Marvel Database
Register
Advertisement

History

Navapo, Bruce Banner (Earth-616) from Incredible Hulk Vol 1 130 001

Navapo, New Mexico.

Navapo was a town[1] in New Mexico.[2] It was surrounded by the desert, but settlers managed to artificially build a fertile spot with vegetation. Navapo is relatively close to Tecumcari, New Mexico, and in the past Tecumcari police was sent to Navapo to help in a crisis. Navapo was also the seat of Desert State University, a flourishing institution as described in its own catalogue,[3] and alma mater of Bruce Banner, later known as the Hulk. Banner's classmate Raoul Stoddard, also a preeminent physicist expert in Gamma radiation, was the second most famous alumnus of DSU and, after graduation, stayed at Navapo, living at a home in Sunnybrook Lane, while collaborating with his previous teacher Herbert Josiah Weller. Using money from a lenient yet generous government grant, Weller and Stoddard built a secret laboratory on the outskirts of Navapo to conduct gamma radiation research privately, without the knowledge of even the authorities who had funded it.[2]
Sunnybrook Lane from Incredible Hulk Vol 1 130 001

Raoul Stoddard's home at Sunnybroke Lane, Navapo.

When a violent student demonstration at DSU threatened Dr. Weller's life, Banner turned into the Hulk and went to the campus, causing even more wreckage,[4] although the FBI later managed to keep this encounter a secret.[5] After the Hulk returned to his human form as Banner, he went to check on Weller's health and met with Stoddard at the latter's home. Stoodard appeased Banner and tried to help cure him on the Hulk in his secret laboratory, while USAF planes searched for Banner by flying over Navapo. Eventually the military found the secret lab and arrested Stoddard when the latter tried to murder Banner.[2]

Some time later, wheelchair-ridden DSU professor Geoffrey Crawford manipulated Banner, claiming to be using his Telepod System to cure Banner from his Hulk condition, but instead using it to copy Banner's gamma mutations in Crawford's own body to obtain superpowers that allowed him to heal. Crawford became the savage, power hungry monster Ravage,[6] who turned back into his disabled human form the following day. Crawford allegedly used another treatment to become Ravage permanently and, at the following sunset, attacked Navapo. Ravage, apparently believing that the normal people had pitied Crawford due to his impairment, destroyed everything he could reach in Navapo including buildings, cars and street furniture; the locals, believing him to be Hulk, tried to escape from him. The Hulkbusters sent military troops and equipment against him, but were unable to stop him; Ravage even broke a military helicopter in flight, causing it to crash in the city. Ravage eventually left on his own, checked on his lab and was eventually defeated there.[1]

Some time later, the Hulk was seen approaching the Navapo area. The University was evacuated and police of nearby towns, including Tecumcari, was summoned as reinforcements. Kropotkin the Great and his young travel companion James Wilson heard the local police band and also drove to Navapo from Tecumcari, even avoiding roads to get a shortcut. In that situation, the Hulk met with Professor Weller and with Jim Wilson in the University campus, where he triggered a trauma after breaking a Socrates statue. Doc Samson from Gamma Base arrived at the DSU[3] to take the Hulk, which he did.[7]

Points of Interest

Residents

DSU Staff:
Raoul Stoddard (Earth-616) from Incredible Hulk Vol 1 130 001

Raoul Stoddard lived in Sunnybrook Lane, Navapo.

DSU Alumni:

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

Advertisement