Originally Posted by
Kurt Busiek
I think it would be almost impossible for him not to have killed anyone, and whenever someone in a story says he hasn't, I think it ruins the suspension of disbelief -- it makes the stories seem artificial and forced, rather than making the character seem more noble. It just says that he could have killed people, but by sheer coincidence, a coincidence repeated over and over and over again through hundreds of stories, it just somehow never happened.
It doesn't feel credible to me.
As for whether it diminishes the character, since I never thought it was credible that he hadn't caused any deaths, it doesn't change my perception of the character either positively or negatively. That's just who he is.
I think it's hard to assign moral guilt to him for actions taken in a rage as the Hulk, when he's not really capable of making moral choices.
And I'm not really that interested in whether Bruce is redeemable, because unless you mean that in Christian terms, it's kind of meaningless. In Christian terms -- whether he can be redeemed of his sins and go to Heaven -- I don't care, because he's unlikely to age much or die and ever have to face the question. Plus, I don't actually believe in Heaven.
In terms of earthly redemption, well, the Hulk is fictional. What I want from him is for him to be interesting, not for him to be someone I'd elect to the school board. I think it's interesting for Bruce to feel guilt at what the Hulk has done, and try to stop or minimize that -- if Bruce got told that there was some mysterious cosmic force that has somehow prevented him from ever killing anyone, I think that would be bad for the stories, on top of not being credible. So I like the idea that Bruce is, in part, motivation by feelings of guilt and of fear of what he might do as the Hulk.
He doesn't need to be Captain America.
Nor does he need to be Wolverine, who has killed people who didn't deserve it, and feels no guilt about it. He's an interesting character too, but he's driven by things the Hulk isn't, and vice versa.
I don't think the Hulk is ever gonna stop busting up towns and tanks and stuff, at least not as long as people want to read stories about him. So I don't think "is he redeemable" is an interesting question, because we're never going to get to the part of his life where it'd be answered. I think a better question is "how would he react to the fear of killing people" and "how would other people react to him as someone who can become suddenly deadly when he's angry"? These are questions that can make for good stories, and that's what I want from the Hulk.
kdb