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Hulk rewrite

Bruce Banner

The core of the Hulk, Bruce Banner has been portrayed differently by different writers, but common themes persist. Banner is emotionally withdrawn in most fashions but shows a genius mind Banner designed the gamma bomb which causes his affliction, and the ironic twist of his self-inflicted fate has been one of the most persistent common themes. Arie Kaplan describes the character thus: “Bruce Banner lives in a constant state of panic, always wary that the monster inside him will erupt, and therefore he can’t form meaningful bonds with anyone.” .

Throughout the Hulk's published history, writers have continued to frame Bruce Banner in similar fashions. Under different writers, his fractured personalityled to transformations into different versions of the Hulk. These transformations are usually involuntary, and often writers have tied the transformation to emotional triggers, such as rage and fear. As the series has progressed, different writers have adapted the Hulk, changing Hulk's personality to reflect changes in Banner's physiology or psyche. Writers have also refined and changed Banner's personality, showing him as emotionally repressed, but capable of deep love for Betty Ross, and for solving problems posed to him. Under the writing of Paul Jenkins, Banner was shown to be a capable fugitive, applying deductive reasoning and observation to figure out the events transpiring around him. When Banner has controlled the Hulk's body, he has applied principles of physics to problems and challenges.

The Hulk

During the experimental detonation of a "gamma bomb", scientist Bruce Banner rushes to save a teenager who'd driven onto the testing field. Pushing the teen, Rick Jones, into a trench, Banner himself is caught in the blast, absorbing massive amounts of radiation. He awakens later in an infirmary, seeming relatively unscathed, but that night transforms into a lumbering gray form that through the wall and escapes. A soldier in the ensuing search party dubs the otherwise unidentified creature "a hulk".

The original version of the Hulk was often shown as simple and quick to anger. His first transformations were triggered by sundown, and his return to Banner by dawn; later, emotions triggered the change. Although grey in his debut, difficulties for the printer led to a change in his color to green. In the origin tale, the Hulk divorces his identity from Banner’s, decrying Banner as "that puny weakling in the picture". From his earliest stories, the Hulk has been concerned with finding sanctuary and quiet, and often is shown reacting emotionally to situations quickly. Grest and Weinberg call Hulk the "...dark, primordial side of psyche.". Even in the earliest appearances, Hulk spoke in the third person. The Hulk retains a modest intelligence, thinking and talking in full sentences, and Lee even gives the Hulk expository dialogue in issue six, allowing readers to learn just what capabilities the Hulk has, when the Hulk says, “But these muscles ain't just for show! All I gotta do is spring up and just keep goin'!" In Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, Les Daniels addresses the Hulk as an embodiment of cultural fears of radiation and nuclear science. He quotes Jack Kirby thus:

As long as we're experimenting with radioactivity there's no telling what may happen, or how much our advancements may cost us.

Daniels continues " The Hulk became Marvel's most distubing embodiment of the perils inherent in the atomic age."

Fantastic Four #12 (March 1963), featuring the Hulk's first battle with The Thing, as well as a new way for Banner to transform into Hulk, by using a gamma ray machine of his own design to trigger the change. Although many early Hulk stories involve General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross trying to capture or destroy the Hulk, the main villian is often, like Hulk, a radiation based character, like the Toad men, or General Fang. Ross' daughter, Betty, loves Banner and criticizes her father for pursuing the Hulk. General Ross' right-hand man, Major Glenn Talbot, also loves Betty and is torn between pursuing the Hulk and trying to gain Betty's love more honorably. Rick Jones serves as the Hulk's friend and sidekick in these early tales.

Stan Lee, and others have compared The Hulk in these early tales to Frankenstein's Monster. Lee wanted to use the idea of the misunderstood monster he saw in Frankenstein's Monster, and the Hulk conveyed that concept. Lee also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish myth. In The Science of Superheroes, Gresh and Weinberg see the Hulk as a reaction to the Cold War and the threat of nuclear attack, an interpretation shared by Weinstein in Up, Up, and Oy Vey. Kaplan calls Hulk ‘schizophrenic’.

In the 1970’s, Hulk was shown as more prone to anger and rage, and less talkative. Writers played with the nature of his transformations, briefly giving Banner control over the change, and the ability to maintain control of his Hulk form.

Hulk stories began to involve other dimensions, and in one, Hulk met the empress Jarella,. Jarella used magic to bring Banner’s intelligence to Hulk, and came to love him, asking him to become her mate. Though Hulk returned to Earth before he could become her king, he would return to Jarella’s kingdom of K’ai again.

Mantlo took the character into the arena of political commentary when Hulk traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel, encountering both the violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Jewish Israeli heroine Sabra. Soon after, Hulk encountered the Arabian Knight (comics), a Bedouin superhero.

Under Bill Mantlo’s writing, the Hulk was separated from a human mind inside to constrain his actions by the extra-dimensional villain, ]. Unable to help him, Doctor Strange exiled the mindless Hulk to an extra-dimensional place called the Crossroads of Eternity, from which place he could journey to other worlds, in hopes of finding a place to reside. During the stories at the Crossroads, Banner’s childhood traumas were explored and Hulk/Banner forced to come to terms with them, and in so doing, reconnect to the human mind within. To tell this story, Mantlo employed three new characters, reflecting aspects of Banner’s fractured psyche: Glow, a gleaming floating gem, represented Banner’s intellect, Guardian, a children’s toy made live, was Bruce’s protector, and Goblin was Bruce’s repressed rage.

Having come to terms with his issues, at least for a time, Hulk and Banner physically separated under John Bryne’s writing. Separated from the Hulk, Banner was recruited by the U.S. government to create the Hulkbusters, a government team dedicated to catching Hulk. Banner and Ross married, but this change in the character was reversed by Al Milgrom, who reunited the two, and with issue #324, returned the Hulk to his grey coloration after a second visit to K’ai and his one time love, Jarella.

Shortly after returning to Earth, Hulk took on the identity of ‘Joe Fixit’, a shadowy behind the scenes figure, working in Las Vegas on behalf of a crooked casino owner, Michael Berengetti. For months, Banner was repressed in Hulk’s mind, but slowly began to reappear. Hulk and Banner began to change back and forth again at dusk and dawn, as the character initially had, but this time, they worked together to advance both their goals, using written notes as communication. In The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #333, the Leader describes the Gray Hulk persona as strongest during the night of the new moon and weakest during the full moon.

In issue #377, David revamped the Hulk again. Doctor Leonard Samson engages the Ringmaster's services to hypnotize Bruce Banner and force him, the Savage Hulk (Green Hulk) and Mr. Fixit (Gray Hulk) to confront Banner's past abuse at the hands of his father, Brian Banner. During the session, the four identities confront a ‘Guilt Hulk’, which sadistically torments the four with the abuse of Banner’s father. Facing down this abuse, a new, larger and smarter Hulk emerges and completely replaces the "human" Bruce Banner and Hulk personae. This Hulk is a culmination of the three aspects of Banner. He has the vast power of the Savage Hulk, the cunning of the gray Hulk and the intelligence of Bruce Banner.

Peter David then introduces the Hulk to The Pantheon, a secretive organization built around an extended family of super-powered people. The family members, mostly distant cousins to each other, had codenames based in the mythos of the Trojan War, and were descendants of the founder of the group, Agamemnon. When Agamemnon leaves, he puts the Hulk in charge of the organization. The storyline ends when it is revealed Agamemnon has traded his offspring to an alien race to gain power. The Hulk leads the Pantheon against the aliens, and then moves on.

Shortly after, Hulk encounters a depraved version of himself from the future, called The Maestro. Thrown into the future, Hulk finds himself allied with Rick Jones, now an old man, in an effort to destroy the tyrant Maestro. Unable to stop him in any other manner, Hulk uses the time machine that brought him to the future to send the Maestro back into the heart of the very Gamma Bomb test that spawned the Hulk.

In 1998, David followed Editor Bobbie Chase's suggestion, and wrote a storyline centering on the death of Betty Ross. Betty has radiation poisoning, and desperate to save her, General Thunderbolt Ross worked with Banner, hoping to save her, but they fail, and Betty dies. Following this, David left Marvel, following a conflict about the direction of the series.

Greg Pak introduced the Planet Hulk story arc, which opened with a cabal of Earth’s superpowers, called Illuminati, sending Hulk into deep space to protect the Earth from his destructive rampages. Hulk’s rocket, intended for a desolate, empty planet, instead crashed onto Sakaar. On Sakaar, Hulk rises from slave to king leading a rebellion, and finds love with a wife, Caiera. Shortly after, the rocket that brought Hulk to Sakaar malfunctions and explodes, setting of the planet’s destruction. Following the death of his wife, unborn child, and hundreds of millions of innocents, Hulk gathers some survivors and heads to Earth to exact revenge.

In World War Hulk, Hulk confronts the members of the Illuminati, meeting them in personal combat.

Publication history

Debut and first series

The Hulk debuted in The Incredible Hulk #1, by writer Stan Lee, penciller Jack Kirby and inker Paul Reinman. In the first issue, the Hulk was gray rather than green. Writer and Marvel editor-in-chief Lee had wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, insisted to Lee that the coloring technology at the time could not present the color gray clearly or consistently, resulting in different shades of gray, and even green, in the issue. In issue #2 and after, Goldberg colored the Hulk's skin green. Although retellings of the Hulk's origin during the next two decades feature him with green skin from the beginning, and reprints were recolored to green, starting with vol. 2, #302 (Dec. 1984), the Hulk was shown as having been gray in flashbacks to early appearances. This was reaffirmed in vol. 2, #318 (April 1986), which showed the Hulk was gray at the time of his creation. Since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original gray coloring.

The original series was canceled after six issues, with the finale cover-dated March 1963. Lee had written each story, with Kirby penciling the first five issues and Steve Ditko penciling and inking the sixth. The character immediately guest-starred in Fantastic Four #12 (March 1963), and months later, became a founding member of the Avengers appearing in the first two issues of that superhero team's eponymous series (Sept. & Nov. 1963), and returning as an antagonist in issues #3 & #5 (Jan. & May 1964). He then guest-starred in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964).

Around this time, co-creator Jack Kirby received a letter from a college dormitory stating the Hulk had been chosen as its official mascot. Kirby and Lee realized their character had found an audience in college-age readers.

Tales to Astonish

A year and a half after his title was cancelled, the Hulk became the backup feature in Tales to Astonish in issue #60 (Oct. 1964). In the previous issue, he appeared as the antagonist for Giant-Man, star of the book. These new stories were initially scripted by Lee and illustrated by the team of penciller Steve Ditko and inker George Roussos. Other artists later in this run included Jack Kirby from #68-84 (June 1965 - Oct. 1966), doing full pencils or, more often, layouts for other artists; Gil Kane, credited as "Scott Edwards", in #76; Bill Everett (inking Kirby, #78-84); and John Buscema. Marie Severin finished out the Hulk’s run in Tales to Astonish; beginning with issue #102 (Apr. 1968) the book was retitled ‘’The Incredible Hulk’’, and ran until March 1999, when Marvel cancelled the series, and then restarted the title with a new issue #1.

It was during this run of stories that readers were introduced to recurring villains such as the Leader, who would become the Hulk's arch-nemesis, and the Abomination, a gamma being stronger than the Hulk. In issue #77 (Mar. 1966), the Hulk's identity was made public.

1970’s

Hulk continued to be published through the 1970’s and also made guest appearances in other titles. In 1977, following the debut of the eponymous television series, Marvel launched a second title, ‘’The Rampaging Hulk’’, a magazine format publication targeted to the show’s audience.<!—page 48--> Writers also introduced She-Hulk, Banner’s cousin, to whom he gave some of his blood in a transfusion, and who soon was featured in a title of her own.

Writers changed numerous times during the decade, but the creative staff included Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, and Tony Isabella, Len Wein handled many of the stories through the 1970’s, working first with Herb Trimpe, then in 1975, with Sal Buscema, who was the regular artist for almost ten years. Harlan Ellison wrote a tale for the hulk “The Brute That Shouted Love From the Heart of the Atom”.

Early 1980s

Under the creative team of Roger Stern and Bill Mantlo, it was established that Banner had suffered child abuse, an idea explored in the Crossroads of Eternity stories. Stern showed the readers that abuse fostered a great deal of repressed anger within Banner, in turn causing his fragmented personality. John Bryne then took the writing duties from Mantlo, and quickly passed them to Al Milgrom, who, in turn, passed them to Peter David.

Late 1980s through late 1990s

In 1987, Peter David became the writer of the series with issue #331marking the start of a 12 year tenure on the series.. David's run altered Banner's pre-Hulk characterization and the nature of Banner and the Hulk's relationship. David returned to the Stern and Mantlo abuse storylines, expanding the damage caused, and depicting Banner as suffering dissociative identity disorder (DID). David's stories showed that Banner had serious mental problems long before he became the Hulk. David revamped his personality significantly, giving the grey Hulk the alias 'Joe Fixit', and setting him up as a morally ambiguous Vegas heavy. David worked with numerous artists over his run on the series, including Dale Keown, Gary Frank, Terry Dodson, Mike Deodato, Jr., George Perez, and Adam Kubert. . In issue #377, David revamped the Hulk again, using a storyline involving hypnosis to have the splintered personalities of Banner and Hulk synthesize into a new Hulk, who has the vast power of the Savage Hulk, the cunning of the gray Hulk and the intelligence of Bruce Banner.

Introduced in the Future Imperfect limited series

In 1998, David followed editor Bobbie Chase's suggestion to kill Betty Ross. In the introduction to the Hulk trade paperback Beauty and the Behemoth, David said that his wife had recently left him, providing inspiration for the storyline. Marvel executives used Ross' death as an opportunity to push the idea of bringing back the Savage Hulk. David disagreed, leading to his and Marvel's parting ways. His last issue of Hulk was #467, his one-hundred and thirty-seventh.

Also in 1998, Marvel relauched the ‘’The Rampaging Hulk’’ title, this time in a standards comic book format, instead of as a comics magazine.

Relaunch

When David left the Hulk, Marvel hired Joe Casey as a temporary writer. Shortly after, Marvel cancelled The Incredible Hulk.

Marvel hired John Byrne for a second volume of the series, re-titled Hulk, with Ron Garney penciling. Byrne departed before the first year was over, citing creative differences. Erik Larsen and Jerry Ordway briefly filled scripting duties in his place, and the title of the book soon returned to The Incredible Hulk with the arrival of Paul Jenkins in issue #12.

Jenkins wrote a story arc in which Banner and the three Hulks (Savage Hulk, Gray Hulk, and the Merged Hulk, now considered a separate personality and referred to as the Professor) are able to mentally interact with one another, each personality taking over their shared body. During this, the four personalities confront yet another submerged Hulk, a sadistic Hulk intent on attacking the world for revenge.. He also created John Ryker in issue #14, a ruthless military general in charge of the original gamma bomb test responsible for the Hulk's creation and planning to create similar creatures. Ryker’s actions briefly result in Banner becoming the sadistic Hulk, but the four other personas beat it back.

Bruce Jones followed as the series' writer, and his run features Banner using yoga to take control of the Hulk while he is pursued by a secret conspiracy and aided by the mysterious Mr. Blue. Jones focused on a horror theme with the Hulk as a fugitive. He appended his 43-issue Incredible Hulk run with the Hulk/Thing: Hard Knocks limited series, which Marvel published after putting the ongoing series on hiatus.

Peter David, who had initially signed a contract for a six-issue Tempest Fugit limited series, returned as writer when it was decided to make the story, now only five parts, part of the ongoing series instead. David contracted to complete a year on the title. Tempest Fugit revealed that Nightmare has manipulated the Hulk for years, tormenting him in various ways for "inconveniences" that the Hulk had caused him, including the sadistic Hulk Jenkins had introduced. After a four-part tie-in to the House of M crossover and a one-issue epilogue, David left the series once more, citing the need to do non-Hulk work for his career's sake.

Planet Hulk and World War Hulk

In the 2006 storyline "Planet Hulk" by Greg Pak, a secret group of superhero leaders, the Illuminati, consider the Hulk an unacceptable potential risk to Earth, and rocket him into space to live a peaceful existence on a planet uninhabited by intelligent life. After a trajectory malfunction, the Hulk crashes on the violent planet Sakaar. Weakened by his journey, he is captured and eventually becomes a gladiator who scars the face of Saakar's tyrannical emperor. The Hulk becomes a rebel leader and later Sakaar's king.

After uniting the previously divided factions, the vessel Hulk was sent to Sakaar on explodes, killing millions in Sakaar's capital, including his queen, Caiera, and their unborn child. The damage to the tectonic plates almost immediately destroys the planet and kills most of its population.

The Hulk, enraged, returns to Earth with the remnants of Sakaar's citizens, and his allies, the Warbound, as a king seeking retribution against the Illuminati.

ref

1. ^ DeFalco, Tom (2003). The Hulk: the incredible guide. London: DK Publishing. p. 200. ISBN 0=7894-9260-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help) Cite error: The named reference "HulkTIG" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
2. ^ Weinstein, Simcha (2006). Up, Up, and Oy Vey!. Baltimore, Maryland: Leviathan Press. p. 200. ISBN 1-881927-32-6.
3. ^ Kaplan, Arie (2006). Masters of the Comic Book Universe Revealed!. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press. p. 263. ISBN 1-55652-633-4.page 58
4. The Incredible Hulk #1
5. ^ Gresh, Lois (2002). The Science of Superheroes. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Son, Inc. p. 200. ISBN 0-471-46882-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
6. Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 287. ISBN 0-8109-2566-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
7. Comics Buyer's Guide #1617 (June 2006)
8. Starlog #213 (July 2003)
9. The Incredible Hulk vol. 3, #13
10. The Incredible Hulk vol. 3, #81 (July 2005)
11. Peter David (July 18 2005). "My leaving "Hulk"". The Incredible Hulk Message Board. Retrieved 2005-08-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)

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