Incredible Hulk

The Incredible Hulk, or more commonly just Hulk, is a fictional character in the Marvel universe. Though generally classified as a superhero, his story is more commonly seen as a man in conflict with himself, which incidentally happens to feature a big green guy smashing a lot of things. He was created in 1962 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, debuting in Hulk #1. An enduring and longstanding character, he was named the 7th greatest comic book character of all time in 2008.^[1]

The Hulk's real name is Bruce Banner, a brilliant physicist specializing in radiation, particularly gamma rays. After being exposed to large amounts of gamma radiation (accidentally in some versions of the story, deliberately in others), he transforms into an enormous, green-skinned (gray in the early comics), musclebound behemoth whom he and others start calling the Hulk. Though he eventually reverts to a human form, Banner finds that whenever he gets angry enough, he transforms into the Hulk and goes on a rampage. The concept of the story has been described as a combination of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" and "Frankenstein".

Within the Marvel universe, the Hulk is regarded with no small amount of fear. In the years since the initial transformation, Banner has acquired a vast array of survival skills and other knowledge, enough to stymie even black operations units, and when that fails, the Hulk often emerges to deal with the crisis—which is when the real danger begins. Even at his most lucid, Hulk is nonetheless powered by rage—indeed, the more rage he feels, the stronger he gets, meaning his actual strength is theoretically unlimited. Hulk has held up mountains, damaged the armor of a being that could alter reality with a thought, swam across oceans, and battled gods to a standstill. Further, Banner spends most of his time as Hulk these days; Hulk seems to have become the dominant personality, and his contempt for his Banner side is palpable. His vast destructive power is tempered by the creature's desire to mostly be left alone, as the military, whom Banner was working for at the time of the accident, wants to either stop him or harness his strength for use as a weapon, depending on who is in charge of the expedition coming after him.

See also[edit]

• The Incredible Hulk (film, 2008)

References[edit]

1. ↑ Wizard Magazine, June 2008