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The Incredible Hulk is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Hulk first appeared in Incredible Hulk # 1 in May 1962.

Publication history

In the first issue of The Incredible Hulk, the character's skin was grey. However, the publishers of the time had difficulties printing a clear, consistent shade of grey, so after the first issue, the character's skin color changed to a bright emerald green in #2. Later in the series, in 1986, the Hulk reverted to his original grey colouration, and remained that way until 1991.

It is interesting to note that both the Hulk (in #1) and Iron Man (in Tales of Suspense #39), both crucial new Marvel Comics characters in 1962-63, each began in grey color which only lasted one issue in each respective case (Iron Man's armor was altered to gold in Tales of Suspense #40).

Origin

Dr. Robert Bruce Banner is a military scientist working on developing a new type of weapon called a "Gamma Bomb". As the bomb is being tested, however, Bruce notices that a teenager, Rick Jones, has driven his hot rod onto the test site. Banner leaves the safety of his bunker, grabs the young man, and throws him into a nearby ditch, but the bomb explodes before Bruce himself can get to safety. As a result, he absorbs an enormous dose of gamma radiation, and this is what causes him to transform into the rampaging Hulk.

At first Bruce becomes the "Grey Hulk" whenever the sun goes down, but after being exposed to further radiation in space, he begins transforming into the larger, more destructive Green Hulk whenever he grows angry, frightened, or panicked. Whereas the Grey Hulk seemed to possess normal human intelligence and an arrogant, dismissive attitude toward "puny humans," the Green Hulk has the intellect and temperament of a small, angry child.

Many of the early Hulk stories involve General Thunderbolt Ross continually trying to capture or destroy the Hulk, with his "Hulkbuster" U.S. Army battalion at his side. Ross's daughter Betty is in love with Bruce Banner and often criticizes her father for pursuing the Hulk so relentlessly. Meanwhile, General Ross's right-hand man, Major Glenn Talbot, is in love with Betty, and is torn between pursuing the Hulk or trying to gain Betty's love in a more honorable way. Teenager Rick Jones served as the Hulk's friend and sidekick for a time. Later, another teenager named Jim Wilson also befriends the Hulk.

The Hulk appeared in his own self-titled comic book series during the early 1960s, at the same time as other famous Marvel characters including the Fantastic Four and The Mighty Thor. The initial Hulk series ran for only six issues, however, before being cancelled by Marvel in order to free up space on the publishing schedule to give Spider-Man his own comic. Shortly after the official cancellation notice was issued, creator Jack Kirby received a letter from a college dormitory stating that the Hulk had been chosen as their official mascot. Kirby and Lee realized that their character had found an audience in college-age readers -- a demographic that had been almost entirely ignored by comic book publishers until that time. This inspired them to keep the Hulk alive through numerous guest appearances in other books, and by adding him to the founding ranks of the Avengers.. The Hulk was then given a regular backup feature in Marvel's ongoing series Tales To Astonish. After several years, the series was retitled The Incredible Hulk due to the character's popularity, and its run continued until March of 1999, at which point the series restarted with a new issue #1. The third and current Hulk series premiered in April 1999, with the title being changed once more to The Incredible Hulk with issue #12.

The Peter David Years

Shortly after the re-emergence of the Gray Hulk, writer Peter David took the reins of the series, a role he would continue to fulfill for almost twelve years.

David expanded on an earlier story which established that Banner had suffered abuse as a child, which fostered a great deal of repressed anger and rage within the character, which in turn triggered a latent case of multiple personality disorder. David had three Hulks emerge from Banner's psyche, the Savage Hulk, the Grey Hulk, and "The Professor", a merger of the Savage Hulk and Banner.

In 1998, David followed a suggestion by his editor Bobbie Chase to kill the character of Betty Banner. In a recent interview in Wizard Magazine, David revealed that his wife had recently left him at the time, hence providing real-life inspiration for the storyline. Meanwhile, executives at Marvel used Betty's death as an opportunity to push the idea of bringing back the Savage Hulk (who had not really appeared in the years since David took over the title). David disagreed, believing that there was limited story potential in doing this, and the disagreement quickly led to David and Marvel Comics parting ways. At this point, Peter David had written nearly every issue of The Incredible Hulk for almost twelve years. Interestingly, the author chose to use his final issue (which was the issue following the death of Betty) to summarize where he might have taken the character given the opportunity.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Hulk (comics) ]

Games - Hulk

Publication history

Origin

The Peter David Years

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