MERCY
MERCY
Real Name: Abigail Mercy Wright
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Suicide assistant;
former warrior, intelligence coordinator at Gamma Base
Group Membership: Desert Base
Affiliations: She sees herself as an ally of those she
slays (all listed under enemies);
formerly the Abomination, Doc Samson, Gamma Base,
Lifeform, Mister Hyde
Enemies: Abomination, Alfred, Arnold, Betty Banner, Hulk (Bruce Banner), Ernie Rice
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Angel of Mercy
Place of Birth: Toledo, Ohio
Base of Operations: Mobile;
formerly Gamma Base
Education: Masters in Philosophy from Barnard University
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk II#338 (December, 1987)
Powers/Abilities: Mercy can change into various forms, human and nonhuman, and can even demonstrate superhuman strength, etc. in those forms. She can scan the minds of others, taking on forms pleasurable or painful to them. She can also levitate, teleport, become immaterial, invisible (completely or selectively, only allowing those she wants to see her), fire destructive energy blasts, and fire life-draining energy javelins. She is able to re-form from most forms of destruction.
Mercy seeks out those she sees as wishing or deserving death, pushing them over the line into death.
Height: 5' 9" (variable)
Weight: 135 lbs. (variable)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Varying shades of purple; originally brown (dyed magenta)
History:
(Incredible Hulk: Destruction#3 (fb) - BTS) - Abigail Mercy Wright was employed
running the intelligence unit at Gamma Base for a period of time (perhaps as
long as two years), performing admirably. She was promoted to director at a
research division, but shortly thereafter she began having headaches and vision
problems, and she was diagnosed with a brain tumor that would destroy her brain
within six months to a year.
(Incredible Hulk: Destruction#3 (fb)) - Mercy met with her supervisor to tender her resignation, intending to spend her remaining time to travel. Her superior convinced her not to quit, but instead to undergo experimental therapy using his radical radiation treatments (which would take only a week to perform).
(Incredible Hulk: Destruction#3 (fb)) - Mercy's supervisor
expressed his satisfaction with the results, but Mercy was less than happy at
being turned into a superhuman being. She struck out at her supervisor, but she
was forced to accept that her body was now dependent on her supervisor's
radiation treatment to survive. She could live at Gamma Base indefinitely, but
her body would shut down in a day without treatment. Her supervisor then
demanded her obedience to continue the treatments, and instructed her to
retrieve Bruce Banner.
Mercy confronted the Hulk as he was preparing to steal some
fuel rods for an intended curative procedure Banner was working with Samson on.
She commented on their similarities and differences, and she then scanned his
mind and took the form of that which he feared most: the devil-Hulk within him,
his darkest and most destructive aspect. The Hulk initially fled, but he
eventually rallied himself and fought back, grabbing its tail and smashing it to
the floor. The Hulk then leapt atop the creature and punched it in the back of
the head, shattering its skull and and killing it.
(Incredible Hulk II#338) - Mercy appeared to Alfred, a man who
owed the I.R.S. $20, 000 and had briefly contemplated suicide while sitting in
his bathtub. She claimed to be his angel of mercy, and then dropped his stereo
into the tub, fatally electrocuting him. Soon after, she appeared on the
dreamscape before Bruce Banner and the grey Hulk, making the Hulk appear to die
as a gift to Banner. Minutes after that she activated Clay Quartermain's van
while Banner was standing behind it, attempting to run him over. Banner dropped
below its axels and held onto its frame, escaping death though receiving some
nasty abrasions. Rick rushed into the now-empty van and shut it down. She
continued to follow Banner, appearing before him at a hospital as he was trying
to track down Betty Banner. She told Banner to let her send him on to the next
life as she hurled scalpels at him, but she teleported away after Banner ducked
and she hit an innocent man
After Banner became the Hulk at sundown, Mercy appeared
again, phasing through his attack and then blasting him with an energy javelin
that became lodged in his sternum. At the same time, Mercy appeared to Banner on
the dreamscape, injuring him in the same fashion. She told Bruce that she was an
alien mercenary, helping those who were unhappy with their lives, but lacked the
strength to move on to their next lives. She told him that she had been to many
planets, but that Earth was filled with so many poor souls that she would make
it her home, adapting her form to match humanity. While the Hulk continued to
fight her, Banner nearly succumbed to the pain and allowed her to end his life,
but at the last minute he decided that he couldn't die with all of the damage he
had caused unatoned for. The Hulk then tore the javelin out from his chest and
hurled it into Mercy, who changed into what seemed to be her true, alien form.
Banner then attacked this amorphous creature, which fought back, trying to
suffocate him. The Hulk leapt into a gas station, tore open a tank, and then lit
a magnesium flare, causing a fiery explosion.
It appeared that Mercy had been consumed in the flames, but
shortly thereafter she appeared on a nearby highway, posing as a hitchhiker to a
down-on-his luck trucker, Ernie Rice.
(Incredible Hulk Annual#16) - Mercy appeared to Arnold, a
homeless man who considered that he no longer deserved to live, pushing him in
front of a moving truck. Another homeless person, a friend of Arnold's, then
explained that people could be depressed without really wanting to die. Mercy
realized that she had killed a lot of people who might not have wanted to die
and decided she would have to re-think her plan.
Mercy later confronted Lifeform, who possessed two separate
personae: his original human self who wished to die, and his monstrous Lifeform
self who wished to eat everyone else. Mercy was not sure how to handle the two
different aspects, and then she remembered the two personae of the Hulk. Mercy
transported Lifeform to meet the Hulk, and the two fought savagely. Mercy told
the Hulk that she wanted him to talk to Lifeform, and the Hulk told her that
talking was Banner's department. She then transformed into liquid form and
jumped down the Hulk's throat, knocking him out. When he awoke, both the Hulk
and Banner were present; one of them was Lifeform, but each believed himself to
be the real deal. The Hulk and Banner debated over right and wrong and shades of
gray, which of them was the real one, etc. When Lifeform threatened to attack
Banner, Banner convinced the Hulk that the Hulk might be Lifeform, and if Banner
died, the Hulk would die, too. The Hulk fought Lifeform, but Banner was killed
in the process. As the Hulk waited for sunrise to see whether he was real or
not, Mercy appeared, revealing that she had taken Banner's form. She further
told him that he should believe in perseverance in the face of hopelessness,
because if Banner didn't believe in it, he would have killed himself (and the
Hulk) long ago.
(Incredible Hulk II#426) - The "Professor Hulk," having
activated a failsafe to protect himself from getting too mad and causing too
much damage, was stuck in the form of Banner with the mind of the savage Hulk.
Mercy appeared to the savage Banner, noting that he had seemed happy in
recent months. When she found that he was worked up over Betty, Mercy decided to
go visit Betty. She visited the childlike Betty in her mindscape, suggesting
that she might want to go visit her mother (who had died years before). The
childlike Betty accepted the offer, and her body flatlined on the operating
table (she had been injured in the final battle with the Pantheon). However, as
they flew up into the sky, the childlike Betty sensed the savage Bruce raging in
a plane as it passed above them. Despite Mercy's insistence to the contrary,
Betty decided that Bruce needed her, and her spirit returned to her body,
allowing the doctors to resuscitate her. In addition, her spirit touched Bruce,
calming him and allowing him to return to Hulk form (in time to save him from a
fall from the airplane). Mercy then appeared before the Hulk, telling her that
Betty would have been more happy where she was going, but that Betty had loved
him more than she loved herself. When the Hulk said he felt the same way, Mercy
said, "You hope." before vanishing.
(Incredible Hulk II#458) - The Hulk--at the time divided into two beings with half existing as a separate Hulk on Franklin Richard's Counter-Earth--suffered great rage over his recent experiences as War, a pawn of Apocalypse, during which time he had seriously injured Rick Jones. Mercy found him fuming within the luggage bay of a plane, and she forced his mind inside himself, knowing that Mister Hyde was on the same flight. She then presented his inert form to Hyde, offering to let him put the Hulk out of his misery, but Hyde refused to slay him in such a form. Hyde's mind brushed the Hulk's on his mindscape (presumably Mercy's doing), taunting him and threatening his loved ones, goading the Hulk to fight back on both the psychic and physical planes (and the airplane, too). Still, the Hulk's mind was dulled by her influence, but when Hyde attempted to break his neck and the Hulk refused to give in, Mercy assumed that he refused to die at Hyde's hands only because of his pride and his belief that Hyde was not a worthy foe. She apparently withdrew all of her influence from the Hulk, who struck back at Hyde with his full power. Outmatched, Hyde tore a wing off the plane and rode it down to Earth, leaving the Hulk to climb under the rapidly descending airplane and try to cushion its fall.
(Incredible Hulk II#459) - The Hulk saved the plane's passengers, but Mercy still felt that the Hulk wanted/needed to die, so she guided him to the Abomination. A fierce struggle ensued, but the Hulk eventually overcame the Abomination with his relentless onslaught. The tunnel they had been fighting in then broke, causing a flash flood that swept the Hulk out into the city. When Mercy appeared to him, he was too exhausted to fight back, but she told him she didn't think he wanted to die again. However, she then showed him shadows of the Celestials (heralding the return of his other half (and the rest of the heroes on Counter-Earth), telling him that when "they" arrived, he was going to wish that she had finished him.
(Incredible Hulk: Destruction#4 (fb) - BTS) - Mercy summoned Bruce Banner, apparently intending for the Hulk to slay the Abomination.
(Incredible Hulk: Destruction#3) - As Doc Samson and General Ross tested the Abomination's suitability as a government agent for violent operations, Mercy appeared, allowing only the Abomination to see and hear her as she taunted him. Samson and Ross thought the Abomination mad as he ranted at empty space. Ultimately the Abomination broke free, just as Bruce Banner arrived to stop him.
(Incredible Hulk: Destruction#4) - While the Hulk and the Abomination battled, Mercy allowed Samson to sense her presence, telling him that the Abomination needed to die and that she had brought the Hulk there to kill him. When the Hulk got the better of the Abomination and began holding his head underwater, Mercy spoke to the Hulk, telling him that the Abomination really wanted to die, but just lacked the strength. Despite this--or in spite of this--the Hulk pulled the Abomination out of the water after he had passed out. Mercy was disappointed, but figured there would be another chance.
Comments: Created by Peter David, Todd McFarlane, and Jim Sanders III.
I really don't know what to make of Hulk: Destruction. It can't fit into continuity if you accept everything. I'd buy Blonsky having a bigger role at Gamma Base, perhaps even running things for awhile. However, we can't make Doc Samson active before the Abomination (that's like 50 issues (4 years) revision), and after his appearance/mutation, the Abomination was taken by the Stranger to his Lab world, so he can't have gone back to work at Gamma Base. I have to file this under House of M related reality warps, with some overlapping with Earth-616 reality. I'm inclined to take what fits and fudge the rest. There seems to be a LOT more of that lately.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
images: (not including ads)
Incredible Hulk Annual#16, story page 7, panel 1 (main image)
Incredible Hulk II#338, p1, panel 6 (face)
p18, panel 6 (alien form)
Incredible Hulk II#426, p4, panel 4 (alternate full body)
Incredible Hulk: Destruction#3, p5, panel 2 (pre-mutation body)
p16, panel 1 (initial mutation form)
Incredible Hulk Annual#16 (1990) - by Peter David (writer),
Angel Medina (pencils), Larry Mahlstead (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#426 (February, 1995) - by Peter David (writer), Liam Sharp
(pencils), Robin Riggs (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#458-459 (November-December, 1997) - by Peter David
(writer), Adam Kubert (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Incredible Hulk: Destruction#3-4 (November-December, 2005) - by Peter
David (writer), Jim Muniz & James Raiz (pencils), Kevin Conrad & Mark McKenna
(inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Last updated: 03/07/06
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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