Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk Appreciation 2022

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

In the Secret Warriors, Hulk had a fun dynamic with Inferno of the Inhumans. I'd bring that over to the comics if I ever got to write a Hulk run. .

[Frontier]

Hulk kind of does just fight everybody at some point.

[Lukmendes]

Hulk kind of does just fight everybody at some point.

Civilians aside, it'd probably be easier to list which characters he didn't fight.

Like I can think of 5 fights with Spidey alone (ASM#14, ASM Annual#3, Incredible Hulk#349, some story where Hulk is possessed by some alien and Spidey defeats him by passing a cold to that alien, PP:SM#14), and those are the ones I can think on the top of my head, and they're all related to Spidey's comics in some way (IH#349 continues a story from Web of Spider-Man#44), and since Spidey isn't part of the Avengers, or friends with Hulk (Though he tends to treat Hulk well whenever they meet and Hulk isn't attacking him), that's still a noticeable amount of fights, and Spidey generally doesn't even leave New York, and there's definitely a lot more lol.

Speaking of Web of Spider-Man, Joe has this gem of a moment in #44:

[Dinosaur Hulk]

Pretty sick fan-art of Jade Giant
Artist: Arseny Kolyasnikov (@ssouljacker on Twitter)
FJuq6U8XIAAL6yE.jpg

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

Incredible Hulk #372
“He’s Back”

Cover Date: August 1990
Sale Date: June 19th, 1990
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Dale Keown
Inker: Bob McCleod
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Guest Stars/Supporting Cast: Betty Banner, Prometheus, various nuns.
Antagonist: Prometheus
Synopsis: Prometheus of the Pantheon is closing in on the location of Bruce Banner and giving an update to the rest of the group at the Mount…all the while driving at an incredible speed and racing across a set of railroad tracks and narrowly avoiding getting hit. Banner meanwhile, has gotten over his shock and made an attempt to talk to Betty. The nun assumes he’s a reporter and brushes him off. So, he jumps the fence, tears his shirt, giving the readers a view of the scar Dr. Strange mentioned last issue, and is seen by a child playing in the yard. Cut to an elderly gentleman named Father Lowry, who’s been running late to said convent. An uncaring Prometheus comes screaming down the road, causing the Father to crash into a light pole. Back at the convent, Banner has snuck into the confessional to avoid being caught. Before he can leave, Betty arrives and gives a heartfelt speech to whom she believes is Father Lowry…until the chaos of the others looking for Banner interrupts it. Banner leaves unseen and has trouble deciding whether to leave or make one last attempt to see her. Ultimately, he decides he wants to make another attempt but Betty has made the difficult choice of leaving and he sees her leaving in a taxi. Banner tricks the nuns into thinking he’s with the cab company and gets her destination. He then carjacks a vehicle to get there, but is caught by Prometheus just as he arrives. The stress of everything drives Banner to the breaking point and this causes him to transform once again into the GREEN-SKINNED Hulk. Prometheus is forced to switch to full-offence mode but it does nothing to stop the Hulk, as the weapons he’s equipped were meant for the smaller, weaker Gray Hulk. The Hulk transforms back to Banner, who sees the train taking off. Unable to catch it, he collapses in grief at losing her again. However, he hears her voice calling his name, and startled to see her standing there. The issue ends with them running into each other’s arms and kissing.
Commentary: Fat-Head Alert with that transformation. It’s iconic anyway, but man is that gorgeous! So is the cover. My early teen years had me riding my bike to my LCS. I would bring an empty clipboard/binder so that my purchases wouldn’t get squished in my backpack along the way. I remember getting to the store and eagerly plopping down my $1.05. Heading back, I was at the crosswalk next to my old elementary school. Light turns red, I start pedaling. Not exactly sure what happened, but I somehow had flipped completely over the handle bars and onto the concrete. I sat there stunned, then leaped up and raced across the street. Some drivers had asked if I was ok…and I was…but I cannot figure out what the hell happened. So when I refer to being head over heels for this issue…I’m serious!
Bullet Points:
The scar was a representation of the anger and stress that Banner and the Gray Hulk had been suppressing for undetermined amount of time. (Banner for the chaotic life and the Hulk suppressing the eventual evolution back into the Green Hulk.) Because of his desire for Betty and the situation he was in, it created this one-time skin-shedding transformation. (Sourced from the letters page in issue #377 and 381.) Banner unlocking the mental block in #371 definitely did not help the situation. But how this holds up today…well…who knows? It’s 30+ years old at this point and retcon after retcon has been added (for better or worse) to the story. My belief is that for the longest time, it was just Banner and the Hulk. One Hulk. And because of the various gamma ray treatments, exposures, etc. we were offered various incarnations of the Hulk. The events in #324 caused the Hulk to revert to his original form because of the lessened amount of gamma radiation in his body, but it’s still the same Hulk. Because he’s now more intelligent, he enjoying his life more…as it were. Remember his words in #341, “No! Never!! I’ll never be a stupid, pathetic animal like that again. Never!” So the Gray Hulk, worried about an eventual evolution back into his green form, begins suppressing this change and the Green Hulk will now become a separate personality. Does it make sense? No. It’s comics. And next issue it’s all wiped away and we are where we are.
Keown went thru several different versions of the iconic transformation splash. I’ve posted them both over the years, but this is a case of being glad the final version was chosen instead.

[Vordan]

https://twitter.com/hulk/status/1486...845580806?s=21

[PlatinumThorns]

https://twitter.com/hulk/status/1486...845580806?s=21

Where is everyone?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'd have Philip Eitenger pop up as Joe Fix-it. Eitenger already played a younger version of Mark Ruffalo's character from "I know this much is true". So I thought it would be a good fit for him.

Unfortunately they probably won't adapt his DID or the baggage with his dad....oh well...I'd always have Immortal.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

https://twitter.com/hulk/status/1486...845580806?s=21

[Cth]

Would it kill them to have some consistency? I mean if this was planned out.. we go from this..



.. to this ..



I get that you want to tease the character, but it's 3 issues apart.. surely they'd have settled on the design by this point.

Nose/No Nose
Regular teeth/Sharp teeth
Ghostbusters/PITT

Unless this is some avatar of rage being shown in the promo but that's not how it's being advertised.

[Intothevoid]

I am gonna make a prediction, i dont think that's how Titan normally looks, i think that's him either shapeshifting into something or something else, it kinda looks like he pulled a bunch of metal scrap and formed into that giant skull with teeth. If you see at the top of his head there also seems to be a giant crater, someone actually suggested he might actually be a whole planet or something ridiculous like that. His mouth might actually be a portal as well, kinda looks like it.

Either way we will have to wait and see. I don't HATE the idea so far, i mean the possibility of some OP as hell personality inside Banner existing is something that should have been introduced long ago if you ask me. The only question is, will Cates able to execute it properly... probably not, but we will see.

The biggest problem with it so far is it's impossible not to compare him to Knull, especially since the editor himself literally said it's Hulks Knull, which is the dumbest thing he could have said, but we all know they always try to hype and sell things to you as much as possible. So yea i think this Titan will suffer for being a cheap Knull clone.

[Cth]

I am gonna make a prediction, i dont think that's how Titan normally looks, i think that's him either shapeshifting into something or something else, it kinda looks like he pulled a bunch of metal scrap and formed into that giant skull with teeth. If you see at the top of his head there also seems to be a giant crater, someone actually suggested he might actually be a whole planet or something ridiculous like that. His mouth might actually be a portal as well, kinda looks like it.

Either way we will have to wait and see. I don't HATE the idea so far, i mean the possibility of some OP as hell personality inside Banner existing is something that should have been introduced long ago if you ask me. The only question is, will Cates able to execute it properly... probably not, but we will see.

The biggest problem with it so far is it's impossible not to compare him to Knull, especially since the editor himself literally said it's Hulks Knull, which is the dumbest thing he could have said, but we all know they always try to hype and sell things to you as much as possible. So yea i think this Titan will suffer for being a cheap Knull clone.

You raise a good point with the planet thing.. Cates did say that the Iron Man Celestial suit would come back into play at one point.

As far as Titan (really? kinda.. average sounding.. then again so does "Leader" ) goes if he's Hulk's Knull and Knull was the God of the Symbiotes and they resembled him in a way, I wonder how they're going to make Titan the template for gamma beings..

Also, it's worth pointing out that Knull and the Celestials had history.. and with Cates saying Iron Man's Celestial will come into play I wonder if he's working on some larger "Cates Mythology" ala a Pantheon of godlike beings tied to Celestial origins.

[Intothevoid]

You raise a good point with the planet thing.. Cates did say that the Iron Man Celestial suit would come back into play at one point.

As far as Titan (really? kinda.. average sounding.. then again so does "Leader" ) goes if he's Hulk's Knull and Knull was the God of the Symbiotes and they resembled him in a way, I wonder how they're going to make Titan the template for gamma beings..

Also, it's worth pointing out that Knull and the Celestials had history.. and with Cates saying Iron Man's Celestial will come into play I wonder if he's working on some larger "Cates Mythology" ala a Pantheon of godlike beings tied to Celestial origins.

I dont mind the name actually, in fact it feels like the natural thing to do. Hulk himself has been called a "titan" before, basically to hype him up and i know EXACTLY why Cates is doing it now. Because the title of GOD is cool sounding but you can't apply it to literally everything. So while Knull was the God of symbiotes, this Hulk can be the Titan of gamma. Because to Cates it's all about the "cool" factor.

Eh, Cates was never one to dig THAT deep into things, that's more Ewing territory, so i dont believe he is gonna be making his own broad mythology out there.

I am still very vary of the Titan thing, mostly because i fear it will end up resembling the Knull crap too much or that it might do damage to Hulk mythos as in deconstructing something, rather than building up on it, but we will see.

[Hypestyle]

Titan... who is this? has it ever been seen before? Some kind of ancient god of anger? strength? A peer of the Greek/Asgardian gods or "before" them?

... What was the "Kluh" personality from a few years back?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Titan... who is this? has it ever been seen before? Some kind of ancient god of anger? strength? A peer of the Greek/Asgardian gods or "before" them?

... What was the "Kluh" personality from a few years back?

I thought that was Hulk possessed by Fear Itself or Hulk working for Hydra Cap.