The Incredible Hulk
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.
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.
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.
Occasionally the Hulk gains a decent intelligence, only to lose it again; in adventures published in the mid-1980s, Bruce Banner "loses control" of the Hulk and he becomes a truly mindless, rampaging monster. Shortly after this, however, writer Peter David took on the mantle of the Incredible Hulk and made some drastic changes to the character. The previous author, Al Milgrom, had returned the Hulk to his original "grey" state, and the Hulk gained a brutish intelligence. David ran with this, and the Hulk is given a job as a Las Vegas casino enforcer named "Mr. Fixit." 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 Gray Hulk which embodies his more antisocial cunning side, and the Green Hulk which embodies his inner child and repressed rage. Eventually, Doc Samson, a scientist who has his body enhanced by a controlled gamma radiation exposure manages to merge Banner's personalities into one healthy personality which balances Banner's intellect and conscience, the Gray's cunning and confidence and the Green's body. David spent the next decade taking the Hulk on a series of adventures that many fans considered to be a change of direction that breathed new life into the character.
After David left the comic series in the mid-1990s, 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:
There was a cartoon, TV series, and even a few TV movies for the Hulk. The TV series and movies starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk himself. In 2003, Ang Lee directed a film on the Hulk, which was released on June 20, 2003 to mixed reviews.History
Movies & Television