incredible Hulk I#5, p3, pan5 (Tyrannus takes a sip)
Tales to Astonish I#80/2, p4, pan1 (captured by Mole Man)
Marvel Treasury Edition#25, p63, pan4 (draining away)
Incredible Hulk Annual I#17, p38, pan3 (Fountain of Youth buried)
Hulk II#9, p20, pan3 (stream of youth)
Incredible Hulks#630, p11, pan6 (turned into wishing well)
Appearances:
Incredible Hulk I#5 (January, 1963) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)
Tales to Astonish I#80/2 (June, 1966) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (layouts), Bill Everett (artist)
Tales to Astonish I#81/2 (July, 1966) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (layouts), Bill Everett (artist)
X-Men I#34 (July, 1967) - Roy Thomas (writer), Dan Adkins (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#127 (May, 1970) - Roy Thomas (writer), Herb Trimpe (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#241 (November, 1979) - Roger Stern (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Mary Jo Duffy (editor)
Marvel Treasury Edition#25 (1980) - Bill Mantlo (script/story), Steven Grant (story), Mark Gruenwald (story/editor), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Bruce Patterson (inks)
Avengers Annual I#20 (1991) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writers), Kevin West (pencils), Fred Fredricks (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Iron Man Annual I#12 (1991) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writers), Tom Morgan (artist), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Incredible Hulk Annual I#17 (1991) - Peter David (writer), John Romita Sr. (pencils), Fred Fredericks (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Avengers West Coast Annual#6 (1991) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writers), George Freeman (pencils), Dan Bulanadi, Andrew Pepoy & Bob Wiacek (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Hulk II#9 (December, 1999) - Jerry Ordway (co-plot/writer), Ron Garney (co-plot/pencils), Sal Buscema (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Hulk II#10 (January, 2000) - Jerry Ordway (plot), Ron Garney (script), Ron Frenz (pencils), Sal Buscema (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Incredible Hulks#630-631 (August, 2011) - Greg Pak (writer), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Incredible Hulks#632-633 (September, 2011) - Greg Pak (writer), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Incredible Hulks#634-635 (October, 2011) - Greg Pak (writer), Paul Pelletier (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
First Posted: 12/28/2025
Last updated: 12/03/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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