Transformed from a lower life-form into one of the New Men by the
High Evolutionary, the Inheritor immediately had disdain for those he felt were now beneath him. His creator tried to make him comply with his code of conduct, but when the Inheritor blatantly refused he was banished. The High Evolutionary sealed him in a rocket and meant for his creation to drift in outer space forever. The ship was hit by a meteor which sent it off course, and the rocket plummeted back to Earth. The Inheritor's memory was affected, but his mission to claim the planet as his own was still fresh in his mind. He wandered until he came across a military base using gamma radiation in an attempt to cure the
Hulk. Absorbing some of it, his memory came flooding back. Bruce Banner was caught in the Inheritor’s rampage, and his monstrous alter-ego took his place and battled Inheritor. During the brawl, Inheritor found a machine he thought would bathe him in even more radiation, but he made a critical error. The machine was actually used to drain radiation, and once activated it took the Inheritor's away, reverting him to normal form. Hulk searched for his enemy but found a cockroach instead. Tossing the insect aside, Hulk never noticed that the markings on its back were the same markings on the Inheritor's armor.