Every week, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Today we take a look at the back and forth nature of Bruce Banner's assistant Igor and exactly what role he played in the Hulk's origin (and whether he was even human!).

In Incredible Hulk #1, Igor is Bruce Banner's assistant and Igor lets Banner get irradiated in the gamma explosion, figuring he can kill off Banner and then go look for Banner's gamma ray secrets SOMEwhere.

Peter David famously examined Igor's role in the Hulk's creation in a great 30th anniversary story in 1993...

However, in 1999's Hulk Annual, John Byrne, Lee Weeks, Dan Green and Klaus Janson revealed that the Skrulls were the ones who sent Rick Jones into the test because they were trying to sabotage Bruce Banner's experiment (now a gamma LASER instead of a gamma bomb)...

Igor is then revealed to be a Skrull working to sabotage the laser...

This all tied in with a mini-series Byrne was doing at the time with Roger Stern where they revealed "lost" stories of the Marvel Universe before the Fantastic Four went into outer space and the Marvel Universe "truly" began (Banner took part in these lost adventures).

Peter David famously mocked the story in an issue of Captain Marvel, which you could argue also abandoned and forsaked the story as being a fictional story within the Marvel Universe.

In 2010, David Gallaher and Steve Ellis confirmed that the whole "Igor as Skrull" thing was officially retconned out in Hulk: Winter Guard #1, as Igor was captured and mutated by the Prescence (the issue reprinted Peter David's aforementioned 30th anniversary story)....

That's it for this week!

If YOU have a suggestion for a notable comic book retcon, let me know at bcronin@comicbookresources.com