Hero of the Day (Earth-8386)

Hero of the Day

Gallery

Real Name

Unrevealed (possibly none) ^[1]

Current Alias

Hero of the Day

Status

Identity

No Dual Identity ^[1]

Occupation

Warrior

Education

Extensive combat training

Characteristics^[2]

Origin

Universe

Earth-8386

Creators

Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema

First Appearance
Incredible Hulk #286 (August, 1983)

History

In the 41st Century (Earth-8386), a temporal off-shot of Kang the Conqueror arrived in that reality and conquered the world. Under his rule, men were trained from birth and sent into combat with each other for his amusement. This Kang was eventually secretly killed by the Council of Kangs and replaced with a giant statue in his likeness. An already battle-maddened man-king continued the war as the statue urged each person -- via static-riddled repetition of battle instructions into their helmets such as "'stroy 'nemy" -- to kill everyone else in order to become the Hero of the Day. One such Hero of the Day was concurrently struck by a bolt of lightning from a gamma storm and the gamma rays from an opponent's gun, causing a temporal anomaly that sent him to Earth-616's modern era, which was also experiencing a gamma storm. Encountering an intelligent Hulk (Bruce Banner), he continued following "Kang's" demands, but was rendered unconscious. He awoke and attacked Banner, but the gamma storm caused both to be transported to Earth-8386. There, the Hero learned he had already been replaced as Hero of the Day before he and the Hulk were confronted by more soldiers. The Hulk was captured and brought to "Kang". Hero followed and, having learned of loyalty from the Hulk and tired of the constant fighting, destroyed the statue. He tried to tell his fellow soldiers they no longer had to follow the commands to kill, but they instinctively struck him down. As the Hulk cradled the dead Hero's body, both returned to Earth-616 where Hero was buried.