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Jarella

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Jarella
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceIncredible Hulk #140 (Jun 1971)
Created byHarlan Ellison, Roy Thomas, and Herb Trimpe
In-story information
Place of originK'ai
Supporting character ofHulk
AbilitiesSkilled swordswoman and strategist.

Jarella is a fictional character from Marvel Comics. Along with Betty Ross Banner and Caiera, she was one of the Hulk's great loves. The character was introduced in The Incredible Hulk #140. Jarella was created by legendary science fiction author Harlan Ellison who was the guest writer for that issue.

Fictional character biography

Jarella is the princess of the sub-atomic world of K'ai. Although outwardly primitive this world has remnants of long-forgotten high technology and sorcery. Its people are green-skinned and for the most part blonde haired, but otherwise human.

Jarella's city is threatened by a number of menaces ranging from attacks by the gigantic warthos (wart hog like beasts larger than elephants) to the armies of the Warlord Visus. The Hulk appears in K'ai during an attack of the warthos and drives the huge monsters away. When the people come out to greet him, the Hulk is startled. He notices that they are green-skinned, like him and that they welcome him rather than running away.

The Hulk is especially taken with the lovely and gentle Empress Jarella. She leads him into the city and calls on her sorcerers to help the Hulk learn their language. The spell succeeds and also allows the human personality of Bruce Banner to emerge in the Hulk's body. The Hulk and Jarella fall in love and she proclaims him her husband. After Visus attempts to assassinate Jarella she exiles him from the city, and the Hulk and Jarella seem destined to live happily ever after. However destiny in the form of a supervillain named Psyklop interferes and snatches the Hulk away from K'ai.[1]

Jarella is soon transported to Earth by the Pantheon of Sorcerers (Torla, Holi, Moli; also known as the Sorcerer's Triad) to retrieve the Hulk. This inadvertently caused solar storms; she battled Fialin and then returned to K'ai.[2] After awhile, she was revealed to have lost another war against Visi and been taken captive. The Hulk returns to K'ai, and Jarella and Hulk defeat Visis and the assassin Krylar.[3]

Jarella is unique in the series in that she accepts the Hulk unconditionally. She comes to know Bruce Banner's mind in the Hulk's body but is equally accepting of the Hulk personality, or Banner's body. This idyllic love is tragically thwarted.

Alongside the Hulk, Jarella battled Psyklop once more. Hulk and JArella are then returned to Earth by Doc Samson.[4] During a battle between the Hulk and Crypto-Man in an unnamed town in New Mexico, Jarella saves a child from being crushed to death from a collapsing wall, but is crushed to death herself.[5] The Hulk takes Jarella's body to the Gamma Base, but the doctors are unable to revive her.[6] He rampages in search for his friend, the magician Doctor Strange, but the latter is also unable to restore her, and he finally accepts that Jarella is dead, while being comforted by the Valkyrie. Captain Mar-Vell shrinks the Hulk so that he may return Jarella's body to K'ai for a proper burial. After being put to rest her spirit takes farewell by creating a single green flower.[7]

Many years afterwards, during a Fantastic Four storyline featuring a delirious Hulk rampaging through Las Vegas, the latter howls Jarella's name, as one of the 3 greatest tragedies that he considers to have befallen him, along with the poisoning of his wife Betty Ross Banner, and the death of his friend Jim Wilson due to AIDS.

Powers and abilities

Jarella was an athletic woman with the strength of a normal human but was a skilled swordswoman, strategist and equestrian. She would ride horse-like steeds and winged serpent-creatures indigenous to K'ai.

Trivia

  • The title of the issue featuring Jarella's debut was The Brute Who Shouted Love At the Heart of the Atom, an homage to Ellison's story "The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World".[citation needed]

Bibliography

  • Incredible Hulk #140 (June 1971)
  • Incredible Hulk #148 (February 1972)
  • Incredible Hulk #156-57 (October - November 1972)
  • Incredbile Hulk #202-205 (August - November 1976)
  • Incredible Hulk #246-248 (April - June 1980)

References

  1. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #140
  2. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #148
  3. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #156
  4. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #202-203
  5. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #205
  6. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #240
  7. ^ The Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #246-248


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