Hulk - Marvel Comics - Bruce Banner - Iconic version - Profile (2024)

Context

This is a gisted profile, presenting the comic book Hulk as he generally appears – without focusing on any specific era or version.

Background

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Powers & Abilities

Strength Level

The Hulk is, potentially, the strongest mortal to ever walk the planet Earth. While functionally “calm,” the Hulk can lift (or press) weights within the same range as some of Earth’s strongest heroes (such as Wonder Man, Colossus, or the Thing).

In times of stress, when his anger grows, the Hulk’s raw physical power experiences an exponential level of growth. To this date, the Hulk has never been provoked to a point where his strength has hit a maximum level of output.

Due to this fact, it is virtually impossible to quantify or measure the upper limits of his strength (if said limit actually exists).

With these facts in mind, it is easy to state that when enraged the Hulk’s strength falls within the “Class100+” category of strength, allowing him to lift (press) weights far in excess of one hundred tons.

In stark contrast, Bruce Banner possesses the normal human strength of a man his age, height and build who engages in no regular exercise.

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Known Superhuman Powers

As a result of the intense radiation he absorbed during the explosion of the first Gamma Bomb, Bruce Banner’s body has undergone an unstable mutation which in times of stress triggers a series of changes to his cellular structure.

When the change is in effect, Banner gains over 800 pounds of bone, muscle and connective tissue on his formerly slight frame. The exact source of this extra mass is unknown, but in the end it matters little.

The process is triggered in periods of great stress or exertion, and more specifically by the increased presence of the chemical secretion adrenalin (or epinephrine) in his blood. The entire transformation can take place over a range of 25 seconds to as long as 5 minutes.

In his mutated form Banner, or more accurately The Hulk, gains virtually unquantifiable strength (see Strength Level), in addition to an unbelievable degree of invulnerability to physical harm.

He is capable of ignoring extreme variances in heat or cold (he can survive ranges of temperature from minus 190 degrees to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit), is immune to terrestrial diseases and is all but impervious to great impacts.

The Hulk can shrug of direct hits by field artillery cannon shells or the superhumanly powerful blows of beings as powerful as the ionically charged hero, Wonder Man. He can even survive in inhospitable environments (like the bottom of the ocean or the vacuum of outer-space) for hours at a time simply by holding his breath.

It is possible to injure the Hulk. For instance he would not survive a direct hit from a nuclear warhead and his skin has been pierced by shards/blades constructed from the indestructible metal Adamantium.

In these rare cases, the Hulk recovers and heals at a phenomenal rate, in some cases regenerating skin, bone and tissue literally before his opponents eyes.

The Hulk’s superhuman strength extends itself to his leg muscles, which he uses to leap great distances. He has demonstrated the ability to leap over 3 miles with a single bound.

Outside of his raw physical power, the Hulk has demonstrated two unique and unrelated gifts that are outside of the realm of normal. The Hulk has always been capable of perceiving astral forms without effort.

In addition to that, the Hulk has an uncanny “homing” ability that allows him to locate the exact location in New Mexico where he was first “born” in the explosion of the Gamma Bomb.

Abilities

Bruce Banner is a genius, and possesses unparalleled knowledge and understanding of gamma radiation and its applications. He is considerably knowledgable in other fields of scientific study (in particular physics) as well.

The Hulk has no specials skills or abilities outside of his seemingly instinctive (and considerably effective) understanding of hand to hand combat.

Limitations

The instability of the mutation that causes the transformation from Banner to the Hulk is seemingly the duo’s only weakness. The exact cause of the transformation has varied over time and has included triggers including the absence of sunlight, to radiation bombardment to its current one, emotional state.

History

Dr. Robert Bruce Banner was the product of the union of Dr. Brian Banner, an atomic scientist, and his wife Rebecca. Bruce’s childhood was a fascinating yet tragic dichotomy; while his mother loved him intensely and showered him with affection, his father harboured an insane jealousy and hatred for the boy and grew more and more abusive over time.

Brian’s insanity and rage eventually grew to a level that he could no longer contain. He murdered Rebecca in front of his son, and was placed into a mental institution for the criminally insane.

Bruce, who was already a quiet and contemplative youth, coped with this loss by emotionally withdrawing from the world about him. He sublimated all of his pain and anger, internalizing it and pretending that it didn’t exist.

Bruce went to live with his aunt, Mrs. Drake, who raised him as best as she was able. Despite her best efforts though, she found herself unable to force young Bruce to open up and release his pain.

Bruce eventually grew into adulthood and earned a doctorate in nuclear physics. His genius was eventually recognized by the American military, and he was recruited by the United States Defense Department.

He was put to work in a nuclear research facility that was located in the deserts of New Mexico. It was there where he first met General Thaddeus Ross and his daughter Betty.

Betty was a kind and generous soul. She was not only able to see past Bruce’s quirky and withdrawn nature, but was also able to pierce his self-imposed emotional barriers and reach the man inside. After spending some time together, the two eventually fell in love.

General Ross, who never approved of his daughter loving a “weakling,” was quite hard on Bruce but nevertheless recognized the young man’s genius.

Even while Bruce was falling in love with Betty, Bruce was working diligently on the design and oversight of the construction of a potentially devastating weapon: the “Gamma Bomb.”

This weapon was a high yield nuclear weapon that generated high amounts of gamma radiation. His labour eventually bore fruit, and the weapon was completed.

Birth of the Monster

On the day of the “Gamma Bomb’s” initial test, Bruce was one of the many officials present within the instrumentation bunker that had been built on the test site. Everything seemed to be proceeding according to plan when Bruce noticed that a civilian had somehow breached the security barrier and entered the test area.

Bruce ordered his research colleague, Igor Starsky, to have the detonation delayed and then rushed out of the secure bunker in a desperate attempt to get the civilian to safety. Unfortunately for Bruce, fate had different plans for him that day.

As it turned out Starksy, who was secretly a Soviet agent, came to the conclusion that if Banner perished within the explosion that the project would come to a screeching halt. And all he needed to do to accomplish this, was hold his tongue, which he did.

Bruce raced out to the location where he had last seen the civilian in record time, and pulled the young teenager out of his car. The boy’s name was Rick Jones and he had entered the test area on a dare. Bruce had little time to admonish the boy before he heard the sirens that preceded the weapon’s detonation.

With little time to think, instinct took over Bruce. He threw the youth down into a protective trench a mere second before the bomb detonated, sending billions of highly-charged radioactive particles through his body.

To his own surprise, Bruce was not instantly killed by the intense gamma radiation that was thrown off by the blast. Both he and Rick were recovered by the military and held overnight for observation. That night, the true effects of the gamma-radiation were revealed not only to Bruce but also Rick.

As the light of the sun faded from the night sky, Bruce transformed into a monstrously powerful hulking creature that rampaged through the military base. One of the soldiers present at the time of the rampage called the creature the “Hulk,” which quickly became the name both the military and the creature itself adopted for itself.

The Hulk’s rampage lasted the entirety of the night until the first rays of morning sun touched the night sky. At that moment, the grey behemoth’s body transformed back into that of Bruce Banner and Bruce’s mind reasserted control.

This pattern continued for several days as the transformation seemed to evolve. Eventually Bruce’s body acclimated itself to the change and his transformations were only triggered by an increased level of adrenalin in his system, no matter what the time of day.

Throughout all of this, Banner had but one ally that he shared his affliction with; Rick Jones. Rick was present during Banner’s initial transformation and his silence and friendship was driven by his own guilt and the debt he owed Bruce for his life.

The two managed to protect Banner’s secret for some time, while Banner searched for a method for controlling his rampaging alter ego. For a short period of time, it seemed that Bruce had succeeded. Through the use of precise radiation treatments, he managed to retain just enough of his own personality when transformed into the Hulk to control himself that form.

It was during this time that the Hulk helped to found the Avengers.

Return of the Beast

Alas, Bruce’s tenuous grip on the Hulk eventually slipped, and the Hulk once again became a brutish menace to any that crossed his path. To make matters worse, despite his best efforts Bruce’s secret became public knowledge and his life devolved into that of a fugitive.

Bruce literally spent years being hunted by the American military while searching for a cure for his affliction, and dreading the inevitable moment when he would transform into the Hulk once more.

When his travels led him through Los Angeles, Bruce decided to pay a visit to his cousin Jennifer, who worked there as a lawyer. The two cousins’ reunion was ruined when one stakeholders in a high profile case she was trying had her shot in the streets.

To save her life, Bruce transfused his own mutated blood into Jennifer, with the full realization that the process itself may cause similar changes to her. He was correct, and the process led Jennifer to undergo a similar mutation as her cousin, transforming her into the “She-Hulk.”

Over the years, Bruce always seemed to have a measure of success only to suffer set back after set back. In several cases, he seemed to have either cured himself of his transformation into the Hulk or discovered a method of controlling the beast.

It was during such periods that Bruce joined the Defenders, took part in the Secret War on the Beyonder’s Battleplanet, and even received a presidential pardon for his past rampages throughout the United States of America.

But no matter what steps or actions he took to prevent it, his condition eventually relapsed and the savage Hulk was free to wander the earth once more.

Separation Anxiety

Through a series of complicated events (involving Doctor Strange and dimensional banishment), Bruce’s subconscious mind was rendered dormant within the Hulk. Without Banner’s unconscious influence, the then mindless Hulk went upon a rampage unlike any other he had ever perpetrated.

It took the combined strength of both branches of the Avengers, the She-Hulk and Leonard “Doc” Samson to bring an end to the mammoth man-monster’s carnage.

With the Hulk captured, Samson finally had time to devise a means to separate Bruce’s mind and atomic structure from within the body of the Hulk. To everyone’s relief, the process was successful.

At its conclusion, the two were separate and unique individuals, and more importantly Bruce was finally freed from his curse.

It didn’t take long for the Hulk to once again escape from military custody. Without Banner’s unconscious influence, the then mindless Hulk went upon a rampage unlike any other he had ever perpetrated.

Bruce, who still felt responsible for the creature, organized a government task force colloquially named the “Hulkbusters” and set out to capture and destroy the Hulk once and for all. At the same time Bruce, who truly believed himself to be free of his transformations, finally married Betty Ross.

Unfortunately for Bruce, his luck continued apace, as with time his health began to deteriorate rapidly. It didn’t take Doc Samson long to realize that despite the separation process, both Banner and the Hulk were inexplicably connected. So much so, that their very separation was causing both beings to die.

In a desperate race again time, both Samson and the Hulkbusters attempted to apprehend the jade giant and return him to their Gamma Base in order to reintegrate him with Banner.

They attacked the then berserk Hulk with all of their might, but ultimately fell before his unstoppable power. Hulk’s rampage hospitalized several of the Hulkbusters and he beat Samson near to death before help arrived.

It took the combined strength of both branches of the Avengers (including the heroes Wonder Man, Iron Man, Hercules, and the Submariner) in addition to the She-Hulk to bring an end to the mammoth man-monster’s carnage.

With the battle’s conclusion, the Hulk was returned to Gamma Base. Utilizing the powers of the synthetic Avenger, the Vision, Samson facilitated the reintegration of both Banner’s and the Hulk’s atomic structures, thus recombining them into a single being.

But even as the process was taking place, General Ross took it upon himself to sabotage the experiment in the hopes of ending the Hulk’s menace. The results of his interference were… surprising, to say the least.

A Touch of Grey

It took a full day for the results of the general’s interference to become apparent. Bruce spent the day undergoing a battery of tests in the attempts to ascertain if he would transform into his hulking alter-ego.

But no matter what sort of stimulus he was exposed to the transformation did not take place. Bruce held out a hesitant hope that this time he was cured, but all of that was dashed when night fell.

In the dark of the night, Banner transformed once more but this time the Hulk himself was different. He was smaller (though still monstrously large) and grey, but more importantly, he was intelligent. This particular Hulk had all of Banner’s intelligence, but none of his morality.

Once again, the Hulk escaped, but this time he had a plan. He was staying away from anyone that could possibly capture him and threaten his existence. He wanted to stay alive and in control of his life.

The Grey Hulk skulked about the American landscape, always staying one step ahead of his pursuers until he was forced to work alongside both Rick Jones and S.H.I.E.L.D in order to prevent the Leader from detonating a gamma bomb within the heart of a small city named Middletown.

Ultimately, he failed to prevent the explosion and due to his proximity to the centre of the explosion was thought to be killed during the conflagration. In truth, he escaped certain death by being transported to an alien world by its wizards in order to defeat a local menace.

The “Fix” is in

After defeating his alien foe, the Grey Hulk was returned to the Earth by the grateful wizards. Before returning him home, they enchanted the Hulk with a spell that prevented him from transforming back into Banner.

With his new found freedom on a world that though he was dead, the Grey Hulk assumed the identity of Joe Fixit. He became a Las Vegas “leg-breaker” for a casino owner named Michael Berengetti. The two enjoyed a lucrative arrangement, until the Hulk’s fame caught up with him and Berengetti terminated their arrangement.

Worse still, the wizards spell had begun to fade after several months and the Hulk began to transform into Banner from time to time. The two eventually managed to come to terms with one another, and even managed to work together while Bruce searched for Betty who had disappeared while the world thought he was dead.

From that point forward, Bruce’s transformations began to destabilize and the true depths of the psychological damage he had endured as a child manifested itself.

While he would still transform into the Grey Hulk during the night, in times of stress he could still transform into the savage green Hulk. This was due to the fact that the Hulk wasn’t simply the aggressive side of Bruce’s personality, but each Hulk was a separate personality that lived within Bruce’s damaged psyche.

Bruce eventually found Betty (who had joined a convent) and the two joyously reconciled. They found themselves running from not only the law but also a mysterious organization named the Pantheon who wanted to capture the Hulk. The two eventually went to Doc Samson for aid.

Samson, having failed at dealing with Bruce’s physical mutation, decided that a better tact would be to heal his fractured mind. He then engaged the criminal Ringmaster (whose hypnotic powers were strong enough to affect Banner’s mind) and forced him to merge Banner’s 3 divergent personalities into one single gestalt being.

Well, hello Professor

The results were immediate and amazing. Banner uncontrollably transformed into the Hulk once more, but this time he was in complete control. He had all of the Green Hulk’s raw power (and coloration), his own amazing intellect and memories and the cunning of Joe Fixit.

With his new lease on life, the Hulk was pardoned once more and was recruited by the Pantheon. The group ended up being a benign organization who were attempting to change the world.

During this period of time, Bruce was transported into the far future, to a dystopian timeline where he himself had succumbed to darkness and ruled the remains of the world with cruelty and sadism.

After defeating himself, he returned to the past determined that he would never allow himself to become the man he met in the future. As a result, he subconsciously created a mental failsafe within his own mind that transformed his massively powerful form back into his all too human body should he ever enter one of his patented rages.

The Pantheon eventually crumbled due to internal strife, and the Hulk found himself on his own once more.

Status Quo

The Hulk eventually battled the malevolent entity Onslaught beside the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. At the conclusion of the battle, a portion of the Hulk’s soul was transported to another dimension (alongside of the other heroes, save the X-Men).

This piece became a Hulk in its own right, but was eventually merged back with the original who had continued to be active within his home dimension.

In some unknown manner, the remerging of the two dimensional halves restored the Banner’s transformation to the one that had been the most stable over the years. His transformation was once again triggered by emotions of excitement, anger or fear and the bestial savage Hulk was released in those moments.

Description

No matter what form he takes, the Hulk appears to be an impossibly large and grotesquely muscular human male, with long (almost simian-like) arms and extremely large hands and feet. His 7 foot frame is literally covered in hundreds of pounds of gamma irradiated muscle.

The Hulk is normally depicted with a large thick brow (but not overly so), a pair of inset eyes and an unruly mop of hair on the top of his head.

Like the rest of his body, the Hulk’s mouth is also unusually large and is usually opened wide in an expression of unnatural rage. Overall, his face and expression give him a thuggish appearance.

Though his skin tone has changed with the nature of his transformations, in general the Hulk’s skin is a vibrant green. His hair and eyes are green as well, though they are generally a shade or two darker than the rest of his body.

The Hulk doesn’t normally wear a costume; instead he wears the remnants of the clothing that he was wearing as Banner before his transformation.

Bruce on the other hand is usually depicted as a slender, nearly frail, looking caucasian male. He has unkempt brown hair and dark brown eyes which are normally downturned as though he was attempting to avoid making eye contact or avoid attention.

He is painfully nearsighted, and often wears prescription eye glasses to correct that fault. While on the run, Banner wore any clothes that he could get his hands on and that fit (though in what may have been a superpower itself, he nearly always managed to find a pair of deep purple pants).

Personality

Bruce’s personality has varied somewhat over time, but it has some core aspects that seem to remain no matter where his path has taken him.

Bruce is a quiet and emotionally stunted man, who defends himself with sarcasm and cold logic when confronted with difficult or emotional situations. Bruce himself can be seen as a poster child for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Throughout the majority of his adult life, he has been forced to live in a constant state of fear and alertness. In order to leash the monster within, he has had to maintain strict control over his emotions and always be wary of any situation that may provoke a strong response from him.

This, and the fact that he is almost always being pursued by the authorities, has driven Banner to avoid meaningful bonds with people and into a very lonely existence.

Despite this, Bruce is capable of experiencing emotions like love and friendship. He loves Betty intensely (a feeling that is shared by his alter-ego) and will go to any lengths to protect her. He feels an almost brotherly affection towards Rick Jones, who at times has been the only friend he could count on.

When challenged (especially in those times where he could not rely on his transformation into the Hulk to save him), Bruce has proven to be a cunning and savvy foe.

Bruce suffers from perhaps the most pronounced form of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID or multiple personalities) ever witnessed in this particular form of literature. It is unknown the exact cause of his condition, but the assumption is that it was initially brought on when he bore witness to the abuse that his father heaped onto his mother.

The disorder was only heightened when he was hit with the radiation from the Gamma Bomb. As it stands, Bruce has manifested at least four distinct personalities over the course of his adventures.

The first and most commonly encountered personality (after Banner himself) has been named “The Savage Hulk” or simply “The Hulk.” This personality was born out of Banner’s earliest childhood experiences, and carries all of Banner’s fear and rage at the world for what happened to his family.

This version of the Hulk refers to himself in the third person, and has the intelligence and temperament of a small child that just wants to be left alone. The Hulk is a protector of the weak and innocent, despite his rages, and clearly represents Bruce’s childhood needs to be strong enough to protect his mother.

Despite his brutish demeanour, the Hulk has formed close bonds with several individuals both within and without the super-heroic community. He became extremely close to men like Rick Jones, Jim Wilson and “Crackajack” Jackson and he deeply loved the Princess Jarella, of the sub-atomic world K’ai, as well as Banner’s wife Betty.

The Hulk often found himself moved to action when they were in danger or need, which his enemies would often use against him.

The Hulk suffers from his own mental disorder; a potentially deadly form of Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Despite the fact that he still possesses a rudimentary conscience and moral compass (derived from Banner’s subconscious moderating influence), the Hulk’s wildly fluctuating emotions make him unable to react in anything close to a normal manner to negative emotional stimulus.

The Hulk is very much like a bull in a china shop; the wrong word, action or phrase can cause him to explode into a rage that results in swift and utter destruction of his immediate surroundings and anyone who might get in his way.

Quotes

“Hulk SMASH!”

“Hulk only wants to be left alone.”

“Hulk is the strongest one there is!”

“Rrrraarrr!!”

Related articles on Writeups.org

By Bryan Gittens and Dr. Peter Piispanen.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics Series – The Incredible Hulk, Created by Stan “The Man” Lee (author) & Jack “The King” Kirby (illustrator).

Helper(s): Ethan Roe, Frank Murdock, Joel Eric Snider, Joseph McKeon, Sébastien Andrivet.

Writeup completed on the 17^th of September, 2013.