KERWIN KRONUS

Real Name: Kerwin Kronus

Identity/Class: Human technology user

Occupation: Scientist, inventor

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Bruce Banner, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Betty Ross-Talbot, Major Glenn Talbot

Enemies: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None; [Earth-20476 nightmare Kronus] "Master of Time", "The Temporal Man" (as called by himself), "Clock-Man" (as called by Hulk)

Base of Operations: Gamma Base, New Mexico (Earth-616 timeline, and Earth-20476 timeline, too)

First Appearance: Incredible Hulk II#204 (October, 1976)
{Per i lettori Italiani L'Uomo Ragno Editoriale Corno#232/2 (26 marzo 1979)}

Powers/Abilities: Having no super-powers, Kronus was a brilliant scientist in temporal physics who created the Time-Shuttle (Earth-616 timeline, and Earth-20476 timeline, too).

Height: Unrevealed (6'3"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (230 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black (including beard/mustache, balding)

History:
(Incredible Hulk II#204 (fb) - BTS) - The past of Professor Kerwin Kronus is unrevealed, but he was a brilliant scientist in the field of time-travel. He created the Time-Shuttle, a large device capable of sending an individual back to the past and returning him to the present (see comments).

(Incredible Hulk II#204) - Kronus and General Ross offered Bruce Banner the opportunity of going back in time and reliving the events that led to him becoming the Hulk -- armed with the knowledge of what had happened back then, Banner could thus correct that event, and thereby prevent the Hulk from ever existing. After some thought on the matter, Banner agreed to the procedure.

   As the two later rode to the location of the Time-Shuttle, Kronus explained the time-travel procedure to Banner. Although Banner was concerned that the plan might fail if something went wrong, Kronus assured him that the obliging nature of time-travel would allow them to try it again... although he cautioned that the stress on the human organism was such that it would be unwise to attempt it a second time.

   Kronus oversaw the final construction of his Time-Shuttle's components near the abandoned bunker of the original Gamma Bomb test site (@ Incredible Hulk I#1). When the towering device was completed, Kronus had Banner take a seat within it, then he went to the exterior control console.

   Upon activating the Time-Shuttle, Kronus sent Banner into the past; but Banner's temporal transition had unknowingly created the divergent timeline of Earth-20476, in which he had not become the Hulk, but instead Rick Jones had died during the bomb's detonation. Immediately afterward, Banner returned to the present, but he had actually been shunted to the present of Earth-20476 -- that reality's Kronus greeted Banner and was eager to know every detail of his time-journey; but Banner was so emotionally distressed by the death of Rick that he was taken to a hospital (see comments).

   Later, while he slept in his hospital bed, Banner had a nightmare, wherein he was attacked by Kronus as the super-powered "Master of Time" (see Kerwin Kronus of Earth-20476 sub-profile); but at the end of  the frightening dream, he looked upon the lifeless body of Kronus and saw the face of the dead Rick Jones.

   After being awakened by his wife Betty (see comments), Banner felt responsible for the death of Rick, so he returned to Earth-20476's version of the Time-Shuttle and made a subsequent time-trip to the past -- on this occasion, he managed to save Rick from the bomb, but he was bombarded by the gamma rays before he could take shelter himself, and this "correction" allowed Banner to return back to his normal home-reality.

   When Banner returned to the present of Earth-616 (mainstream Marvel Universe), Kronus welcomed him back and asked him if he had been able to make the "necessary adjustments"; Banner admitted that he hadn't changed his past, so he would still be plagued by his emerald alter ego... but because he had saved Rick Jones, it was a curse he could live with.

Comments: Created by Len Wein, Herb Trimpe and Joe Staton.

   My idea is that when Banner saved himself from the Gamma Bomb blast, he created an alternate timeline, and when he went "back to the future," he didn't return to the original Earth-616  timeline, but to the "Rick Jones died" timeline" . When he went back in the past for the second time (despite Kronus statements about the enormous stress), he restored the past and returned to the original timeline of Earth-616 (or created another alternate timeline mostly equal to the Earth-616 one).

     That's about how I'd look at it. The Earth-20476 timeline was the divergence created, and it presumably still exists.

Following Bruce Banner's first reappearance from the past, a doctor at the hospital referred to Betty Ross as "Mrs. Banner," so the sharp-eyed reader learned that she was married to Bruce rather than Glenn Talbot -- this was a clue that Banner had returned to the present of the alternate Earth (however, some time after she divorced Talbot and his later death, the Betty of Earth-616 would eventually marry Banner [@ Incredible Hulk II#319]).

Virtually nothing else was revealed about Earth-20476 -- at the very least, without a Hulk and Rick Jones, that world's Avengers might not have ever been formed.

And if the Bruce Banner of Earth-616 was transported into his past, then where was his relatively younger pre-Hulk self of Earth-20476? My guess is that Kronus' Time-Shuttle worked by converting Banner's physical body into an energy-state, and his consciousness and memories were transferred into his younger self 's body (...somewhat like on the original Quantum Leap TV-series).
--Ron Fredricks

New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Spidermay. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Kerwin Kronus has no known connections to:

The Time-Shuttle should not be confused with:

Earth-20476 should not be confused with:

Time-Shuttle

Created by Kerwin Kronus, it could transport an individual back to the past and return him to the present (see comments). It seemed to have a modular construction, and its components could be reassembled fairly quickly.

Located high above the ground, the towering device featured a single chair located within a transparent enclosure -- due to the nature of Kronus' time-travel device, the individual who would be transported to the past had to be isolated from the surface of the world.

In an effort to prevent the Hulk from ever having existed, Kronus had the components of the Time-Shuttle transported to Gamma Base, where they were reassembled near the abandoned bunker of the original Gamma Bomb test site (@ Incredible Hulk I#1). Kronus' plan was to send Bruce Banner back in time so he could avoid being exposed to the detonated Gamma Bomb's radiation, and thus he would never have become the Hulk.

The Time-Shuttle sent Banner to the divergent reality of Earth-20476, where he was able to avoid exposure to the bomb's radiation, and never became the Hulk; but during this time excursion to his past, Banner saw that Rick Jones ended up being killed during the bomb's detonation.

Later, Banner used the Earth-20476 version of the Time-Shuttle to again go to the past, where he saved Rick, but was himself bombarded by the gamma radiation -- this "correction" to the past allowed Banner to return to his home-reality.

--Incredible Hulk II#204

Kerwin Kronus of Earth-20476

Much like his Earth-616 (mainstream Marvel Universe) counterpart, the Kerwin Kronus of Earth-20476 was a brilliant scientist in the field of time-travel; he created the Time-Shuttle, which could transport a person to the past and return him to the present.

While operating his own Time-Shuttle, the Kerwin Kronus of Earth-616 had actually transported Bruce Banner to the past of Earth-20476, on the day the Gamma Bomb blast transformed him into the Hulk (@ Incredible Hulk I#1). Banner managed to take shelter and avoided being exposed to the radiation of the bomb, and thus prevented himself from ever becoming the Hulk; however, Rick Jones was killed, and thus this divergent reality was created.

When Banner-616 returned to the present of Earth-20476, the Kronus of this reality greeted him and was eager to know every detail of his time-journey; but Banner was so emotionally distressed by the death of Rick that he had to be taken to a hospital (see comments).

While sleeping in his hospital bed, Banner had a nightmare wherein Kronus was the super-powered "Master of Time," and he wanted to punish Banner because he ruined Kronus' time-experiment. In this nightmare, the time-power of Kronus transformed Banner into the Hulk, and the two clashed. Kronus then transported the  Hulk one-million years into the past and entrapped him behind a time-barrier. After Kronus removed the barrier, the Hulk punched him, and continuously pummeled the "Clock-Man's" head, cracking his foe's helmet like an eggshell. When the Hulk transformed back to his human alter ego, Banner looked down at the lifeless body of Kronus and saw the dead Rick Jones' face inside the villain's shattered helmet.

After being awakened from the frightening dream by his wife Betty (see comment), Banner felt responsible for Rick's death, so he rushed to Kronus' Time-Shuttle and was again transported to the past; he relived the detonation of the Gamma Bomb, but on this occasion, he saved Rick, and was once again hit by the radiation of the blast -- this "correction" allowed Banner to return to the present of his own reality.

The nightmare version of Kerwin Kronus wore an armored suit and had strength comparable to that of the Hulk. He could also project a beam of temporal energy from the analog clock on his helmet's forehead; this energy gave him the power to transport people and objects backward or forward through time.

(Comment: The images of this sub-profile are only of the super-powered Kronus from Banner's nightmare. The actual Kerwin Kronus of Earth-20476 seemed to be about the same as his Earth-616 counterpart -- the headshot image in the main profile is actually Kronus-20476.)

--Incredible Hulk II#204

images: (without ads)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p8, pan3 (main image - Kerwin Kronus, at control console of Time-Shuttle)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p12, pan3 (headshot - Kerwin Kronus [Earth-20476] welcomes Bruce Banner back to the present)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p4, pan1 (Kronus tells Bruce Banner how he could be free of the Hulk)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p6, pan3 (Kerwin Kronus explains time-travel procedure to Bruce Banner)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p7, pan1 (Time-Shuttle components being assembled)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p8, pan2 (Bruce Banner seated inside completed Time-Shuttle, Kerwin Kronus standing beside him)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p8, pan5 (Kronus sitting at Time-Shuttle's control console [foreground]; Banner seated inside Time-Shuttle [background])
Incredible Hulk II#204, cover (nightmare version of Kerwin Kronus of Earth-20476 traps Hulk behind time-barrier)
Incredible Hulk II#204, p13, pan4 (in Bruce Banner's nightmare, Kerwin Kronus of Earth-20476 bursts through wall of Banner's hospital room)

Appearances:
Incredible Hulk II#204 (October, 1976) - Len Wein (writer/editor), Herb Trimpe (plot/pencils), Joe Staton (inks), Glynis Wein (colors), John Costanza (letters)

First posted: 03/20/2005
Last updated: 02/06/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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