ZERO/ONE

Real Name: Parul Kurinji

Identity/Class: Human/Techno-organic being (Indian)

Occupation: Scientist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Annie, Black Fog, Jacob Feinman, Irfan, M.O.D.O.K. (George Tarleton), Uravo the Watcher, Zzzax

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark), Machine Man (Aaron Stack/X-51), Omegex, Red Hulk (Thaddeus Ross), Red She-Hulk (Betty Ross)

Known Relatives: Mr. Kurinji (father)

Aliases: 01

Base of Operations: Ogygia, Omnisapient Systems oil drilling platform, Pacific Ocean;
formerly Omnisapient Systems, Santa Clara, California, USA;
formerly Hyderabad, India

First Appearance: (as Dr. Kurinji) Hulk III#25 (November, 2010)
(as Zero/One) Hulk III#31 (May, 2011)

Powers/Abilities: Zero/One's body has been completely overrun with technomorphic technology; she considers herself "human and machine, and neither." Her body's composition has a techno-organic nature that renders her immune to most forms of injury; if an object is driven through her body it can temporarily weaken her but she can self-repair damage very quickly. She can also reshape her body into various instruments, including a syringe or a large cannon that fires laser beams. She can also erect a force field around herself and others within her vicinity. Zero/One can wirelessly perform taps into other computer systems and quickly upload and disseminate information and even reprogram other computer systems. However, due to the ease of which can perform this function, she has disdain for analog forms of communication, such as printed words. Her forehead has a reproduction of the tilaka she wore when fully human; in her present state, the tilaka conceals a computer interface tool to assist her in tapping into computers she cannot access wirelessly.

Zero/One's greatest power is her ability phase herself and others out of time. People she draws out of the normal flow of time become imperceptible to others. She can also summon up images and sounds from the past, although she is limited to summoning up what she calls "focal points" that are (seemingly arbitrarily) considered significant historical moments. Using her time-based abilities exhausts Zero/One's power.

Zero/One can reanimated dead bodies with her technomorphic technology and use these drones to obey simple orders. She has also built a large flying vessel that uses a cloak to shield itself from discovery and a tractor beam to draw aboard passengers. Zero/One also uses her vessel to recharge her power after being depleted.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'10")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 130 lbs.)
Eyes: White, formerly Brown
Hair: Gray-Blue, formerly Black

History:

(Hulk III#32 (fb)) Parul Kurinji grew up in Hyderabad, India. Her father was a physician who worked at a clinic in one of the slums. At times she heard of a renowned criminal called the Black Fog, who was said to appear in fog, could find anyone and could not be harmed.

(Hulk III#25 (fb) - BTS) - M.O.D.O.K. invested resources of his group the Inteligencia into Dr. Kurinji's research with Omnisapient Systems to develop an "aware alloy" that replicated human cellular structures. Dr. Kurinji used this alloy to construct new prosthetic limbs for amputees. Unknown to Dr. Kurinji, M.O.D.O.K. introduced a virus into the alloy. Test subjects who received the limbs were infected by the virus, transforming them into dangerous cybernetic technomorph creatures who could similarly infect other humans by touch.

(Hulk III#48 (fb)) - Dr. Kurinji worked alongside her assistant Jacob Feinman, unaware he had a crush on her.

(Hulk III#25) - Dr. Kurinji's patients who were infected by M.O.D.O.K. began to run amock across Omnisapient Systems' facility. The Red Hulk (Thaddeus Ross) and Iron Man fought the technomorphs while Dr. Kurinji and Jacob monitored the chaos from their lab.

(Hulk III#31 (fb)) - As fire spread toward their lab, Dr. Kurinji sealed up her workspace to protect it, leaving Jacob on the other side of protective doors. Jacob was badly burned in the fires.

(Hulk III#26) - Iron Man guided the Red Hulk to the location of the system core at Omnisapient Systems so that he could destroy it. Dr. Kurinji was tapped into the core with a cerebral implant and refused to let the Red Hulk destroy it, claiming she could still purge the virus without sacrificing the prosthetic limbs but the Hulk ignored her and smashed the machine. In doing so, Dr. Kurinji was herself infected by M.O.D.O.K.'s technomorphic virus.

(Hulk III#31) - The technomorphic virus turned Dr. Kurinji into a being "human and machine, and neither." She found Jacob at a burn center in Sunnyvale, California and reintroduced herself as Zero/One and transformed her arm into a needle to administer pain relief to Jacob so he would be able to travel with her. Commandeering a helicopter, Zero/One brought Jacob to an Omnisapitne lab located on a retired oil drilling platform where the corporation performed its most dangerous projects. Zero/One killed all the other staff on the platform but intended to reanimate their corpses once she recreated the technomorphic alloy. Zero/One told Jacob they would have to eradicate people who were holding them back, indicating the Red Hulk. To deal with the Red Hulk, she claimed she would rebuild "an engine of destruction."

(Hulk III#32 (fb)) - Zero/One told Jacob about Black Fog and had chosen him as the "engine" of the Hulk's destruction.

(Hulk III#32) - Zero/One and Jacob headed to Hyderabad, India to see if the Black Fog was still alive. Zero/One questioned a shopkeeper named Irfan, who led them to the prison where the Black Fog was incarcerated. Black Fog proved to be an old man with a missing limb but Zero/One was unfazed and intended to "repair" him. Zero/One forced Irfan to assist them in bringing Black Fog back to the drilling platform where she rebuilt Black Fog's missing limb from technomorphic materials. When Black Fog was ready she informed him he was not to kill Jacob or Irfan but identified the Red Hulk as his target.

(Hulk III#33) - Black Fog tracked the Red Hulk to the Mojave Desert while Zero/One observed him from a cloaked vessel. Black Fog succeeded in injuring the Red Hulk but was beaten by him in their first fight. Zero/One retrieved Black Fog and returned him to the drilling platform, where she announced she would continue learning from what didn't work until her success was inevitable.

(Hulk III#37) - Aboard their cloaked vessel, Zero/One watched with interest as the Red Hulk was crushed by the collapse of Avengers Tower during his fight with the Asgardian deity Angrir. Zero/One decided to take advantage of the situation and prepared Black Fog to strike the Red Hulk once he'd been sufficiently weakened.

(Hulk III#38) - Before Black Fog could attack the Red Hulk, M.O.D.O.K. interceded, wanting the Red Hulk for his own reasons. When Angrir knocked the Red Hulk into Zero/One's vessel, they crashed into Manhattan. With their cloak gone, they were visible to the armored Neo-Nazi forces which had been fighting alongside Angrir and came under assault. Zero/One simply shielded herself and Jacob from harm but when Jacob suggested she return fire she reluctantly agreed, turning one of her arms into a laser cannon. Zero/One found Black Fog had beaten M.O.D.O.K. and she confronted him; M.O.D.O.K. recognized her as a result of the virus he'd introduced. Tapping directly into M.O.D.O.K.'s brain through her tilaka, Zero/One explained her history with the Red Hulk and the two came to a compromise, agreeing to wield their forces together against the Neo-Nazis threatening Manhattan. M.O.D.O.K.'s army of LMDs and the electrical being Zzzax fought alongside Zero/One and Black Fog.

(Hulk III#47 (fb)) - Over time, Zero/One renamed the drilling platform Ogygia. When salvage crews came to investigate the platform she killed them then reanimated them as her servants and did the same to any vessel that docked at the platform. She likewise absorbed the vessels into the platform.

(Hulk III#39) - Zero/One monitored the Red Hulk's actions by covertly tapping into his LMD associate Annie. In Boston, Massachusetts, she heard the REd Hulk conferring with Annie about Black Fog; the Red Hulk correctly identified the technomorph technology Zero/One had used on him and suspected Dr. Kurinji was responsible. As Zero/One prepared Black Fog for another attack, the Red Hulk was already in battle against the extraterrestrial Omegex.

(Hulk III#40) - Zero/One ordered Black Fog to assist the Red Hulk against Omegex while she conferred with Annie and a Watcher named Uravo. The presence of the Watcher and Omegex interested Zero/One, as it taught her more about extraterrestrial life. Zero/One explained that since communicating with M.O.D.O.K. she had realized that as the Red Hulk was responsible for her transformation into a superior being, she had become the corresponding intellect that balanced his brawn and no longer desired his death. Annie suggested Zero/One should take a hand herself to assist the Red Hulk in case he had data that might help her better understand what she'd become. Agreeing, Zero/One took the Red Hulk out of phase with time so she could converse with him. She asked the Red Hulk to explain why he wouldn't use his energy absorption powers against Omegex. Unsatisfied with the Red Hulk's responses, she used her time-phasing power to show the Red Hulk images of the past, including the moment he caused her transformation and the moment he chose to become the Red Hulk. Placing the Red Hulk back into normal time, Zero/One watched as he failed in combat against Omegex.

(Hulk III#41) - Zero/One showed the Red Hulk more images from his past as she opined the Red Hulk couldn't defeat Omegex but having hidden the Red Hulk from Omegex by taking him out of phase, Omegex wouldn't be able to locate the Red Hulk. Having exhausted her energy through her time phasing, Zero/One brought Red Hulk aboard her vessel to recharge herself. Unknown to her, Jacob passed his journal to the Red Hulk, including a note begging him to convince Zero/One that humanity mattered. The Red Hulk convinced Zero/One to view more images from his past and tried to emphasize the importance of his own humanity but Zero/One believed that as Red Hulk he was superior to what he'd been before. When the Red Hulk told her about nanite bombs Reginald Fortean had placed in his head to prevent him from becoming human, Zero/One used her powers to uncode the nanites, freeing him. When Omegex returned, the Red Hulk transformed back into Thaddeus Ross. Unable to conclude the Red Hulk and Ross were the same being, Omegex reasoned it had destroyed the Red Hulk and departed. Ross asked Zero/One if he'd affected her findings in favor of humanity; Zero/One responded that it was only an "exception." She and Jacob departed.

(Hulk III#47) - Following up on Jacob's journal, the Red Hulk came to investigate Ogygia, confusing Zero/One as she'd abandoned her previous hostility towards him. Sending out Black Fog to confront the Red Hulk and his ally Machine Man, Zero/One expressed her dissatisfaction with the Hulk's intrusion. Unwilling to sacrifice any of her reanimated drones, instead Zero/One sent a variety of sea monsters to attack the intruders.

(Hulk III#48) - Although the sea monsters and Black Fog proved able at holding back the Red Hulk, the Red Hulk's daughter, Red She-Hulk, intervened, attacking Zero/One directly, driving her foot completely through Zero/One's body. Zero/One immediately began to rebuild her body and sent in her army of drones to ensure the Hulks and Machine Man were destroyed but Machine Man transmitted a radio signal that shut down the drones and released Black Fog from her control. Angry at having been Zero/One's puppet for so long, Black Fog turned against her, only sparing her life because she'd saved his life. Realizing she'd lost control of the situation, Zero/One fled in her vessel with Jacob.

(Hulk III#49 - BTS) - Machine Man and Red Hulk fought and destroyed a Hydra-like creature Zero/One had created.

(Hulk III#50 - BTS) - Machine Man and Red Hulk determined Zero/One had shifted out of phase with time, making her all but impossible to track.

Comments: Created by Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman.

Zero and one are the two values used in the binary numeral system.

This profile was completed on 11/24/2025 but its publication was delayed, as it was intended for the Appendix's 25th anniversary celebratory event.

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Zero/One should not be confused with:

images: (without ads)
Hulk III#40, page 9, panel 4 (main)
Hulk III#25, page 1, panel 3 (face)
Hulk III#38, page 10, panel 2 (shield)
Hulk III#38, page 10, panel 4 (cannon)

Appearances:
Hulk III#25-26 (November-December, 2010) - Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Hulk III#31-33 (May-July, 2011) - Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Hulk III#37-38 (September-October, 2011) - Jeff Parker (writer), Elena Casagrande (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Hulk III#39-41 (October-November, 2011) - Jeff Parker (writer), Gabriel Hardman (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Hulk III#47-49 (March-May, 2012) - Jeff Parker (writer), Elena Casagrande (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)

First posted: 09/23/2026
Last updated: 11/24/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to http://www.g-mart.com/ for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters