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The Incredible Hulk is a
comic book superhero in the
Marvel Comics universe. He is the
alter ego of Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, and manifests as a large,
superhumanly strong, (usually) green creature of pure rage.
History
The Hulk was inspired by the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the dichotomy usually consisting of the simple minded and emotional brute who springs from a quiet intellectual. Indeed, in contrast to the quiet Banner, the most famous version of the Hulk is as a childlike persona who just wants to be left alone, but is continually forced to battle foes determined to hunt him down. This is somewhat similar to that of Universal Studios's 1931 film, Frankenstein, another major influence on the character.
In the first issue of The Incredible Hulk, the Hulk was supposed to be gray. However, the publishers of the time had difficulties with printing a consistent and clear shade of gray, so after the first issue they decided to make him green and that color stuck. For a period later in the series, the Hulk reverted to a gray color.
In the origin story of the Hulk, Dr. Bruce Banner is a military scientist who has developed a new type of weapon called the "Gamma Bomb." As the bomb is being tested (in a fashion reminiscent of the Trinity atomic bomb test), Dr. Banner notices that teenager Rick Jones has driven his car onto the test site. Banner races out into the open to bring the young man to safety, but the bomb explodes before he can reach safety himself. Banner is subjected to an incredible dose of gamma rays, and this is what causes him to transform into the rampaging Hulk. At first he becomes the Hulk when the sun goes down, but soon the more familiar transformation occurs whenever Dr. Banner becomes angry or emotional. This story has a strong Cold War subtext to it: in addition to the Gamma Bomb test, the Hulk is promptly captured in the first issue of the book and brought to a country which is presumably the Soviet Union (though the name "Soviet Union" was never used in the book, the story ended with a statement about the end of "Red tyranny"). Later revisions of the Hulk's origin (especially for the TV series of the 1970s and the animated TV cartoon of the 1980s) remove the military subtext and make Banner a non-military scientist.
The plots of many of the earliest Hulk stories involve General Thunderbolt Ross continually pursuing the Hulk, his "Hulkbuster" U.S. Army group at his side. Ross's daughter Betty is a love interest for Bruce Banner and often criticizes her father for going after the Hulk so relentlessly without regard to her feelings for the Hulk's alternate identity. General Ross's right-hand-man, Major Glenn Talbot, is also in love with Betty but is an honorable man and is torn between pursuing the Hulk and gaining Betty's love in an honest way. Teenager Rick Jones is the Hulk's first and only friend for a time. Later on, another teenager named Jim Wilson becomes the Hulk's friend.
The Hulk appeared in the premiere run of his own comic book series created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby during the early 1960s, at the same time as other famous Marvel characters including the Fantastic Four, Thor, and The Avengers. The initial The Incredible Hulk series only ran for six issues before being cancelled by Marvel, due to low sales. However, the character's brief run was popular enough to be noticed by creators Kirby and Lee. In interviews, Kirby stated that shortly after the official cancellation notice for the book was issues, he received a letter from a college dormitory stating that the Hulk had been chosen as its mascot. Kirby and Lee realized that their character had found an audience in college-age readers -- a demographic that had been entirely ignored by comic books until that time. This inspired them to keep the Hulk alive through numerous guest appearances in other comic books, and by adding him to the ranks of various superhero teams that were making their initial appearances in the Marvel Universe, including The Avengers and The Defenders. The Hulk was then given a regular backup feature in Marvel's ongoing series Tales To Astonish. After several years, the Hulk's popularity was enough to cause the book to be renamed The Incredible Hulk, where its run continued until March 1999. The third and current The Incredible Hulk series premiered in April 1999.
For over twenty years, the Hulk would rampage across the face of Marvel Comics, engaging in titanic battles and leaving destruction in his wake. He became the ultimate personification of "brute strength" in comic books, something that not even Superman would be able to match in terms of sheer, raw power. Furthermore, the Hulk's strength can increase further when he is further provoked into more intense anger which leads to his enemies often underestimating his power at critical moments. In addition, even the child like Hulk is often more cunning than his enemies give him credit for. This underestimation often leads to them relying on repeating successful attacks, never realizing the Hulk is often smart enough to learn from his mistakes and find a countermove to the attack to gain the upper hand in battle.
Occasionally the Hulk gains a decent intelligence, only to lose it again; in adventures published in the mid-1980s, Bruce Banner "loses control" of the Hulk and he becomes a truly mindless, rampaging monster. Shortly after this, however, writer Peter David took on the mantle of the Incredible Hulk and made some drastic changes to the character. The previous author, Al Milgrom, had returned the Hulk to his original "grey" state, and the Hulk gained a brutish intelligence. David ran with this, and the Hulk is given a job as a Las Vegas casino enforcer named "Mr. Fixit." Later, David expanded on an earlier story that established that Banner had an abused childhood which fostered a great deal of repressed anger which triggered a latent case of multiple personality disorder. The three dominant personalities are the quiet intellectual Banner, the Gray Hulk which embodies his more antisocial cunning side, and the Green Hulk which embodies his inner child and repressed rage. Eventually, Doc Samson, a scientist who has his body enhanced by a controlled gamma radiation exposure manages to merge Banner's personalities into one healthy personality which balances Banner's intellect and conscience, the Gray's cunning and confidence and the Green's body. David spent the next decade taking the Hulk on a series of adventures that many fans considered to be a change of direction that breathed new life into the character.
After David left the comic series in the mid-1990s, other writers reverted the Hulk back to a green-skinned, rampaging behemoth.
In addition, Bruce Banner has a cousin, Jennifer Walters, whom he once has to give an emergency blood transfusion when she is critically wounded. As a result, she takes on the Hulk condition as the She-Hulk. However, her form allows her to keep most of her original personality albeit with more assertiveness and self-confidence.
The Incredible Hulk's supervillain enemies include:
- The Leader: A villain whose own exposure to gamma radiation makes him a superintelligent genius with an oversized brain.
- The Abomination: A Soviet spy who deliberately exposes himself to gamma radiation to become a reptilian version of the Hulk with his original personality and intelligence intact.
- The U-Foes: A quartet of villains who participate in an attempt to recreate the same accident that created the Fantastic Four. When Banner discover them in the middle of their foolhardy scheme, he interferes with it to successfully save their lives. Although they survive and gain superpowers, they swear revenge on Banner for supposedly cheating them of the chance to gain even more power.
- While not a supervillain, Wolverine of the X-Men made his first-ever appearance in Marvel Comics as a villain in the Hulk series; Wolverine's first appearance was in The Incredible Hulk issue number 181.
Stats
Height: 5'9(as Banner) 7'0(as The Hulk)
Weight: 128lbs(as Banner) 1,040lbs(as The Hulk)
Hair: Brown(as Banner) Green(as The Hulk)
Eyes: Brown(as banner) Green(as The Hulk)
Intelligence: Genius(as Banner) Below Normal(as Hulk)
Strength: Normal(as Banner) Incalculable(as Hulk)
Speed: Normal(as Banner) Enhanced Human (as Hulk)
Stamina: Normal(as Banner) Metahuman(as Hulk)
Durability: Normal(as Banner) Demi-Godlike(as Hulk)
Agility: Normal(as both)
Reflexes: Normal(as Banner) Athlete(as Hulk)
Fighting Ability: Athlete 3
STRENGTH LEVEL: The Incredible Hulk possesses vast superhuman strength, the limits of which are unknown. The uppermost limit of his strength is far beyond the Class 100 level, being able to lift in excess of 100 tons, but he only achieves this level of strength when sufficient surges of adrenaline flow throughout his body. Hence, he has a base strength level for his "calm" state at which he can lift(military press) about 90 tons.
Superhuman Powers
The Hulk possesses the capacity for virtually limitless physical strength. The Hulk's strength level can escalate through corresponding surges of adrenaline caused during stressfull situations, such as feelings of extreme anger, rage, and frustration. The Hulk has never been provoked to demonstrating a maximum limit of his strength, so it remains a mystery. The gamma radiation added over 900 pounds of muscle, bone and tissue to Banner's body. The source of this additional mass is unrevealed but could, possibly, be extra-dimensional. Aside from his great strength, his gamma enhanced body possesses a high degree of resistance to injury. His skin can withstand the impact of high caliber military cannons or exposure to temperatures in excess of 5,000 degrees Farenheit without damage. Although it is possible to injure him, the Hulk's body possesses an accelerated healing power that can enable him to repair massive injuries or tissue loss within a span of a few minutes. The Hulk's highly advanced musculature produces considerably fewer fatigue toxins than the bodies of ordinary human beings, granting him the ability to sustain himself at maximum exertion for several days. His powerful leg muscles allow him to leap several miles in a single bound, he was once observed as nearly jumping into Earth's orbit so it is possible that his leaping strength increases with adrenaline surges as well.
Movies & Television
There was a cartoon, TV series, and even a few TV movies for the Hulk.
The TV series ran between 1977 and 1982, and starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Bruce Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk himself. The origins of the Hulk in the TV series differed greatly from the orignal comic book. Banner is this time a geneticist who has been traumatised by the loss of his wife in a fatal car accident, and his guilt over his inability to save her from the burning wreckage. He begins to conduct research into the strange phenomenon which sees humans display supernormal levels of strength, and to understand why others faced with a similar traumatic experience to his own were able to save themselves or their loved ones while under abnormally high emotional distress. He concludes that high levels of gamma radiation from sunspots is the cause, and to prove the theory, he bombards his body with gamma radiation to see if he can instill supernormal strength into his body.
Unbeknownst to him, however, the equipment is faulty and administers a far higher dose than he intended, altering his body chemistry irrevocably. He initially thinks that the experiment has failed, but later that evening he experiences a flat tire and injures himself with the lug wrench. This triggers the metamorphosis into the Hulk and he proceeds to destroy his car. Whilst trying to reverse the process, the interferences of a nosey reporter called Jack McGee result in the destruction of the research laboratory and the death of a fellow scientist. Banner, now presumed dead, is forced to go on the run whilst trying to find a "cure" for his condition. In a manner similar to the popular series The Fugitive, this forms the basis of the TV series, as Banner endlessly drifts from place to place assuming different identities; whilst at the same time involuntarily using the powers of the Hulk to deal with the problems of the people that he encounters.
In 2003, Ang Lee directed a film on the Hulk, which was released on June 20, 2003 to mixed reviews.
Themed products
Due to the Hulk's popularity (especially with kids), various Hulk themed products have emerged over the years including action figures, lunchboxes, toys, the ever-popular Hulk Hands (that "growl" when you SMASH them!), and even giant inflatable Hulks.
References
External links
it:Hulk
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