M.O.D.O.K.

Friday, October 23, 2026Earth-616 canonIncredible Hulk #167–170 (1973)

Today's Fact

Verified against independent sources. Issues cited below.

M.O.D.O.K. TURNED THE HULK'S GIRLFRIEND INTO A GAMMA HARPY!
The Featured Fact

M.O.D.O.K. thinks laterally. If you can't build a weapon strong enough to kill the Hulk, convert somebody he loves. In Incredible Hulk #167 (September 1973), his spies report that Betty Ross — by then Betty Talbot — has collapsed after learning her husband Glenn is presumed dead. M.O.D.O.K. spots the opportunity instantly: years spent around Bruce Banner meant Betty had absorbed trace gamma radiation. She was, in his words' spirit, a Hulk waiting to be switched on.

In Incredible Hulk #168 (October 1973), by Steve Englehart and Herb Trimpe, he lures the sleepwalking Betty out with a mental signal, seizes her, and bombards her with a gamma dose larger than the one that made Banner the Hulk — reasoning she'd come out stronger. She hatches from a cocoon as the Harpy: green skin, vast wings, talons, and "hell bolts" from her hands, her mind twisted into a single command — kill the Hulk. She nearly does it, too: mid-fight she drops the act, begs for mercy as Betty, and cold-cocks him while he's hesitating.

The cure came from the sky. Swept up to the floating city of the two-headed Bi-Beast in #169–170, Banner bargained for its advanced machines and drained the gamma out of her; M.O.D.O.K., arriving to reclaim his weapon, picked a fight with the Bi-Beast instead and triggered the city's self-destruct. Betty came down human and sane. But M.O.D.O.K.'s two-issue experiment never really left her: in 2019's Immortal Hulk, a resurrected Betty returned permanently as the Red Harpy — his throwaway monster became a load-bearing part of Hulk mythology.

Why It's Obscure

The Harpy is remembered as a Hulk monster. She's rarely credited to her actual creator — the giant head who built her out of Banner's love life.

1973
Incredible Hulk #167 — "The setup." M.O.D.O.K. watches his giant robotic body being finished and selects the freshly widowed Betty Talbot as his gamma test subject — chosen for her years of low-level exposure around Banner.
1973
Incredible Hulk #168 — "The Harpy is born." First appearance of the Harpy: wings, talons, hell bolts, and a brainwashed fixation on killing the Hulk — powered by a bigger initial gamma dose than Banner's own.
1974
Incredible Hulk #169–170 — "The cure." The Bi-Beast's sky-island tech drains Betty's gamma; M.O.D.O.K.'s interference gets the Bi-Beast killed and the island destroyed, and Betty reverts for good.
2019
Immortal Hulk #14 and after — Betty dies and claws back from the Below-Place as the Red Harpy — proof that M.O.D.O.K.'s 1973 improvisation permanently rewired who Betty Ross is.
Trivia
The Harpy's cruelest weapon wasn't gamma at all: her own voice. Posing as the helpless Betty mid-battle bought her the one clean knockout anyone landed on the Hulk that year.

Sources

Every claim above is verified against at least two of these independent sources.

Bullpen Bulletins

  1. How Betty Ross Transformed Into the Harpy — CBRIn 1973's Incredible Hulk #168, by Steve Englehart and Herb Trimpe, M.O.D.O.K. captured Betty and placed her in a gamma-ray transformer, mutating her into the Harpy — green skin, wings, talons, and hell bolts — and ordered her to destroy the Hulk.
  2. Red Hulk's Complicated History With MODOK — LooperM.O.D.O.K. reasoned Betty's years around Banner made her the ideal subject, mind-lured and captured her, and hit her with a greater initial gamma dose than Banner received — then the Bi-Beast encounter ended with Betty cured.
  3. Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #167 — Marvel DatabaseIssue record: at A.I.M. headquarters, M.O.D.O.K. learns of Betty's breakdown and plots to use gamma radiation to create a creature more powerful than the Hulk — with Betty Talbot as the subject.