Hulk


Hulk
Real name:	Bruce Banner
First Appearance:	The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962)
Created by:	Stan Lee (writer) and Jack Kirby (artist)
Team affiliations:	Avengers, Warbound, Defenders, Pantheon, Hulkbusters, Horsemen of Apocalypse, The Order, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Abilities:	Bruce Banner: Genius-level intellect Hulk: Superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance and durability, immunity to diseases and viruses, Adrenal activation, anger empowerment, accelerated healing, longevity Resistance to mind control, skilled hand-to-hand combatant
Portrayed by:	Lou Ferrigno, Eric Bana (Banner), Edward Norton (Banner), Mark Ruffalo

The Hulk is a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Reserved physicist Dr. Bruce Banner is accidentally exposed to the blast of a test detonation of a gamma bomb he invented, while trying to save Rick Jones. Subsequently, when Banner is angry, he involuntarily transforms into a huge, incredibly strong creature known as the Hulk.

Beginning in comic books in the early 1960s, the character has since been depicted in various other media: in a live-action television series, in three animated series, various video games, and through the use of CGI in two films.

Beginnings

The Hulk was created by Stan Lee in 1962, in response from fans who indicated that their favorite character was the Thing (Lee also created the Fantastic Four). So he wanted to make a character much like him.

The Hulk's first series was called The Incredible Hulk. The series was only six issues. After that, the Hulk guested on other characters' comics until he was in the anthology superhero series Tales to Astonish. It only had the Hulk for half of each issue, then featured another superhero. Then Tales to Astonish became The Incredible Hulk in 1968.

Incarnations

Grey Hulk/Joe Fixit – The Gray Hulk (though not the original) worked for a time as a Las Vegas enforcer called "Joe Fixit". The Gray Hulk has poor intelligence, although he occasionally displays knowledge and intellectual ability normally associated with Banner. He is cunning, crafty, hedonistic, arrogant, and distant, with a hidden conscience.In most of Las Vegas appearances, he appears only at night. According to the Leader, the Gray Hulk persona is strongest during the night of the new moon and weakest during the full moon. This aversion to sun/moon light vanished when the Gray Hulk's night-induced transformation trigger was later removed.Although he is the smallest of the Hulks, the Gray Hulk towers over the average human. He prefers to dress in tailored suits. Joe Fixit's base strength level is also the lowest of the three primary Hulk incarnations. While in a functionally calm emotional state, Joe Fixit is able to lift 100 tons.

Savhulk2 — Savage Hulk as he appeared in The Incredible Hulk vol. 1 issue #2

Savage Hulk – The most common version of the Hulk, he possesses the mental capacity and temperament of a young child and typically refers to himself in the third person. He often claims that he wants to be left alone. The Savage Hulk is usually depicted as green-skinned and heavily-muscled with a loping, ape-like gait. While in a functionally calm emotional state, or at least as calm as the Hulk can be, the Savage Hulk is capable of lifting about 100 tons.

Mindless Hulk – Nightmare, in an attempt to find new ways to hurt his enemy Doctor Strange by going through his friends, penetrated Bruce Banner's mind and discovered his influence had an unexpected side effect; a new personality began to develop out of Banner's worst visions of the Hulk.At this period in Banner's life, he had just gained control over the Hulk's body, but was constantly on alert and terrified this was just temporarily, and that the Hulk, which he saw as nothing but a savage and destructive beast, would break free once more when the world least expected it. Far from being identical with the original Hulk, this version was based on a nightmarish imagination made of all of Banner's worst fears and ideas of his former alter ego.

Nightmare continued to manipulate and increase his influence, allowing this dark incarnation to gradually rise to the surface.It finally became its own personality after Banner made his "psychic suicide", allowing it to break free of Banner's domination. Eventually, with the assistance to Doctor Strange, entered the Dimension of Nightmare as a similar manifestation as Mindless Hulk, threatening to kill him.

DevilHulkAlt — Devil Hulk in an alternate form, being held back by Savage Hulk and Grey Hulk

Devil Hulk – The malevolent personality of Bruce Banner, personifying all of Banner's resentment at the way he is treated by the world. He is also one of the Hulk's enemies, constantly threatening to escape confinement in Banner's mind and destroy the world that has tormented and abused them, simultaneously leaving nothing intact that Banner hold dear. He first appeared when Banner was dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease, and Banner used a machine to travel into his own mind and make a deal with the three dominant Hulks that they would gain control of his body once the disease became too much for him to bear. The Devil Hulk was revealed at this point, but escaped a short while afterward when the machinations of General Ryker shattered the barriers keeping the Devil Hulk imprisoned. Fortunately, he was contained long enough for a cure for Banner's condition to be found, before finally being contained in Banner's subconscious by Banner, the Savage Hulk and Joe Fixit; the Professor Hulk remaining out in the real world to help scientists such as Doctor Samson and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four find a cure for the disease. Devil Hulk is powerful enough to harness the cosmic symbiote of the silver surfer and destroy entire galaxies with it. He is strong enough to defeat Malekith and Thanos with little effort. He has lifted up Thor's hammer on many occasions and has used it to destroy the Odin sleep stage.

Merged/Professor Hulk – The Merged Hulk is the merger of Banner and the Savage and Gray Hulks.The Merged Hulk was later retconned into The Professor. The Professor, rather than being a merger of the three main personalities, was interpreted as a fourth, separate personality that represented Banner's ideal self. The primary difference between the two is that the Merged Hulk demonstrated aspects of the Banner, Gray Hulk and Savage Hulk personalities (also possessing Banner's intelligence, Joe Fixit's cunning, and the Savage Hulk's size and strength), while the Professor did not.The Merged Hulk was even prone to uttering "Hulk will smash!", which was the Savage Hulk's most common catch phrase. The Merged Hulk was an associate and leader of the team of superheroes called the Pantheon. Despite his exaggerated musculature, the Merged Hulk had a relatively normal looking face, resembling that of Banner. The Professor personality was defined during writer Paul Jenkins' run as a "revelation" that the Merged Hulk was not actually a merger of the three personalities but rather a separate personality altogether.Unlike the Merged Hulk, the Professor was physically distinguished by having a ponytail, which the Merged Hulk did not. Jenkins justified this by retconning into the Hulk's continuity a new character named Angela Lipscomb (modeled after Jenkins' own girlfriend) who knew more about Bruce Banner than even Doc Samson. Lipscomb confronted Samson with her observations of the Professor and Doc Samson validated them, despite events presented in previous issues to the contrary.The Professor is the largest of the three primary Hulk incarnations and he also possesses a higher base strength level. While in a calm emotional state, the Professor is capable of lifting about 100 tons. However, unlike the other Hulk incarnations, Bruce Banner subconsciously installed a type of safeguard within the Professor. When the Professor's anger reaches a certain level, he will transform back into Bruce Banner, though with the mind and personality of the Savage Hulk. Due to this safeguard, the Professor is ultimately the weakest of the three primary Hulk incarnations despite being the physically largest. Professor Hulk has the attributes of three Hulks: Gray Hulk, Savage Hulk, and Banner. He is the weakest of all incantations because he will revert to Banner with Savage Hulk's mind if he gets too angry.

Maestro – The Hulk of a possible future where nuclear devastation has eliminated many, if not all, Earthbound heroes and villains. Hulk was simply powered-up by these events. Thanks to the nuclear fallout this hulks strength had been drastically improved to the point where he could lift 200 tons in a calm state which is double of what he was capable of doing before the fallout. This highly ruthless and intelligent version rules Dystopia (it is unclear how far this territory extends, though it is implied to be immense). The Merged Hulk is contacted and brought to this future by the great-great granddaughter of Rick Jones (who survives in this time, unnaturally aged and confined to Professor X's 'Nineties' era roller-chair) in an effort to put an end to the malevolent rule of his older self. The Maestro is similar in height and build to the Merged Hulk, with a bald crown, long white hair over the sides and back, and beard. With a slight hump of the shoulders from age, the Maestro also has a more muted green skin tone and numerous warts and age spots. It is unclear if this incarnation's strength increases with rage, or what his base-level strength is, though, presumably it is equal to that of the Merged Hulk, as the younger is easily defeated in hand-to-hand combat with the older (this could, however, be a question of experience, not brute strength). The Maestro is defeated when one of Dr. Doom's time platforms is used to transport him to the moment of Banner's initial accident with the Gamma bomb; Maestro is overloaded and incinerated by the very explosion that transforms Banner into the Hulk in the first place.

Guilthulk1 — Guilt Hulk haunting a young Bruce Banner

Guilt hulk – Known as "The Beast", the Guilt Hulk is another of Bruce Banner's personae, though this one created by his regret. The Guilt Hulk originally manifested itself in Banner's mind as his father and tormented him by forcing him to relive memories of his traumatic childhood. Eventually, the Guilt Hulk was defeated by Banner himself. The Guilt Hulk later returned after Betty's death, albeit much more powerful because of Banner's emotionally fractured state. After brutally beating the Professor and Joe Fixit, the Guilt Hulk was eventually subdued again by the Savage Hulk. Due to its monstrous size, the Guilt Hulk was physically very powerful. It also possessed claws and spikes all over its body. The Guilt Hulk also showed the ability to breathe fire on one occasion. Guilt is the largest of all incantations because he is twenty meters tall he has super strength and can breathe fire.

Australian Hulk – From the universe created by the event House of M, he combines Gray Hulk, Savage Hulk, Banner, and the Professor Hulk.

"The Green Scar" – A personality born from the need to survive the harsh planet of Skaar. Has seemingly, though never officially confirmed, the intelligence of banner the cunning of the gray Hulk and strength of the savage Hulk his base strength started at above human and grew to beyond 100 tons with no defined limit.

World Breaker Hulk – A more powerful form of what is known as the Green Scar coming from his rage being at its most focused, due to meditation training by his ally Hiroim. The Hulk is seen at his maximum rage, due to the destruction of his adopted planet as depicted in Planet Hulk series. Hence he is seen at his most powerful form. The Avengers and the Fantastic Four frequently allude to this in the World War Hulk series. This incarnation has extremely high durability, as evidenced by his ability to withstand to an imposter Skull Black Bolt's voice then later the repeated destruction of the Dark Dimension fighting an unbound Red She-Hulk. He also shows incredible stamina by fighting with most of the Heroes of the Earth and defeating them inside a week, including Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Sentry who was considered the most powerful of earth's heroes. However, he did receive help not only from his Warbound alliance with Alien Heroes, but also from sympathizers of Hulk in the earth such as Amadeus Cho in all the cases but the Sentry. It's even implied from the fact Sentry passed out after both had reverted to their human state but Banner remained standing with glowing eyes and displayed an ability to transform back into Hulk after the fight shows that his full limit even then was untapped.

Doc Green – A personality that came into being due to a mix of factors including exposure to the upgraded Extremis virus. Very much similar to the Professor in terms of intelligence, style of dress and strength, though lacking scruples of most other forms have. Hates being called Banner or Hulk, suggesting he's a separate part of either of them. Saw a vision of the Maestro and grew a beard similar to him because of it, suggesting he'd be most likely the form to become him if allowed to continue. Attempted to depower all other Gamma Mutates friendly (She-Hulk, Skaar, A-Bomb) or foe (Leader) before losing himself after the effects of the diminishing Extremis. His control over the shared body of Bruce Banner was broken due to the lessening intelligence, but not before creating an AI duplicate of his personality, who turned against him once it figured out he was no longer as smart as when he made it.

Powers

The Hulk has several powers and abilities, including:

Super strength:
- Ability to lift a car or even an island; lifted 150 billion tons of mountain dropped on top of him in secret wars; once lifted 6 sextillion tons; increases to infinite levels
- Has been encased in pure diamond and completely shattered it simply by flexing; destroys things and structures built to withstand power "of the gods"
- Hulk's strength can be planetary in scale. he held a planet together and shifted its plates to avert worldwide catastrophe
- Destroyed an asteroid twice the size of earth with one blow; punched through a time storm; can destroy planets just with his footsteps
- To give a sense of scale as to the amount of effort required for these lifting feats, it is described that the weight of forty tons, "might as well weigh as many ounces!" (from Incredible Hulk vol.2 #22)

Super jump – Can make huge jumps from one place to another; some can be seen from space; jumps thousands of miles in a single bound
Super speed – Can run at Mach 5; has been described as having "lightning-fast reflexes" (in Marvel Feature #3 and Incredible Hulk #276)
Durability:
- Can withstand extreme temperatures, even the sun
- Has dropped from a planet's orbit and been completely unhurt
- A 1-ton wrecking ball to the back of the head, showing no damage to Hulk's Head
- Even human torch's full nova blast does nothing to the hulk
Stamina:
- Hulk has near infinite stamina
- Can leap endless miles for hours and not break a sweat
- Does not even require sustenance
Healing Factor:
- Has one of the best Healing factors in the marvel universe which is potentially limitless
- Has had skin torn off reducing him to bones and muscles
- Has regrown his neck after the Maestro snapped it during the future imperfect storyline
- Can regenerate limbs and organs

Hulk

Contents

Beginnings

Incarnations

Powers

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