The Incredible Hulk Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Incredible Hulk is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the alter ego of Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, and manifests as a large, superhumanly strong, (usually) green creature of pure rage.
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2 Superhuman Powers 3 Movies & Television 4 Themed products 5 Bibliography 6 External links |
History
The Hulk was inspired by the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the dichotomy usually consisting of the simple minded and emotional brute who springs from a quiet intellectual. Indeed, in contrast to the quiet Banner, the most famous version of the Hulk is as a childlike persona who just wants to be left alone, but is continually forced to battle foes determined to hunt him down. This is somewhat similar to that of Universal Studios's 1931 film, Frankenstein, another major influence on the character.
In the first issue of The Incredible Hulk, the Hulk was supposed to be gray. However, the publishers of the time had difficulties with printing a consistent and clear shade of gray, so after the first issue they decided to make him green and that color stuck. For a period later in the series, the Hulk reverted to a gray color.
In the origin story of the Hulk, Dr. Bruce Banner is a military scientist who has developed a new type of weapon called the "Gamma Bomb." As the bomb is being tested (in a fashion reminiscent of the Trinity atomic bomb test), Dr. Banner notices that teenager Rick Jones has driven his car onto the test site. Banner races out into the open to bring the young man to safety, but the bomb explodes before he can reach safety himself. Banner is subjected to an incredible dose of gamma rays, and this is what causes him to transform into the rampaging Hulk. At first he becomes the Hulk when the sun goes down, but soon the more familiar transformation occurs whenever Dr. Banner becomes angry or emotional. This story has a strong Cold War subtext to it: in addition to the Gamma Bomb test, the Hulk is promptly captured in the first issue of the book and brought to a country which is presumably the Soviet Union (though the name "Soviet Union" was never used in the book, the story ended with a statement about the end of "Red tyranny"). Later revisions of the Hulk's origin (especially for the TV series of the 1970s and the animated TV cartoon of the 1980s) remove the military subtext and make Banner a non-military scientist.
The plots of many of the earliest Hulk stories involve General Thunderbolt Ross continually pursuing the Hulk, his "Hulkbuster" U.S. Army group at his side. Ross's daughter Betty is a love interest for Bruce Banner and often criticizes her father for going after the Hulk so relentlessly without regard to her feelings for the Hulk's alternate identity. General Ross's right-hand-man, Major Glenn Talbot, is also in love with Betty but is an honorable man and is torn between pursuing the Hulk and gaining Betty's love in an honest way. Teenager Rick Jones is the Hulk's first and only friend for a time. Later on, another teenager named Jim Wilson becomes the Hulk's friend.
The Hulk appeared in the premiere run of his own comic book series created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby during the early 1960s, at the same time as other famous Marvel characters including the Fantastic Four, Thor, and The Avengers. The initial The Incredible Hulk series only ran for six issues before being cancelled by Marvel, due to low sales. However, the character's brief run was popular enough to be noticed by creators Kirby and Lee. In interviews, Kirby stated that shortly after the official cancellation notice for the book was issues, he received a letter from a college dormitory stating that the Hulk had been chosen as its mascot. Kirby and Lee realized that their character had found an audience in college-age readers -- a demographic that had been entirely ignored by comic books until that time. This inspired them to keep the Hulk alive through numerous guest appearances in other comic books, and by adding him to the ranks of various superhero teams that were making their initial appearances in the Marvel Universe, including The Avengers and The Defenders. The Hulk was then given a regular backup feature in Marvel's ongoing series Tales To Astonish. After several years, the Hulk's popularity was enough to cause the book to be renamed The Incredible Hulk, where its run continued until March 1999. The third and current The Incredible Hulk series premiered in April 1999.
For over twenty years, the Hulk would rampage across the face of Marvel Comics, engaging in titanic battles and leaving destruction in his wake. He became the ultimate personification of "brute strength" in comic books, something that not even Superman would be able to match in terms of sheer, raw power. Furthermore, the Hulk's strength can increase further when he is further provoked into more intense anger which leads to his enemies often underestimating his power at critical moments. In addition, even the child like Hulk is often more cunning than his enemies give him credit for. This underestimation often leads to them relying on repeating successful attacks, never realizing the Hulk is often smart enough to learn from his mistakes and find a countermove to the attack to gain the upper hand in battle.
The Hulk's personality and intelligence level has varied wildly over the years, even from his earliest days. In his very first issue, he is easily confused, and rather brutish. In his second, as well as assuming his trademark green skin colour, he acts almost as an outright villain. In the third, he becomes the mindless thrall of Rick Jones, and in the fourth, Bruce Banner gains the ability to impose his personality over the Hulk - although this is short-lived, as the personality which later becomes associated with the Grey Hulk emerges in issue 5 and 6 (and this remains his dominant personality in many of the guest appearances he makes in other comics between cancellation of his series, and his reappearance in his own strip inTales to Astonish. Despite what some sources say, the personality of the Grey Hulk of Incredible Hulk #1 bears only a minor resemblance to the Grey Hulk/"Joe Fixit" of later years, showing none of the guile which would define that incarnation of the character.) The most famous incarnation of the character, the "Savage Hulk", who consistantly spoke in the third person, would only appear gradually over the run in Tales to Astonish, with the trademark speech pattern finally appearing in TTA 66.
Later, due to a side-effect of a teleportation beam, Bruce Banner gains control of the Hulk body, and the ability to transform at will. Gradually, though, he again cycled downward, losing intelligence and gaining agression in Hulk form. However, due to the interference of Nightmare, Banner eventually comitted "psychic suicide," causing the Hulk to becomesa truly mindless, rampaging monster, which Dr Strange banished to an interdimensional "Crossroads." While there, the "Savage Hulk" personality gradually reasseterted itself, and finally Banner himself reemerged.
When he/they finally returned to Earth, though, Doc Samson, a green-haired scientist whose strength had been enhanced by a controlled dose of gamma radiation some years before, managed to capture the Hulk and split Banner and the Hulk into two seperate beings by the use of a "nutrient bath". While Banner, finally free of his curse, wed Betty Ross, however, Samson rebelled at plans to execute the again-mindless Hulk and accidently freed the violent brute. After much rampaging, it was discovered that Banner and the Hulk were dying from the seperation, before the Vision managed to remerge them. This merger proved unstable, with Banner's head emerging from the Hulk's torso while the Hulk's personality flicked back and forth from "Savage" to "Grey" (although his colour remained green). Finally, they got the Hulk back into the nutrient bath to stablilise him... but Rick Jones also fell in, emerging as a green, Savage Hulk-like creature, while Banner briefly emerged as a grey Hulk until the sun hit his skin, reverting him back to Banner.
Shortly after this, however, writer Peter David took on the mantle of writing the Incredible Hulk, a role he would hold for ten years. David had the craftily intelligent Grey Hulk ally with the Leader to restore the Leader's intelligence by draining Rick Jones' gamma power, in return for the Leader making it possible to allow him to remain the Hulk in both day and night (since the Grey Hulk now appeared during the night, and Banner during the day). While the first step was accomplished, an explosion meant the Leader escaped without having to make good on his promise. Soon after, the Hulk apparently died in a Leader-induced gamma bomb explosion, but actually escaped and took a job as a job as a Las Vegas casino enforcer named "Mr. Fixit," working for Michael Berengetti, with no Banner to trouble him. For a time, he lived a hedonisitic life, including a brief relationship with Marlo Chandler. When Banner reemerged, however, "Joe Fixit"'s life began to fall apart, since he could no longer appear in the daytime, and helped along by the well-meaning Glorian, whose desire to turn the Hulk into a "noble, self-sacrificing individual" led him to a deal with the demon Cloot, and the destruction of the Hulk's life, terrifying Marlo into dumping him and Berengetti into firing him. Finally, with the Hulk realising that he'd go to the same Hell as Glorian was being dragged down to too, eventually, it boiled down to him and Cloot playing Craps for his & Glorian's souls - if the Hulk won, Cloot could never take him or Glorian. If he lost, Cloot got them both immediately. The Hulk rolled the pair of 12-foot tall dice, and jumped to land as they bounced, to make them roll a double-6. As Cloot complained about the Hulk's "cheating" and tried to take Glorian anyway, Glorian's master, the Shaper of Worlds intervened, saying that with Cloot's deal broken, he had no power. Cloot vanished, swearing to get Glorian and the Hulk someday, and the Shaper warning the Hulk to think about his future life... "and after."
Later, David expanded on an earlier story that established that Banner had an abused childhood which fostered a great deal of repressed anger which triggered a latent case of multiple personality disorder. The three dominant personalities are the quiet intellectual Banner, the Grey Hulk which embodies his more antisocial cunning side, and the Savage Hulk which embodies his inner child and repressed rage. Eventually, Doc Samson managed to prompt the merger of Banner's personalities into one apparently healthy personality which embodied Banner's intellect and conscience, the Grey's cunning and confidence and the Savage's colour and strength. This "Merged Hulk" shortly thereafter joined up with the group known as the Pantheon, all of whom took their names from Greco-Roman mythology. The immortal leader and patriarch of the family, Agamemnon (from whom all of the other members were decended, some directly), and Ulysses convinced the Hulk to join them between his desire to do good in the world, and his desire to stick it to the US Government for years of hounding him by taking down a US-supported government with an abominable human rights record, among other things. As he joined, however, Delphi, the Pantheon's prophetess, saw "violence, death and pain, and a soul no longer sane" in the future - the Hulk laughing manically, while covered in blood...
The Hulk spent some time with the Pantheon. After he killed the Leader, the merger of personalities began to destabilise, and, as the Pantheon's Mount HQ crumbled around him and Delphi's vision of insane anger came true, the Savage Hulk came out... in Banner's body, thanks to a psychic failsafe. When this "Savage Banner" managed to force his way out of a plane at high altitude, Banner's fractured mind formed a personality smiliar to the Merged Hulk (and also had a smilar physical appearance and strength level), which became known as the Professor, to enable him to survive. After this, the Hulk went into hiding for some time, hampered by the "Savage Banner" coming out whenever he got angry. Finally, in battle with Onslaught, he was once more physically seperated into two beings - Hulk and Banner. Banner went on to be teleported to the Heroes Reborn universe, and the Hulk left behind - not mindless, but a mixture of Fixit & Savage - became a conduit of energy between the two universes, growing physically stronger, but coming ever closer to dying (While Banner relived his life, becoming a Hulk similar to the Savage Hulk again, in the other universe). Eventually Banner (along with the others who ended up in the other universe) returned home, and Banner was remerged with the (main) Hulk in the process, although the Hulk's personality was not not significantly changed.
Finally, just as Banner looked like he was about to settle down with Betty, she died of gamma radiation poisoning.
After David was forced off the comic series in the mid-1990s, two issues after killing off Betty Banner (although his last issue contained a summary of what he would have done), other writers reverted the Hulk back to a green-skinned, rampaging behemoth.
In addition, Bruce Banner has a cousin, Jennifer Walters, whom he once has to give an emergency blood transfusion when she is critically wounded. As a result, she takes on the Hulk condition as the She-Hulk. However, her form allows her to keep most of her original personality albeit with more assertiveness and self-confidence.
The Incredible Hulk's supervillain enemies include:
- The Leader: A villain whose own exposure to gamma radiation makes him a superintelligent genius with an oversized brain.
- The Abomination: A Soviet spy who deliberately exposes himself to gamma radiation to become a reptilian version of the Hulk with his original personality and intelligence intact.
- The U-Foes: A quartet of villains who participate in an attempt to recreate the same accident that created the Fantastic Four. When Banner discover them in the middle of their foolhardy scheme, he interferes with it to successfully save their lives. Although they survive and gain superpowers, they swear revenge on Banner for supposedly cheating them of the chance to gain even more power.
- While not a supervillain, Wolverine of the X-Men made his first-ever appearance in Marvel Comics as a villain in the Hulk series; Wolverine's first appearance was in The Incredible Hulk issue number 181.
Superhuman Powers
The Hulk possesses the capacity for virtually limitless physical strength. The Hulk's strength level can escalate through corresponding surges of adrenaline caused during stressfull situations, such as feelings of extreme anger, rage, and frustration. The Hulk has never been provoked to demonstrating a maximum limit of his strength, so it remains a mystery. The gamma radiation added over 900 pounds of muscle, bone and tissue to Banner's body. The source of this additional mass is unrevealed but could, possibly, be extra-dimensional. Aside from his great strength, his gamma enhanced body possesses a high degree of resistance to injury. His skin can withstand the impact of high caliber military cannons or exposure to temperatures in excess of 5,000 degrees Farenheit without damage. Although it is possible to injure him, the Hulk's body possesses an accelerated healing power that can enable him to repair massive injuries or tissue loss within a span of a few minutes. The Hulk's highly advanced musculature produces considerably fewer fatigue toxins than the bodies of ordinary human beings, granting him the ability to sustain himself at maximum exertion for several days. His powerful leg muscles allow him to leap several miles in a single bound, he was once observed as nearly jumping into Earth's orbit so it is possible that his leaping strength increases with adrenaline surges as well.
Movies & Television
There have been numerable adaptations of the character. They included several animated television series. However, the most famous TV adaptation was the live action The Incredible Hulk TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno.
In 2003, Ang Lee directed a film on the Hulk, which was released on June 20, 2003 to mixed reviews.
This is an Article on The Incredible Hulk. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About The Incredible Hulk Themed products
Due to the Hulk's popularity (especially with kids), various Hulk themed products have emerged over the years including action figures, lunchboxes, toys, the ever-popular Hulk Hands (that "growl" when you SMASH them!), and even giant inflatable Hulks.Bibliography
External links