—Brian Banner[source]You did indeed take me all the way down... Past the country of Hell... To what lies below it. Hell actually seems quaint to me now. It had hierarchies and structures. Rulers and rules. It was only a place, like other places... And this is something else. Something deeper, at the bottom of reality, underneath everything... The concept of Hell. The foundation. The bedrock. The Below-Place.
History
The Below-Place is the bottom layer of reality, and the bedrock of Hell.[4] It is the domain of a malevolent deity called the One Below All - the dark counterpart to the One Above All,[5] - whose ultimate goal is to destroy everything in the Multiverse until becoming the sole presence in it.[6]
The Below-Place consists of a red-tinted deserted landscape, where the only visible structures are buildings in ruin.[2] It is covered by stormy clouds that constantly produce green lightning.[7] When people from the land of the living were dragged into the Below-Place, this dimension also manifested Qlippoth, empty husks copying people known to the visitors.[8]
The elusive and anomalistic third form that gamma radiation can take besides a particle and a wave originates from the Below-Place, as an emanation of the One Below All. Because of this, Gamma Mutates, who are created when exposed to this form of gamma radiation, are plunged into the Below-Place after death, through a barrier called the Green Door, and it is through another Green Door that they can eventually return to life, albeit with no memory of their stay in the Below-Place.[7][4] The One Below All can exert its influence outside the Below-Place through Gamma Mutates, and even possess their bodies when a Green Door manifests for them. However, it needs a host personality to act through, since it possesses no mind of its own.[6]
The existence of the Below-Place was more widely known of in the Sixth Cosmos,[3] where a legend spoke of a dark dragon called the Anti-All that had emerged from the "Under-Lands" during the "Time Before Time".[3] The Anti-All tried to devour the avatar of light and creation, Lifebringer One, but was slain - its essence scattering across the young Multiverse.[9]
The One Below All eventually found a host in the form of the soul of Brian Banner, who was sent to the Below-Place after dying during the Chaos War.[5] Using Brian, the One Below All managed to manipulate different Gamma Mutates until it used the Absorbing Man to open a Green Door on the Los Diablos Missile Base by absorbing the remnant gamma energy in the environment from the detonation of Bruce Banner's Gamma Bomb years prior. Everyone present at the scene was plunged into the Below-Place along with the Absorbing Man, namely Banner's alter-ego the Hulk, Gamma Flight, reporter Jackie McGee, and Shadow Base operative the Bushwacker.[2]
When he arrived at the Below-Place, the Hulk was split from Bruce Banner, whom Brian captured with the intention to make him the new vessel for the One Below All in order to bring the Below-Place to Earth.[5] The Hulk and McGee made their way through the Below-Place, eventually confronting Qlippoths of Rick Jones, General Ross, and Jackie's father. In the meantime, Gamma Flight member Puck managed to find the Absorbing Man and convinced him to set things right.[8] When it was high noon, the One Below All manifested out of the clouds of the Below-Place,[5] and summoned hordes of demonic creatures to kill the Hulk. Puck and the Absorbing Man made their way to the fountain of gamma where Brian had Bruce captured, and the Absorbing Man absorbed the gamma energy to then pass it on to the Hulk, replenishing his strength. The Hulk subsequently attacked the One Below All, dissipating the creature with a single thunderclap. Afterward, the Hulk merged back with Banner and closed the Green Door, sending back everyone who had been trapped there back to the real world.[10]
A short time later, the Leader, who had been investigating the Below-Place, opened a Green Door into the Below-Place with his occult knowledge. He tricked Brian's soul into assimilating with him to gain all of his knowledge and his connection to the One Below All, gaining the ability to manipulate and possess Gamma Mutates. In order to help the One Below All fulfill his destructive goal, the Leader set out to help him break Bruce Banner. After this, Bruce and other Gamma Mutates would visit the Below-Place in between death and resurrection, but the Leader would adopt Brian's image to make it seem like Brian was still the sole presence in the Below-Place aside from the One Below All.[6]
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The One Below All is revealed to be the One Above All
The Leader would use this advantage to infiltrate Bruce's mindspace and hollowed out the Green Scar to disguise himself as him, intending to bring Bruce to the Below-Place so the One Below All could possess him and destroy the Multiverse. However, his own attempts to do so would prevent this future from happening, as not only the Leader himself was possessed in order for his gamma-circuit to work, but eventually his plans were frustrated and he was separated from his human form. The One Below All eventually revealed itself as the One Above All and enigmatically responded to the Hulks and Jackie the One Below's and their purpose, allowing them to bring the human Samuel Sterns and Bruce back to Earth, leaving the Below-Place empty and the One Below All without a mind to possess.[11]
However, a seemingly recovered half of the Leader was still there and had his own plans for Bruce Banner.[12]Points of Interest
Residents
- One Below All
- Qlippoth
- Anti-All (formerly)
- Tanaraq (formerly)
Notes
- The Below-Place is stated to be the lowest of all of the "Hells". Its empty nature, desolation, and complete disconnection from any other place in the Multiverse is a reference to the oldest interpretration of Hell being not a place, but the total absence of God. This is even referenced in Immortal Hulk #10.
- The Below-Place is almost impossible to access without a strong understanding of extreme gamma radiation and its connection to the Below-Place. The Leader was able to access it due to his gamma signature and his occult experiments. [13] Later, Reed Richards claimed that they could not gain access after using the Forever Gate to allow the Hulk to go to the Below-Place. Reed commented that finding it was like "infinity and one", with the dimension being both an infinite distance away, yet all around.[11] This ties into the concept of the Below-Place being a dark mirror and reflection of the Multiverse.
Trivia
See Also
- 26 appearance(s) of Below-Place
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Below-Place
- 4 minor appearance(s) of Below-Place
- 18 mention(s) of Below-Place
- 19 image(s) of Below-Place
- 2 article(s) related to Below-Place
Links and References
References
- ↑ Immortal Hulk #2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Immortal Hulk #10
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Defenders (Vol. 6) #2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Immortal She-Hulk #1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Immortal Hulk #12
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Immortal Hulk #39
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Immortal Hulk #20
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Immortal Hulk #11
- ↑ Defenders (Vol. 6) #5
- ↑ Immortal Hulk #13
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Immortal Hulk #50
- ↑ Hulk (Vol. 5) #14
- ↑ Immortal Hulk #34
- ↑ Defenders: Beyond #5