While trying to save a teenager named Rick Jones, who accidentally intruded onto the restricted testing field of a gamma bomb, scientist Robert Bruce Banner got exposed to the blast. He however, survived the incident but absorbed massive amount of gamma radiation that instantly showed no effects on him. Later, when he wakes up in the infirmary, he turned into a monstrous figure, that is later dubbed “
Hulk” by the media.
When relapsed into his old form he is transferred back to his Banner-self. The
Hulk is treated as a menace in general over the years but even if he has caused wreckage and havoc across the country, this jolly green giant actually saved many lives from various catastrophes in years that were nearly impossible to repeal without him. Despite having a genius-level intellect, Banner/
Hulk is always viewed as a threat to others, while they still try to save the puny humans.
Banner's father Brian was an atomic physicist and very abusive towards his wife Rebecca, who loved baby Bruce. Brian never liked his son and being an alcoholic, he used to beat up Bruce often. When a mentally unstable Brian murdered Rebecca, Bruce's life went upside down and his aunt Susan Banner decided to raise the boy. Bruce grew up to be a child-prodigy and met Tony Stark during his time at Oxford University.
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The Incredible Hulk | Comics |
Hulk: Gray
Banner grew interest in nuclear physics but due to lack of fund, he joined a United States Defense Department nuclear research facility. There he met General "Thunderbolt" Ross for the first time as he was in charge of designing a "Gamma Bomb". Bruce also met his daughter Betty Ross, who would become his love interest and these two would eventually marry. During the bomb-test, Banner saw a teenager named Rick Jones entering the test area and while trying to save the boy, he caught in the middle of the blast.
In spite of absorbing massive radiation waves, he didn't die but he transformed into a humongous, bulky humanoid being and he was gray. Dubbed as "
The Hulk" by people who saw him in this form, Banner received incredible physical strength and retained some of the memories of his human-form. The military panicked and Ross send his men after
Hulk when he showed up at Betty's doorstep. This eventually led to an early confrontation with
Iron Man and wasn't a pleasant experience for the Golden Avenger.
Occasionally, his ally Rick Jones was able to calm
Hulk down and thus, reverting back to Banner. He stopped the Circus of Crime and then fought Tyrannus to save Betty from his clutches. In a misunderstanding,
Hulk came face to face with the
Fantastic Four and this encounter eventually led to his clash with
The Thing. Here, a rivalry among two titans is born that is going to continue for many years to come. It was around this time, when he also came across
The Sentry, who was somehow able to tame down
Hulk.
Avengers Assemble
The Asgardian God of Mischief;
Loki made
Hulk into his pawn by creating a scene where his brother
Thor engages the green goliath. He was almost successful until his plan is foiled by the join forces of the two he pitted against each other, along with
Iron Man,
Ant-Man and
The Wasp. Following this adventure, they quickly formed a team, starts calling themselves
The Avengers and even went up against
Doctor Doom. But just as always,
Hulk quits the team after feeling that his teammates do not trust him.
Hulk befriends the
Sub-Mariner and got a rematch with
The Thing.
Spider-Man would come across
Hulk while trying to deal with The Enforcers sent by the
Green Goblin. The gamma-powered genius individual known as
The Leader sends Chameleon to the Gamma Base to steal valuable data and this made General Ross suspect Banner as a spy. He turned into
Hulk to fend off the humanoids sent by
The Leader but then remained a prisoner until Rick Jones revealed his dual-identity, earning him a pardon from the President.
Thinking Banner as dead, Rick Jones revealed his identity to Betty Ross, General Ross and Lt. Glenn Talbot.
Hulk then briefly entangled with the Olympian superhero
Hercules, ruler of the underground, the
Mole Man and the second-string villain Boomerang.
Hulk attempted to end his own life but got captured by Talbot and was forced to fight former spy Emil Blonsky, who turned into a mutated monster called
The Abomination, one of
Hulk's arch-enemy for life.
In order to send him to space, the
Hulk approached the
Silver Surfer but soon is captured by the
High Evolutionary to amplify his mutations, so that the jade giant can be the leader of his mutated New Men. The Puppet Master tried to control him but that led into a battle with the
Sub-Mariner, destroying the base of the villain.
Loki tricked him again by sending him to Asgard, where
Hulk fought the Warriors Three, Executioner and Troll armies before being banished into space by
Odin himself.
A newly-reformed
Rhino went after
Hulk only to be put down.
Captain America took an injured Rick Jones with him to become the new Bucky after he suffered an injury from
Hulk. His continuing adventure made him cross paths with heroes and villains like
Absorbing Man,
Black Bolt,
Captain Marvel,
Doctor Strange, The Enchantress, Fin Fang Foom,
The Inhumans,
Kang the Conqueror, Ka-Zar, Mandarin, Maximus, Sandman and the
X-Men.
Psychiatrist Leonard Samson came up with a solution of curing Banner and restoring her wife back to health. However, he absorbed considerable amount of gamma radiation and became mutated but somehow, his human looks were retained. Afterwards, a brief romance between Samson and Betty drove Banner crazy and he turned into the green rage monster to fight Doc Samson. Though this skirmish would later resolve and Banner would become a very good friend with Samson.
The Defenders
In order to save Earth from the sinister plan of Yandroth,
Doctor Strange assembles
Hulk,
Silver Surfer and
Sub-Mariner to battle the villain and they would become
The Defenders. Despite being a founding member, he leaves and returns to join the team time to time when extinction-level threats emerges. He even fought the dreaded
Dormammu of the Dark Dimension once with his allies.
Project: Greenskin was formed by the US military, a secret facility run by General Ross to capture
Hulk. He wished to return to K'ai, so that he could reunite with Jarella and seeks
Ant Man's help to shrink himself. The Hulkbuster unit managed to capture
Hulk and stand trial but
Reed Richards bailed him out of death sentence by offering to cure him. In the end, he managed to reach K'ai, helped Jarella take down the sinister Visis and then returned to Earth as Pym's formula wore off.
She-Hulk
Banner's beloved cousin Jennifer Walters was a lawyer and working on a case involving Nicholas Trask. She ended up getting shot by one of Trask's men and to save her life, Banner gave her a blood transfusion, which mutated Jennifer and turned her into the
She-Hulk. Doc Samson attempted to capture Banner to separate the
Hulk persona from the human form but unfortunately, the result went sore when the latter gone more berserk.
Hulk Vs. Wolverine
As
Hulk was rampaging through the Canadian wilderness, the
Weapon X program sent their newly recruited operative
Wolverine to face him after they have bonded him with the indestructible metal, Adamantium.
Wolverine fought both
Hulk and Wendigo, giving them a run for their money but ultimately, he was subdued by an enraged green monster who left behind his beaten body, unaware of his healing factor and Logan goes back to report to Department H and join
Alpha Flight.
Future Imperfect
Rick Jones' granddaughter Janis transported
Hulk to a dystopian future, where an alternate version of Bruce Banner called
The Maestro ruled supreme. None of the World's greatest heroes were alive anymore to oppose
Maestro's tyrant rule and in this post-nuclear war era, he was twice as strong as
Hulk. Unable to defeat this madman at brute strength,
Hulk sends
Maestro back in time to the moment of gamma bomb explosion that created him.
Onslaught Saga
When
Professor X tried to shut-down
Magneto, his consciousness merged with Eric's have created a powerful psionic being who calls himself
Onslaught.
Cable and
Storm fought a mind-controlled
Hulk to help him shake-off
Onslaught's influence. When he destroyed
Onslaught's physical body, Banner was separated and eventually sacrificed himself along with other heroes to eradicate this menace. A wandering Savage Hulk was captured by the eternal mutant
Apocalypse and transformed into his Horseman of War to fight
Absorbing Man and
Juggernaut.
Heroes Return
It was later revealed that none of the heroes actually perished during the
Onslaught incident and in fact was transported to a pocket dimension of Franklin Richards' creation called the Counter-Earth. There the heroes stayed for nearly a year and then brought back to Earth-616 reality while
Hulk was giving a tough time to Doc Samson,
Hercules,
Spider-Man and
Thunderbolts in New York City until Banner was merged back with the behemoth.
Death of Betty Ross
Betty was dying due to gamma radiation poisoning that she received during her time with Bruce and he tried to save her through a blood transfusion. However, she died anyway and it was the Abomination who were responsible to switch his blood with Banner's, driving him insane. Later, it was The Watcher who revealed the truth to Hulk but in spite of wanting to take revenge on Blonsky, he told General Ross that they both are responsible for her death.
Dogs of War
Banner was losing his grip on reality and made a deal with his inner persona of Green Hulk, Gray Hulk and Professor Hulk to fight his inner demon. General John Ryker came looking for Hulk so that he can capture and study him in order to save his beloved wife Lucy Ryker from cancer. Ryker experimented on many poor subjects and turning them into hideous Hulk-like creatures but when General Ross exposed him to Lucy, she despised his actions.
Planet Hulk
Nick Fury of
S.H.I.E.L.D. asks Banner to help him take down a
Hydra space weapon called Godseye, which actually was a rogue
S.H.I.E.L.D. weapon. Godseye was destroyed and the shuttle sent to retrieve
Hulk was redirected to a remote planet devoid of life forms by heroes of
The Illuminati. Due to a navigation error, he ended up on planet Sakaar, become captured and forced to participate in gladiator matches for the malevolent Red King.
He quickly gained a fan-following in the arena as well as his own rebel team, the Warbound who stood against the ways of Red King. Upon overthrowing the tyrant,
Hulk became the Green King and made Red King's former bodyguard Caiera Oldstrong his queen. They married and Caiera became pregnant with his child but she and everyone else on the planet dies when the warp core of the shuttle that brought
Hulk on Sakaar exploded.
World War Hulk
Holding
The Illuminati responsible for the death and destruction on Sakaar,
Hulk decides to exact his revenge on his former friends. He captured
Black Bolt,
Doctor Strange,
Iron Man and Mister Fantastic after fighting them. Then after turning Madison Square Garden into a gladiatorial arena,
Hulk forced them to fight each other.
The Sentry arrived to play God and these two mighty opponents throw everything they had at each other till they revert back to their human forms.
Red Hulk
Bruce Banner is taken into custody at Gamma Base, while reports of another
Hulk rampaging starts popping up and
The Abomination was found dead. Calling himself as
Red Hulk, this fellow has taken down Rick Jones as a Hulk-like creature A-Bomb,
Iron Man,
She-Hulk and
Thor. Banner was freed to confront this new menace and he too is defeated the first time. In their second encounter,
Hulk managed to beat down
Red Hulk but yet, his identity remained a secret.
Defenders Vs. Offenders
When the Grandmaster and the Collector decided to have a game of two teams of their choosing, the former chose
Hulk and he picks his
Defenders allies
Doctor Strange,
Namor and
Silver Surfer, whereas
Red Hulk was joined by
Baron Mordo,
Terrax and Tiger Shark in the opposing side, calling themselves the Offenders. The result of the fight was devastating as most of them died and resurrected and
Hulk left heartbroken in the end as he failed to bring back his love Jarella to life.
Fear Itself
During the rise of The Serpent,
Hulk picked up one of the seven divine hammers that fell from the sky and become Nul, Breaker of Worlds.
New Avengers member
Ms. Marvel engages Nul during his rampage on Brazil, while
Hawkeye, Protector and
Spider-Woman were either busy distracting him or saving people. He and a possessed
Thing, now Angrir, faced
Thor into battle and
Hulk was thrown into orbit. He landed on Dracula's territory and fought his legion of undead soldiers.
Asunder
With help from
Doctor Doom, Banner's persona was transferred into a cloned body and
Hulk roamed free. He moved to the underground society of the Moloids but a mentally unstable Bruce Banner keep experimenting to re-create
Hulk and thus, creating an army of gamma-mutated animals in an abandoned nuclear testing site. Commander Amanda von Doom of the Mad Squad seeks
Hulk's aid in taking down Banner for good.
For more information on
The Incredible Hulk comics series, you can check out these links below.
The Incredible Hulk (Comics) Wikipedia
The Incredible Hulk (Comics) Marvel Wikia
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Hulk Battles Fantastic Four |
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Hulk – The Coming of The Hulk
Marvel Masterworks – The Incredible Hulk Vol 01
Avengers – Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Marvel Masterworks – The Incredible Hulk Vol 02
Essential Incredible Hulk Vol 01
Incredible Hulk Omnibus Vol 01
Marvel Masterworks – The Incredible Hulk Vol 03
Incredible Hulk – This Monster Unleashed
Marvel Masterworks – The Incredible Hulk Vol 04
Essential Incredible Hulk Vol 02
Marvel Masterworks – The Incredible Hulk Vol 05
Marvel Visionaries – Jim Steranko
Essential Incredible Hulk Vol 03
Essential Incredible Hulk Vol 04
Essential Incredible Hulk Vol 05
Essential Incredible Hulk Vol 06
Essential The Rampaging Hulk Vol 01
Hulk – Heart of The Atom
Wolverine Battles The Incredible Hulk
Daredevil Visionaries – Frank Miller Vol 01
Essential The Rampaging Hulk Vol 02
Batman Vs. The Incredible Hulk
Essential Savage She-Hulk Vol 01
Contest of Champions
Avengers – The Contest
Secret Wars II Omnibus
Incredible Hulk – Crossroads
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – John Byrne
Hulk/Thing – The Big Change
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 01
Incredible Hulk – Ground Zero
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 02
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 03
Marvel Visionaries – Roy Thomas
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 04
Acts of Vengeance Crossovers
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 05
Incredible Hulk – Transformations
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 06
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 07
Incredible Hulk Visionaries – Peter David Vol 08
Incredible Hulk – Ghost of The Past
The Incredible Hulk – Future Imperfect Book 01
The Incredible Hulk – Future Imperfect Book 02
Incredible Hulk – Future Imperfect
Incredible Hulk – Beauty and The Behemoth
Contest of Champions II
Hulk by John Byrne and Ron Garney
Hulk – Dogs of War
Marvel Masters – The Art of John Byrne
Incredible Hulk – Past Perfect
Incredible Hulk Vol 01 – Return of The Monster
Wolverine Legends Vol 01 – Wolverine/Hulk
Hulk – The End
Incredible Hulk Vol 02 – Boiling Point
Incredible Hulk Vol 03 – Transfer of Power
Hulk/Wolverine – Six Hours
Incredible Hulk Vol 04 – Abominable
Incredible Hulk Vol 05 – Hide in Plain Sight
Incredible Hulk Vol 06 – Split Decisions
Hulk – Gray
Incredible Hulk Vol 07 – Dead Like Me
Incredible Hulk Vol 08 – Big Things
Hulk/Thing – Hard Knocks
Secret War
Incredible Hulk – Tempest Fugit
Marvel Team-Up Vol 02 – Master of The Ring
House of M – Incredible Hulk
Marvel Monsters
Incredible Hulk – Planet Hulk Prelude
Incredible Hulk – Planet Hulk
Hulk and Power Pack – Pack Smash!
World War Hulk
World War Hulk – X-Men
World War Hulk – Front Line
World War Hulk – Incredible Hercules
Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol 01 – Misunderstood Monster
World War Hulk – Gamma Corps
Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol 02 – Defenders
World War Hulk – Damage Control
World War Hulk – Warbound
Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol 03 – Strongest One There Is
Hulk Vol 01 – Red Hulk
Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol 04 – Tales To Astonish
Secret Invasion – Inhumans
Hulk – Green Hulk/Red Hulk
Hulk Vol 02 – Red and Green
Incredible Hulk – Skaar – Son of Hulk
Hulk – Broken Worlds
Incredible Hulk – Planet Skaar
Hulk Vol 03 – Hulk No More
Hulk – Fall of The Hulks Prelude
Wolverine – Old Man Logan
Hulk – Son of Hulk – Dark Son Rising
Dark Reign – The List
Hulk Vol 04 – Hulk Vs. X-Force
Incredible Hulk Vol 01 – Son of Banner
Fall of The Hulks Vol 01
Realm of Kings
Incredible Hulk Vol 02 – Fall of The Hulks
Hulk Vol 05 – Fall of The Hulks
Fall of The Hulks – Red Hulk
Fall of The Hulks Vol 02
Hulk – World War Hulks – Hulked Out Heroes
Incredible Hulk Vol 03 – World War Hulks
Hulk – World War Hulks
Red Hulk – Scorched Earth
Chaos War – Incredible Hulks
She Hulks – Hunt for The Intelligencia
Incredible Hulks – Planet Savage
The Incredible Hulk was first published in 1962 by
Marvel Comics, created by
Stan Lee (
Daredevil,
Iron Man) and
Jack Kirby (
Black Panther,
Eternals). The character and his alter ego; Bruce Banner often displays the psychological complex of fear, anger and the fear of anger due to years of abuse he has undergone from many people around him, mostly from his biological father Brian Banner. During all these years, the
Hulk has also gone through various transformations that led him into taking different persona as well.
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The Green Rage Monster |
Hulk has also been a member of
The Avengers,
New Avengers,
Defenders,
Secret Defenders,
Horsemen of Apocalypse,
Hulkbusters,
The Mighty Avengers,
The Order,
Pantheon,
S.H.I.E.L.D. and
Warbound (
Planet Hulk and
World War Hulk) for some time over the years. The popularity of the character has result in live-action movies like
Hulk (2000) and the character also appeared in the blockbuster movie from
Marvel Cinematic Universe;
The Incredible Hulk (2005), portrayed by actor
Edward Norton. After Norton abandons the character,
Mark Ruffalo took over the role for
The Avengers (2012),
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and
Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
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