The Incredible Hulk is one of Marvel's oldest and most recognizable icons.
Created by comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appearing in 1962's Incredible
Hulk #1, the Green Goliath spawned hundreds of comics, two live-action movies, a popular
live-action TV show, and multiple animated series, films, and video games.
And most importantly — big foam hands that make smashy sounds when you hit things with
them.
"I've got the power of the Hulk in my hands, and I like it!"
With so much Hulk over so much media, it's almost impossible for even the most hardcore
fans to keep up with all of the stories.
Here's the untold truth of the Incredible Hulk.
Banner SMASH!
One of the strangest and most hilarious periods of the Hulk's history was the reign of "Savage
Banner" which turned the most well-known Banner/Hulk relationship on its head.
Toward the end of 1995's The Incredible Hulk #425, longtime Hulk writer Peter David changed
things up.
After enjoying a few years in the Hulk's body while retaining the intelligence of Bruce
Banner, the Hulk transformed back into Banner, but gained the simple mentality of the Hulk.
For the first time in the history of the character, anger became the Hulk's greatest weakness.
Previously, even after turning into the Hulk, the hero's strength would continue to increase
as he got angry.
Now he struggled to stay calm during fights with the likes of Thor and Man-Thing, so that
he wouldn't get angry and transform into the utterly helpless Bruce Banner.
Bob Banner
There are a lot of differences between the Incredible Hulk comic and the '70s live-action
TV show.
One of the first obvious differences is that the Hulk's more human half in the show is
named David Banner rather than Bruce Banner.
"David?
David?
David come on."
Kenneth Johnson, who developed the Incredible Hulk show, explained that he changed the name
because he didn't like the comic book tradition of using alliteration when naming characters.
"And I was looking to break away from that tradition so that people wouldn't be thinking
comic book in any way when they looked at the show."
Regardless of the reason, Johnson isn't the first person guilty of changing Bruce Banner's
first name.
That honor goes to Stan Lee.
Lee was writing a lot of comics in the early and mid '60s and used alliterative names for
his characters, in part, to help him remember all the names.
Unfortunately, in the case of the Hulk, this led him to mistakenly referring to Bruce Banner
as "Bob" Banner.
His solution, announced in a few issues later in Fantastic Four #28, was that the real full
name of the Hulk's more human alter-ego was Doctor Robert Bruce Banner.
Hilariously, that wasn't Lee's only name slip-up, which is why 1963's The Amazing Spider-Man
featured a few pages of some guy named Peter Palmer.
Red Hulk's real origin
In 2008, Hulk was relaunched with the creative team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness.
The pair introduced the world to the Red Hulk – a malevolent, intelligent, and vicious
red-skinned version of the Hulk who seemed like he might be even more powerful than the
original.
It took a couple of years, but in Hulk #23 it was revealed the Red Hulk was General Thaddeus
"Thunderbolt" Ross, the same army general who'd hounded the original Hulk for years.
Believe it or not, Loeb wasn't the first writer to think of a red Hulk.
Kenneth Johnson, who developed the '70s Incredible Hulk show, thought a red Hulk made more sense
since it's the color most people associate with anger.
"YAH!"
But Stan Lee was adamant that the green Hulk was too iconic an image to be changed, so
they painted Lou Ferrigno green and Red Hulk went back into hiding for another 30 years.
Many voices
While Lou Ferrigno voiced the Hulk for the '90s Incredible Hulk cartoon and in most Marvel
Studios films featuring the Hulk, he wasn't the Hulk's voice in The Incredible Hulk TV
show.
The one where he, you know, actually played the Hulk.
The source of the '70s Incredible Hulk's grunts and growls was Ted Cassidy, best known as
Lurch from The Addams Family.
Cassidy also read the narration that told the story of David Banner in the beginning
of each episode.
"Dr. David Banner, physician, scientist, searching for a way to tap into the hidden strengths
that all humans have."
After Cassidy passed away in 1979, Charles Napier replaced him as the voice of The Incredible
Hulk.
Psychic senses
You might think the Hulk's abilities are limited to the physical, but there's more to the big
green guy than just pounding on stuff.
Throughout his comics, the Hulk has shown some strange, almost psychic abilities.
During one of the Hulk's first encounters with Doctor Strange in Marvel Feature #1,
Strange learned that the Hulk could somehow see and interact with Strange's astral form.
Peter David later made use of this ability, hounding the Hulk with ghosts both literal
and metaphorical during his run on Incredible Hulk.
On top of that, the Hulk has always instinctively known how to return to the gamma bomb site
where he was created.
More than 100 issues later, this was explained as being a kind of psychic energy summons
from the Maestro — a future version of the Hulk who was defeated by being teleported
back in time to the gamma bomb blast.
But this doesn't explain the Hulk's other geographic instincts, such as in Incredible
Hulk #33 when the Hulk is able to leap from the coast of Wakanda and instinctively know
how to angle his jump in order to land on a tiny atoll in the middle of the ocean.
War horse
Beyond his ongoing rivalry with Wolverine, the Hulk doesn't have a lot of connections
with the X-Men.
So it would likely surprise even Wolverine to know that the Hulk was briefly the herald
of one of their most powerful adversaries: Apocalypse.
In Incredible Hulk #456, Apocalypse captured the Hulk and transformed him into one of his
Four Horsemen — making the Hulk the first non-mutant character to be a Horseman of Apocalypse.
Apocalypse's transformation included cybernetic implants in the Hulk's brain, a big sword,
and a retractable metal whip.
The Hulk's added power allowed him to easily dispatch with the twin threats of Juggernaut
and the Absorbing Man — either of which would be a match for the Hulk on his own.
X-Men destruction
World War Hulk: X-Men wasn't the first clash between the Hulk and Professor X's students,
but it was definitely one of the most savage.
The green giant fought one of the largest gatherings of X-Men imaginable, and he took
them down.
All of them.
While Professor X was a member of the Illuminati — a secret cabal of superheroes who were
the Hulk's targets during World War Hulk — the Hulk traveled to Xavier's school to confront
him.
Rather than allow their mentor to be taken prisoner, the X-Men fought back.
At first it was only a small squad, but soon all the active X-Men were facing the vengeful
Hulk, including X-Factor and the Juggernaut.
The Hulk eventually relented, but not before breaking both of Colossus' arms and liquefying
Wolverine's brain by punching him in the head over and over again.
"Ah Hell, I don't suppose you have any interest in talking this out."
Trolled by Hawkeye
Even though Hawkeye shot Bruce Banner in 2016's Civil War 2, nobody would consider Hawkeye
and The Hulk to be rivals.
Still, if you look at the narrative history, they do have kind of a weird relationship
with each other.
Specifically, Hawkeye's always gone out of his way to be a jerk to the Hulk.
"'Cause you just made me angry?"
"Really?
Because from where I'm standing you look more beat up than angry."
After Hawkeye rage-quit the Avengers, he came upon the Hulk battling the villain Zzzax in
Incredible Hulk #166.
Hawkeye was so determined to show his former teammates what he was made of that he followed
and pestered the Hulk all the way into the pages of Defenders #7.
He annoyed the Hulk so much that the Defenders initially attacked Hawkeye, thinking he was
a villain threatening the Hulk.
Then, when Hawkeye took over the Thunderbolts, he needed a way to boost team morale.
Once again, he targeted the Hulk — just because he thought it would help their image.
Four years later, in Avengers #74, Hawkeye decided the best way to get his spot back
in the Avengers was to draw blood from one of its founding members.
After Banner proved that he could calm down She-Hulk by talking to her, Hawkeye went ahead
and shot Banner anyway to force him to Hulk out.
Even though he had a good reason to shoot Banner in Civil War 2, one thing is undeniable:
Hawkeye's a real jerk.
"What do you want?"
"What do I want?
I wanted pickles!"
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