Dr. McGowan

Origin

Dr. Charlene McGowan worked for CalTech until she was fired for drugs she was using to manage the stress of her gender transition. She got a job with Kingpin in New York running a black market MGH lab. She attempted to pivot the lab into a black market hormone lab to help the transgender community. Unfortunately, Daredevil raided the lab, and McGowan was arrested. She was recruited from prison by General Fortean for his US Hulk Operations.

Created

Dr. McGowan made her debut in The Immortal Hulk #6 by Al Ewing and Lee Garbett.

Major Story Arcs

US Hulk Operations

McGowan was Fortean’s head of research into gamma mutates. She was responsible for grafting Rick Jones to the Abomination corpse. She was also responsible for trying to lessen Del Frye‘s pain, despite Fortean just wanting to use him as a weapon. For this, Rick Jones spared her life when he returned to Shadow Base for revenge.

When Fortean was grafted to the Abomination corpse, she relieved him of his leadership. This proved to Hulk that she was worth working with, when he took control of the Hulk Operations from her. She was especially helpful operating Shadow Base’s translocator for when Hulk went on his various missions.

When the Leader attacked Shadow Base, McGowan sought out Jackie McGee, a journalist getting famous for her coverage of the Hulk. Jackie revealed to McGowan that she was developing gamma mutations, so the two of them sought out Gamma Flight.

Gamma Flight

After finding Gamma Flight, they helped Jackie find the Hulk and then went their separate ways, with McGowan staying with the team. After disobeying Henry Gyrich, the team was considered fugitives and stayed on the run thanks to the experience of Absorbing Man and Titania. They were constantly looking for lab space for McGowan to use to separate and cure Rick Jones and Del Frye.

When a suspected gamma mutate named Stockpile (Gen. Fortean’s daughter) made the news for lashing out in public, Puck drags the team out of the shadows to help her out. They were attacked by a re-mutated Skaar and needed to be quickly teleported. When McGowan’s teleporter fails, Creel absorbs its properties and becomes a human teleporter, except he doesn’t have full control and they end up in gamma version of the astral plane. From there, they figure out that Abomination is using Gen. Fortean’s body to turn a Texas town into a gamma mutate research facility and mass produce a supplement called Fortify that is turning users into gamma mutates.

After fighting through gamma zombies and gamma werewolves and convincing Skaar to defect, the team used Doc Samson‘s old cathexis ray to reverse the effects on the test subjects. Unfortunately, it exploded before it could be used on Abomination. Creel was able to absorb its properties, but since he only had enough power for one shot, he used it on Del and Rick to separate them.

After the team was able to run off Abomination, Puck suggested they stick around the town to help people deal with the after effects of gamma mutation.