HULK

 

HULK

Real Name: Robert Bruce Banner

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #1, May 1962

Powers: Robert Bruce Banner is a nuclear physicist of genius-level intellect who experienced physical and psychological abuse from his early childhood to his pre-adolescence at the hands of his alcoholic father. After witnessing his father kill his mother, young Bruce began to repress his emotional feelings even well into his adult life. His inability to deal with emotions stemmed from a subconscious desire to avoid becoming like his violent father. However, his avoidance of emotion developed into a dissociative identity disorder (aka ‘multiple personality disorder’). This disorder began manifesting itself externally after Bruce was exposed to a massive dose of gamma radiation from a bomb of his own devising. Over the years, he has transformed into a wide variety of behemoths collectively known as “The Incredible Hulk”, each with varying levels of physical power.

Each Hulk is a massive physical specimen, possessing Class 75-100 strength, superhuman endurance, nigh-invulnerability backed by hyper-regenerative powers, and the ability to leap up to three miles in one bound. The Hulks have the capacity for superhuman strength ranging beyond the limits of any known humanoid being. The gamma radiation that mutated Bruce Banner's body fortified his cellular structure and added some as yet unknown (presumably extradimensional) source, several hundred pounds of bone, muscle, and other tissue. In times of stress, the Hulk's adrenaline level escalates, causing a corresponding escalation of strength. Thus, the madder the Hulk gets, the stronger he becomes. This is usually not accompanied by an additional gain in mass, but does appear to promote increased levels of energy efficiency. The Hulk has not let found an endpoint to his maximum strength, so its upper limit remains a mystery, While described at Class 100 strength, the Hulk has proven capable of exceeding this parameter several times over; following exposure to the warp core breach on Sakaar, his baseline strength was even higher.

The Hulks also have the ability to perceive astral forms, part of a subconscious fear that Bruce Banner has of his father returning to life to torment him. The Hulk also demonstrates a homing ability that allows him to pinpoint the desert in New Mexico where he was first “born”. This ability also gives the Hulk an uncanny accuracy and intuitive sense of direction. The Hulk has an incredible lung capacity, enabling him to last for over an hour without having to take a breath, and some incarnations have even manifested the ability to breathe underwater.

Although Banner has many splinter personalities existing solely in his mind, the Hulks that he’s manifested over the years represent the core personalities. Banner excluded, the core personalities also represent repressed aspects of Bruce Banner, sides of himself and even his ideal self. The core personalities that manifest as Hulks have had sufficient real-world experience to allow them to develop as individuals more so than the splinter personalities.

Bruce Banner is the central core identity. He’s meek, mild-mannered, reserved and filled with repressed emotions. Despite his insecurities and psychological hang-ups, he is one of the most intelligent men on Earth and has been shown to be affectionate with people (and capable of relationships with the opposite sex). He became interested in science at a young age, seemingly preferring the cold rationality of it to protect him from emotions. Banner’s childhood abuse molded him into the mild-mannered man he is as an adult. He views himself as weak and puny, which are obvious Freudian defense mechanisms to keep him from losing control and transforming into the Hulk. Since gamma-irradiated humans are molded by their own psychology, Bruce is an interesting case since his own psychology is broken. His own self-loathing (instilled by his father) split his repressed emotional sides into multiple personalities, the gamma rays that turned him into the Hulk(s) put him in a constant state of flux with those different aspects of his psychology fighting for dominance.

The grey-skinned Hulk was the first Hulk to appear after Banner’s exposure to gamma radiation. Initially, Banner began transforming into a gray-skinned Hulk every day at sunset, and returning to normal at sunrise. This Hulk was 6'6", with considerably larger muscle mass, giving him Class 75 strength. The Gray Hulk has at times been said to represent Banner's ego, or his repressed libido and desires from high school and college. Though not possessed of Banner’s genius intellect, he is exceptionally clever and crafty. He emerges at day and disappears at daybreak because of Banner's desire to hide this aspect of himself away in the dark. Initially, this Hulk's personality was also dependent on the phases of the moon, with the Hulk side of his mind being strongest when away from sunlight, even reflected sunlight off of the moon. And so, the Hulk was at his most savage and brutal during the new moon, and most reasonable during times of the full moon. Banner's transformations were completely controlled by an internal clock -- the Hulk was frequently locked up in a windowless cell during the night-time hours, yet even without a window or clock to know the time, he always reverted back to Banner at sunrise. The Hulk's skin turned green very early in his manifestations, giving rise to a splinter personality sometimes termed "Gravage Hulk" (halfway between grey and Savage). The Gravage Hulk's personality was similar to but somehow distinctive from the core personality of the grey Hulk, later referred to as "Joe Fixit". It wasn't really evident at this time, but as the grey Hulk developed into a distinctive and individual personality, the Gravage Hulk version still remained and occasionally surfaced on its own.

General Thunderbolt Ross attempted to get rid of the Hulk early in his career by launching him into space on board a rocket. Rick Jones made radio contact with the Hulk on the rocket ship, and an unexpected energy surge affected both men. When the rocket crashed back down to Earth, the Hulk remained active in daylight for the first time. In addition, he was now completely responsive to Rick's verbal commands, due to some psychic connection formed between them during the radio contact. Rick eventually managed to guide the Hulk to Bruce Banner's hidden lab in the New Mexico desert, and employed a gamma ray projector to transform the Hulk back into Banner. This became the set-up for the next few months: Whenever there was a threat, Bruce would go to his lab and blast himself with gamma rays, changing into the Gravage Hulk. Though their psychic connection was gone now, it was Rick who was responsible for ensuring that the Hulk eliminated the threat then returned to get bombarded by gamma rays and turned back into Banner. This was the period of time when Hulk helped form the Avengers. After a while, though, Banner decided that letting the Hulk out at all was ineffective, and began repressing the creature again. This just caused the Hulk to manifest in a new way, and the green-skinned Savage Hulk was born.

The most well-known Hulk, he was a larger, more powerful version of the Gravage Hulk, standing 7 feet tall and possessing Class 90 strength. He was unleashed whenever Banner began to experience intense stress, panic, anger, etc. Interestingly enough, though, the original reverse transformation was triggered in the same manner: Hulk would change back into Banner whenever he became significantly enraged or stressed by a situation. This was the beginning of the classic "Hulk Smash!!" personality, occasionally referred to as Banner's child-like id given form, his mind from when he first supposedly fractured mentally, when he was beaten by his father on Christmas morning during his childhood. At one point, Banner was shot in the head as he was changing into the Hulk. The bullet lodged there, somehow causing Banner's mind to remain in control of the Hulk once the transformation was complete. Realizing that he could not turn back without dying, the Banner-Hulk began using gamma ray bombardments to stabilize his physical state and prevent himself from changing back to Bruce Banner. Eventually, the bullet was removed with the help of the Leader, and Banner returned to his human form. This series of events catalyzed the last remaining factor of the classic Hulk scenario: Now, the angrier the Hulk became, the stronger Hulk became. Additional anger and stress released gamma-irradiated adrenaline throughout the Savage Hulk's body, geometrically increasing his strength level to Class 100 and beyond. This also affected his endurance and regeneration, increasing them to the maximum in the same way. The Hulk now would only revert to Bruce Banner when he relaxed to a certain degree, and his anger cooled.

Nothing would change for Banner and the Hulk for quite a long period of time, until Bruce began to actively search for a cure for his condition. During a period of gamma bombardments he was administering to himself, Banner was taken away for a series of space adventures, involving him confronting an old enemy who used gamma rays as a weapon against him, and culminated in him being teleported home to Earth using a matter transmission beam powered by gamma rays. All these various exposures to different forms of gamma radiation somehow affected Banner's condition, giving him total control over the Hulk. Bruce could now transform into the Hulk and back at will, and maintained the personality of Bruce Banner when he did so. Though possessing the Savage Hulk's body and powers, the Banner-Hulk was a bit weaker for practical purposes since he couldn't build up the same amount of rage as his counterpart could. Still, this was the best possible set-up for Banner, and could've lasted forever if not for the demon Nightmare coming up with a plan to turn the Hulk against his nemesis, Doctor Strange. Invading Bruce's dreams, Nightmare tormented him psychologically and ultimately triggered the manifestation of a new Savage Hulk more destructive than ever. Banner attempted to stop his other self by committing psychic suicide, literally willing himself to die. He succeeded to some degree, but the Hulk didn't die. It simply became a mindless, raging monster destroying everything in its path without thought or reason. Dr. Strange was forced to exile the Hulk to the Crossroads of Realities so that he wouldn't hurt anyone or himself. As time passed, Banner's mind actually "regrew" from his attempted suicide, but this only produced a slight calming influence on the Hulk, which was now somewhere between Mindless and Savage. He returned to Earth, and Doc Samson saw an opportunity in the making -- Banner and the Hulk were now mentally separate from each other thanks to their recent experiences, leaving open the possibility for physically separating them as well. A gamma-irradiated nutrient bath was constructed, and succeeded in separating off a portion of the Hulk's mass to create a separate body for Banner. Unfortunately, this once again created the Mindless Hulk scenario, and Bruce Banner was ironically the founder of a new Hulkbusters team. Their separation also wasn't the best of things, and soon both Banner and the Hulk began to grow incorporeal, each one dying without the other. The gamma nutrient bath was prepped to reverse the splitting, but interference by Thunderbolt Ross created chaos and it ended up that Banner, the Hulk, and Rick Jones fell into the bath. The end result was that Rick siphoned off some of the Hulk's gamma radiation, leaving Banner clearly the stronger of the two minds and bringing about the return of the weaker, grey Hulk for the first time since the earliest weeks of his transformations.

Banner's system was still unstable at this point, and the grey Hulk could potentially manifest itself at night or at times of great stress. Most of the time, however, Banner remained strong enough to prevent the Hulk from being unleashed by sheer force of will. However, during the night of the new moon, when the grey Hulk was strongest, he was able to influence Banner's mind, subliminally convincing him that another blast of gamma radiation would rid him of the Hulk forever. Just the opposite occurred, and the Gray Hulk now had full control of their shared body at night. The Gray Hulk was still only 6'6" and Class 75 strength, but now had the madder-stronger factor as well. When a nuclear detonation left the world thinking the Hulk dead, he was actually transported to Jarella's world in the Microverse. Helping the local priests deal with a problem, they sent him back to Earth under a spell that prevented Banner from emerging at all. Now in full command, the grey Hulk became a mob enforcer in Las Vegas, taking a name for himself as "Joe Fixit". The magicians' spell eventually began to falter, though, and for a time Joe was weaker during the day and suffered if sunlight directly touched his skin. After about three months since the nuclear detonation, Banner regained control of the daytime from Fixit. This continued until the Hulk was possessed by a being of strange matter from another dimension. In order to deal with the threat, Banner unleashed the Savage Hulk within his mind. It worked, but this upset the delicate balance of his psyche, always fluctuating between two personalities. Now Banner changed into Joe Fixit at nightfall and during the day would transform into the Savage Hulk when stressed or angered. This chaos was too much for his system, and his personalities began to go to war with one another, mentally and physically (Banner's body with one giant grey arm and one giant green arm, both trying to strangle himself). Doc Samson began some emergency psychotherapy for Banner to treat his mental disorder. Using the hypnosis talents of the Ringmaster caused Banner to accept Samson’s presence into the interactions between his personalities and prevent them from attacking each other. During so, Doc Samson forced Banner, Joe Fixit, and the Savage Hulk to confront each other inside their mind for a “group therapy” session. They reached an understanding over the love of their mother, their collective fear of their father, and the recognition that they were tearing Bruce Banner apart by fighting. Finally, Samson seemed to convince the three personalities that it was in their best interests to merge and become a unified, whole mind.

This new Merged Hulk was a homogeneous mixture of traits. He stood 7’6″ with the Savage Hulk’s body, but Joe Fixit’s facial features. He possessed Banner mind and intelligence (without his emotional issues), but with a large portion of Fixit’s crass humor and craftiness. He was stronger than any previous Hulk, having a base strength of Class 100 even when perfectly calm. The Merged Hulk could increase his strength in the same manner as the Savage Hulk, but if he ever became too angry or stressed, he would transform into “Savage Banner”: The body of Bruce Banner possessed by the mind of the Savage Hulk. This was his self-imposed defense against him ever losing control and hurting people around him. However, it was later revealed that this was not, however, the perfect Bruce Banner that he and everyone else thought he was. This merged Hulk is who Bruce Banner wishes he could be.

While the merged Hulk contained many of the united qualities of the three other personalities, he was really just a stopgap measure devised by Samson. The Hulk was dangerously unstable at that point, and Samson needed to create at least a temporarily stable version of Banner to prevent a total meltdown. So he lied about “curing him” and instead had Banner engineer a new dominant personality that would repress the others until a truly healthy merger could be achieved. That never happened since the merged Hulk realized that he was just another facet of Bruce Banner, a mentally ill man’s notion of his ideal self. While this Merged Hulk (now calling himself "Professor") had considerable psychic and emotional armor that prevented him from feeling too strongly or too openly about anything, that armor cracked once he met the Maestro, a tyrannical future despot version of himself. Seeing what he might become created uncertainty in Banner's mind, and caused him to subconsciously create a defense mechanism against himself. The Merged Hulk was now capable of feeling things stronger than before, but if he ever became too angry or stressed, he would transform into Savage Banner: The Savage Hulk's mind possessing the body of Bruce Banner. This was his defense against him ever flying out of control and hurting people around him. Sometime later, though, Savage Banner (believing himself to be the near-invulnerable Hulk), through himself on a grenade and had a blast of shrapnel penetrate his brain. He did manage to turn into a real Hulk to save his life, but it was a different version of the Hulk, as indicated by his skin being a different shade of green. This version of the Hulk wasn't really explored before Onslaught struck, splitting Hulk and Banner into two separate beings again. Banner dove into the Onslaught effect with the rest of Earth's Heroes to defeat the creature, but while Banner traveled to the Franklinverse, the Hulk remained on our Earth.

On the Heroes Reborn Earth, the reincarnated Banner was exposed to gamma radiation and became a reborn version of the Savage Hulk. Back on our Earth, the Bannerless Hulk operated as a form of the Gravage Hulk. No transformations occurred, and while his separation from Banner made this Hulk physically more vulnerable, his strength level continued to increase due to an odd connection to the Heroes Reborn universe. The Hulk eventually proved to be a major factor in bringing the Heroes back from the Franklinverse, and Banner and the Hulk were reunited. The Gravage Hulk remained the dominant Hulk, and now their transformations were controlled entirely by the two personalities in control. If both Hulk and Banner wanted to change or not change, then things were easy. If they disagreed, however, it became a battle of wills as to whether or not the transformation occurred or did not. Following Betty's death, however, Banner began manifesting the merged "Professor" Hulk again and, after a disastrous period of mind control by Tyrannus and diagnosing himself with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Bruce's system became even more unstable. Ultimately, Banner made a pact with his three core splinter personalities (Savage Hulk, Joe Fixit, and the Professor), so that they would take turns sharing the body and would eventually take over completely when "Bruce Banner" succumbed to his disease irreparably. Bruce ended up being cured, though, and Fixit and the Professor somehow completely disappeared.

Banner began training his mind through yoga techniques and self-hypnosis so that he could control his transformations, turn into the Savage Hulk at will, and undo the changes almost just as easily. After having a reanimation drug delivered into his bloodstream, Banner developed even greater control over the Hulk and its power than before. By concentrating, his eyes would glow with gamma radiation and "Puny Banner" would become superhumanly strong and resistant to physical injury all on his own. He also could transform into the Savage Hulk while maintaining his regular personality, though the Hulk wasn't always completely under his control. This period of Banner's life has since been revealed as either fully or partly a lie, implanted on his mind by Nightmare. How much of the "Zen Banner" period actually happened remains unknown.

Since then, Bruce Banner began changing regularly with a version of the Hulk that possessed a quiet demeanor, wily intelligence, and a mean streak. This Hulk took over almost completely on the planet Sakaar, at Banner's allowance. He grew stronger and more powerful on that world and, after everything he built there was destroyed, the Hulk's rage reached unprecedented and sustained levels, making him stronger than ever before during World War Hulk. The Green Scar's rage reached uncontrollable levels when he learned one of his own Warbound was responsible for the devastation on Sakaar, and Banner had to shut him down to prevent Hulk from venting his rage on the entire planet. Instead, Banner settled into a transformation cycle with the old Savage Hulk -- still prone to rages, but without the intellect or memory to fully comprehend the Green Scar's fury.

Faced with the energy-absorbing Red Hulk, Banner was drained of all his body's gamma charge, leaving him powerless and the Hulk effectively "dead". Still possessing many enemies, Bruce Banner armed himself with a number of gadgets and technology which he carries in a simple satchel. The satchel contains a pocket teleporter reverse-engineered off of the Leader's technology, enabling Banner to reach into the bag and out into his laboratory, pulling a wide variety of items out at any given time. Banner can also use the teleportation tech more traditionally, transporting himself (and other people in close proximity) around the globe in an instant. His BannerTech shield array provides Bruce with considerable protection from all manner of harm. He can even absorb Hulk-class body blows without injury. By expanding and redirecting the shields, Banner can simulate superhuman strength to some degree. The shields are powered by ambient energy, including the gamma rays and Old Power bleeding off from his son, Skaar. Bruce also carries a simple remote device capable of executing BannerTech computer virus, nanoparticles, and software programs. This lets him quickly hack into many kinds of electronic systems. He can access government databases for information on different people and subjects, intercept and reroute phone conversations, jam tracking equipment, override security systems, and assume remote control over technology like orbital satellites and computer-guided missiles. His remote also connects him with Spy-Eyes, tiny flying cameras capable of transmitting real-time video back to him. Banner can hear and speak through the Spy-Eyes, and also use them to perform medical monitoring scans on other people. Finally, Banner carries an Old Power "taser" which channels the tectonic force of the planet into energy bolts that register on the Richter scale.

When Banner's gamma levels were restored, he and the Green Scar Hulk began co-habitating, switching back and forth as circumstances required. After being transformed into one of the Serpent's Worthy, however, Hulk went to Doctor Doom for assistance and physically separated himself from Banner. Bruce went mad during this period, as the heroic aspects of his character remained in the Hulk. During a gamma bomb explosion, Banner disintegrated in the Hulk's arms, ultimately being reabsorbed into his system. Hulk developed an antagonistic relationship with Banner where he reverted to his weaker self whenever suited relaxed or unconscious, until the two once again made peace inside their mental architecture.

Banner tried a new method of controlling the Hulk by using him in controlled, cathartic exercises to relieve stress and aggression. By releasing the Hulk on a regular basis to exert himself, Banner experienced a peaceful cohabitation with his two sides. The Hulk's exact disposition and intelligence level varied during this period, but he proved largely cooperative with the Avengers, SHIELD, and Banner's needs. Only when Banner lost control of his emotions would he produce an uncontrollable Hulk.

Later, Banner was near-fatally wounded by a bullet to the brain. Although he somehow survived, it resulted in a brain damaged Banner and an extremely dangerous rampaging Hulk. Short of killing Banner, Tony Stark decided the best option was an upgraded Extremis Virus dosage, designed to repair the missing parts of Banner's brain. Banner himself then further tweaked the Extremis dosage, resulting in his already prodigious intelligence boosting to superhuman levels, but also producing a new, super-intelligent version of the Hulk, dubbed "Doc Green". Unlike other "smart Hulks" of the past, Doc Green is not Banner's mind in the Hulk's body, but the basic Savage Hulk persona made super-intelligent. Doc Green rejects both Banner and past versions of the Hulk, citing himself as unique. His strength level appears to meet or surpass any past incarnation of the Hulk short of the Worldbreaker. He still needs to "smash", almost pathologically: When experiencing a setback, he demonstrated an uncontrollable desire to sublimate his anger through destruction, although all he needed was breaking a pencil to calm down. Doc Green also apparently does not or cannot sleep without allowing Banner to emerge, and took steps to prevent Banner from regaining control during these periods.

Robert Bruce Banner is a genius level intellect with Ph.D.'s in nuclear physics and two other areas. He possesses extensive knowledge of the subject, particularly gamma radiation.