Real name: Robert Bruce Banner
Occupation: Unemployed, former nuclear physicist
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with
Criminal Record
Place of Birth: Dayton, Ohio
Group affiliation: (current) None, formerly the Defenders, Avengers
and the Pantheon
Base of operations: Mobile
First appearance: Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #1 (1962)
Height: 5'9"
as Banner, 6'6" as grey Hulk,
7' as green Hulk
Weight: 128 lbs. as Banner, 900 lbs.
as grey Hulk, 1,040 lbs. as green Hulk
Eye color: Brown as Banner, grey
as gray Hulk, green as green Hulk
Hair color: Brown as Banner, black
as grey Hulk, green as green Hulk
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Current Look
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Synopsis:
Caught in the heart
of a nuclear explosion, victim of gamma radiation gone wild, Dr. Robert
Bruce Banner now finds himself transformed during times of stress into
the dark personification of his repressed rage and fury -- the most powerful
man-like creature ever to walk the face of the Earth!
Powers:
Bruce Banner has the gamma-induced ability to transform into his alter-ego,
the monster known as the Hulk. Conditions which have triggered the transformation vary:
initially, it was the sunset when the Hulk assumed form, and the dawn when Banner reverted.
Later, the transformation would be triggered by an intense rush of adrenaline. Banner has
found himself in various distinct forms, based on facets of Banner's personality: Banner
himself but repressed emotionally. a green-skinned Hulk with the mind of a child and fueled
by rage, a grey-skinned Hulk with Banner's intelligence but limited morals, and a
green-skinned Hulk with a balanced merger of all of the above.
Banner's Hulk-formed possess a monstrous frame and visage, great strength, invulnerability,
and superhuman regenerative abilities. The Hulk's powerful leg muscles provide him with
phenomenal leaping ability, mimicking near-flight capabilities in terms of sheer distance.
In times of great stress, the Hulk's physiology is fueled by adrenaline, so that the
longer Hulk fights, the greater his strength increases.
As the Hulk, Banner has exhibited a wide range of other powers as well. He has proven
able to see and touch astral forms as if they were real, an ability due to the affects of
gamma radiation somehow in conjunction with the fact that Bruce accidentilly killed his father
and he believed that he would come back to seek revenge. He also has a homing ability that
helps him to locate people while tunneling underground or sense the area they are in which
borders on the supernatural. Due to a mystic air around him, it is suggested the Hulk has an
untapped potential yet to be revealed.
Weapons: The Hulk is a living, breathing engine of destruction.
History:
Robert Bruce Banner was born in Dayton, Ohio, to Dr. Brian and Rebecca Banner.
As a child, Bruce was abused by his alcoholic father, who killed his wife when
she and Bruce tried to escape from one of his drunken rages. Later, Bruce was raised
by his aunt when his father became institutionalized. Burying his emotions throughout
his childnood, Banner had developed over time a deep and repressive personality.
A genius in nuclear physics, Robert Bruce Banner went to work for the United States
Defense Department nuclear research facility at Desert Base, New Mexico. There,
Banner met General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, the Air Force officer in command
of the base, and Ross' daughter Betty. Banner and Betty Ross eventually fell in love
with each other. Banner designed and oversaw the construction of the "gamma bomb" or
"G-bomb," a nuclear weapon that had a high gamma radiation output.
At one point, Bruce's father was released from his mental facility. Reluctantly Bruce
agreed to let his father live with him, although he again acted belligerently towards
Bruce. On the anniversary of his mother's death, Bruce visited her grave but was attacked
by his father. Fighting back, Bruce accidentally killed his father by causing him to fall
and crack his skull on Rebecca's tombstone. Bruce repressed the memory of his actions and
the police dismissed the death as a random mugging.
Banner was present in the instrumentation bunker at the test site for the first underground
trial detonation of the gamma bomb. Observing that a civilian had breached security and
entered the restricted test area, Banner told his colleague Igor Starsky to get the
civilian to safety. Starsky, secretly a Soviet agent, did nothing. He was confident
that Banner would die in the explosion, bringing the project to a halt. Reaching the
civilian, a teenager named Rick Jones, Banner threw him into a protective trench.
Before Banner could get himself to safety, the gamma-bomb detonated, and intense waves
of radiation hit the surface. Banner was irradiated with highly-charged radioactive particles.
At first, Banner changed into a gray-skinned yet intelligent behemoth at sunset
(dubbed "the Hulk" by a spectator) and reverted to human form at dawn. For a short
time, Bruce could control the transformations using gamma radiation projectors in his
secret desert laboratory, maintaining rudimentary intelligence in the Hulk's alter ego.
Even so, the Hulk became a green-skinned monster possessing little of Banner's memory or
intelligence and easily enraged. Hence, the Hulk became a menace continually hunted by
military forced commanded by the implacable Thunderbolt Ross. The Hulk was joined by Rick Jones,
who felt responsible for Banner's condition. After some time, however, Jones left the Hulk.
Still tracking the Hulk's activities, Rick Jones attempted to send the hero team Fantastic Four
after the Hulk, but the trickster god Loki sent the message to the thunder god Thor and other heroes.
Initially battling the Hulk, the heroes instead joined him in defeating Loki and, together,
they founded the hero team Avengers. Still easily excitable, however, the Hulk left the Avengers
almost as soon as he joined them, believing his teammates were unappreciative of him after a battle
with the Space Phantom.
Soon, Banner's transformations into the Hulk were triggered by the release of adrenaline when
he became intensely excited, no matter what time of day or night it was. By this time the Hulk
lost his intelligence and became a brutish "savage" menace. Banner would often wander the country
with Rick Jones as his sidekick, as the Hulk was chased by Ross' government task force, the
Hulkbusters, as well as the gamma radiation-spawned Abomination and the Leader, among
other villains. For a surprisingly long time, Banner managed to hide the fact that he was
the Hulk, but his secret became public knowledge when Rick Jones, believing the Hulk was killed
by the government, was tricked by General Talbot into revealing the truth.
The Hulk would often find himself in amazing situations, both aiding and fighting super-human
heroes and villains, and even visiting other planets and dimensions. One place where the Hulk
was welcome was the sub-atomic world ruled by a princess named Jarella. She saw something of
the child-like gentleness of the Hulk, and the two were, after a sort, in love. But tragedy
struck when Jarella returned with the Hulk to Earth and surrendered her life to protect a child.
For years, Banner wandered the world as a fugitive, cursed by his recurring transformations into
the bestial Hulk.
Later, after one adventure in outer space, the Hulk returned to Earth via a gamma-powered
transporter beam used by the extraterrestrial called the Galaxy Master. Somehow, this allowed
Banner control his transformations into the Hulk and retain his personality. Banner then decided
to use the Hulk’s strength to aid humanity instead of continuing his treatments to cure himself
from becoming the Hulk. After proving his intentions to the world by defeating the villainous
U-Foes on national television, the public was impressed by the Hulk's demeanor. Banner received
a Presidential pardon for his previous rampages as the Hulk and was proclaimed a hero and accepted
by virtually all of the super-powered adventurers and the world as well. Betty refused to accept
Banner's decision, in that he ceased his attempts to eliminate the Hulk alter ego, and distanced
herself from him.
Katherine Waynesboro, an agent of the espionage agency SHIELD, was sent to monitor Banner’s
activities, but began to fall in love with him. Suspicious of her at first, Banner eventually
reciprocated her feelings, especially after he rescued Katherine from the clutches of the villain
Modoks. Katherine then resigned from SHIELD to be with Banner and assist him in gamma radiaition
research for humanitarian purposes.
Soon afterward, the savage Hulk personality began to reassert itself during the Hulk's various
adventures, due to the machinations of the demon Nightmare, who had begun weakening Banner's
dominence through his dreams. The savage Hulk ultimately tried to defeat Nightmare's archenemy,
the sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange. Strange defeated the Hulk but Banner's personality, ashamed
of the savage personality and unwilling to share its activities, retreated entirely, leaving the
Hulk virtually mindless. Doctor Strange transported the mindless Hulk to a dimensional crossroad,
from which point the Hulk could travel from dimension to dimension. (Strange hoped that the Hulk
would find a world that he would be content to live on.) After several months, the Hulk returned
to Earth when Banner's college friend and fellow scientist, Walter Langkowski (a.k.a. the Canadian
hero Sasquatch), accidentily found him with a device that monitored other dimensions. At this
point, Banner once again was able to assume control of the Hulk through subconscious
cooperation of the other personas.
Later, scientist Leonard "Doc" Samson captured the Hulk and succeeded, through a process which
drained Hulk of excess gamma radiation, in separating Banner's psyche and thus making Banner
and the Hulk two separate beings. The Hulk, free of Banner's moderating influence,
escaped and became a greater menace than ever before. Banner became the leader of a new
government task force to capture the Hulk, called the new Hulkbusters. Banner also married
Betty Ross, believing himself free from the curse of the Hulk.
Eventually, Doc Samson discovered that Banner's life force was tied to that of the Hulk,
and that their continued separation threatened to kill both of them. A hurried experiment
reunited the two in a new arrangement: the Hulk was now gray once more and again manifested
himself only at night. Moreover, General Ross had tried to sabotage the machine, wanting to
kill the Hulk, but Rick Jones helped thwart his plans even though he became involved in the
experiment. Thus, Rick would transform, similar to Banner, into the green-skinned savage Hulk
at nightfall. (Rick was later cured by the Leader on behalf of Banner.)
The grey Hulk possessed all of Banner's intelligence, although few of his specific memories,
and none of Banner's morality. He sought to keep himself alive and in control. Only during
the full moon, when enough reflected sunlight hit the Earth to bring out some of Banner's
buried personality, would the Hulk have any kind feelings whatsoever. The Hulk again ran
afoul of the Leader, who proceeded to trap the Hulk in an enclosed area with a detonating
gamma-bomb. Coincidentally, the Hulk was simultaneously brought to Jarella's world, narrowly
escaping the effects of the gamma-bomb. The Hulk found himself embroiled in a religious war
and agreed to assist one side of wizards in return for their preventing Banner from ever surfacing again.
Returned to Earth, the Hulk adopted the identity of "Joe Fixit," and sought employment in Las Vegas
as a "leg-breaker." He joined with casino owner Michael Berengetti and the two shared a tenuous
friendship. The Hulk managed to convince most of his associates that his gray skin was some racial
characteristic. Later, however, the Banner-suppressing spell wore off. Again, the Hulk appeared
only at night, with Banner, claiming to be Joe Fixit's half-brother, dominant during the daylight.
During this time, Joe Fixit began a romantic relationship with Marlo Chandler (later, Marlo Jones),
although Bruce was still technically married to Betty. Marlo later ended the relationship, growing
uncomfortable with the secrets Fixit would keep from her.
Betty, along with the rest of the world, believed Bruce to have died in his encounter with the
Leader, and she was training to become a nun. Banner learned of Betty's whereabouts during
the Hulk's encounter with the villain Madman, and was soon reunited with her, but not before
the green-skinned savage Hulk reappeared as well, in an encounter with the hero Prometheus.
Banner and Betty searched for Rick Jones and were similarly reunitied, as was the Hulk with
Rick's new girlfriend Marlo.
Eventually, various personalities of the Hulk began to war among each other. Banner,
just as he was coming to accept the idea of the Hulk being a permanent part of his life,
began to transform into the green-skinned "savage Hulk", just as the gray "Mr. Fixit" began
to prematurely change into Banner. This culminated in a "battle" between the various psyches
in Banner’s mind while the Hulk's body began changing rapidly in the physical world to reflect
the mental battle. Doc Samson felt that if such mutations were to continue it would eventually
kill Bruce from the physical strain. After extensive therapy from the combined talents of Doc
Samson and the criminal hypnotist Ringmaster, the Hulk emerged with the three different
personalities fused to one whole.
Soon after, the Hulk was contacted by the enigmatic leader Agamemnon to join his clandestine hero
team Pantheon, who felt the currently "merged" Hulk/Banner would make the team better equipped to
take on super-powered menaces around world. The Hulk served with the Pantheon for a long tenure.
During this time, his relationship with Betty became strained. She was not comfortable with the
"merged" persona nor did she agree to live at the Pantheon's headquarters with the Hulk. At one
point, when Agamemnon left to travel the world, the Hulk took the mantle of leadership.
Agamemnon may have had some specific purpose for this, but it was never fully revealed.
The Hulk remained with the Pantheon for several adventures although he participated in many
of his own, such as his encounter with his future self, the Maestro. Over time, the Hulk and
Betty's relationship improved.
After many months, the Pantheon saught Agamemnon after a falling out with their former leader,
and in the subsequent battle Agamemnon called down the fury of "The Endless Knights," spirits of
Pantheon members who had previously died. The ensuing battle destroyed the Pantheon's headquarters
and resulted in the deaths of Agamemnon and another Pantheon member named Achilles. Also, when Betty
was fatally wounded, the Hulk lost control over his form and the savage Hulk reassumed control.
Returning physically to Banner's alter ego, Banner was remanded to SHIELD custody and Betty was
hospitalized. Escaping, Banner would return to the Pantheon only to learn that some of the Pantheon
members, most notably Paris, blamed the Hulk for its troubles and told him he was no longer welcome.
At some point, the Hulk snuck Betty out of the hospital that she was in and they began living as
fugitives. They eventually settled in Sunville, Florida under assumed idenitites. The Hulk managed
to keep their identities secret despite several adventures in Florida and New York. Eventually,
however, Betty was captured by the U.S. Army's Matt Talbot who succeeded in capturing the Hulk
despite the re-emergence of the Hulk's fractured personalities.
Betty was freed by the Leader's former lackeys, collectively known as the Headshop. Betty and the Headshop,
in turn, freed the Hulk, but in the process the Hulk jumped on a live grenade, which left him with shrapnel
in his brain and a subsequent penchant for turning into a physical alter ego of the Maestro. The Headshop
brought Hulk into conflict with Omnibus, who tricked the Hulk to assume his Maestro alter ego and claim
leadership of a worldwide terrorist orgainization, the Alliance. When Omnibus was revealed as the true
terrorist leader, the Hulk was believed to have died in the final battle, when the Maestro-Hulk was hit
with an atomic bomb. Nevertheless, Doc Samson and the U.S. Army began a search for the Hulk.
Later, the Hulk was used by the psychic entity Onslaught to fight the mutant Cable. Cable managed to
turn the tables on Hulk and he agreed to join fight against Onslaught. Onslaught managed to physically
separate the Hulk and Banner once again. Banner seemingly sacrificed himself to contain the energies
that made up Onslaught, but was actually shunted to another dimension created by Franklin Richards to
save his father (Mister Fantastic) and the other victims of Onslaught. In this universe, Banner once
again became the Hulk by re-living a variation of his origin.
Separated from Banner, the Hulk in the prime reality nevertheless remained intelligent if somewhat
savagely emotionally unstable. The Hulk was breifly captured by the Army, but he escaped. Confronted
by Betty, the Hulk refused to acknowledge her and left. The Hulk joined a formative, new version of
the team Heroes for Hire, but his anti-social behavior and the fact that he was among those blamed
for the deaths of Onslaught's victims prompted the Hulk to leave New York. He was also contacted by
the Pantheon to rejoin their number, but he refused. He began wandering the Earth again, ranging
from New Mexico to the Florida Keys and even Antarctica. The Hulk continued to grow more unstable,
even to the point of seeing hallucinations of his father’s ghost.
He was then abducted by the villain Apocalypse, brought to Egypt, and subjected to experiments and
rhetoric to turn him into one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen-- War. The Absorbing Man took Rick Jones and
Betty to Egypt to talk the Hulk out of this new role, and the Absorbing Man, and later the Juggernaut,
fought the Hulk. The Hulk succeeded in defeating them both, and was about to kill them when Rick Jones
tried to stop him. The Hulk swatted Rick aside, and Rick slammed into the wall of a pyramid, leaving
him paralyzed from the waist down. Realizing what he had done, the Hulk tore the Apocalypse's implants
out of his skull and leaped away, ashamed.
The Abomination attacked the Hulk who had made his way to New York, but he was brutally defeated.
Previously, Betty Banner had learned that her long association with the Hulk had left her dying
from gamma radiation poisoning. The Abomination, out of revenge for his brutal defeat by the Hulk,
learned of this and then somehow used a transfusion of his own gamma-radiated blood to poison her,
and Betty died.
Due to the fact that he existed in both the prime reality and the one created by Franklin Richards,
the Hulk had became a type of physical "gateway" between the two dimensions, which boosted the Hulk’s
strength but also would have gradually killed him. With the hero Spider-Man, the Hulk was taken to
Franklin’s universe by the Celestial Asthema. The two versions of the Hulk battled, and it was
revealed that Franklin’s universe had to be destroyed. After returning to the prime reality with
the other victims of Onslaught, Banner and the Hulk found themselves once again the same physical
being. Crash-landing at Gamma Base, Banner again turned into the green "savage Hulk" during periods
of rage and/or intense adrenaline rush. He began to wander the country once more, at one point
battling the Abomination in revenge of Betty’s death.
More recently, Banner discovered he was dying of a degenerative disease, and began to exhibit a new
personality when transforming into the Hulk. This "Devil Hulk" claimed to be a pure evil version of
Banner’s nature, using Banner’s debilitating condition to take control of the Hulk’s body. It was
further revealed by Doc Samson that Banner’s psyche is fragmented into thousands of personalities,
some more dominant than others are. Samson had lied when creating the so-called "merged Hulk,"
using an idealized version of Banner’s self instead of truly merging separate personalities.
The end? According to "Hulk: The End" by Peter David and Dale Keown, Bruce Banner's life
ended in a future where humans had wiped themselves out, along with nearly all life on earth.
The only survivors were the Hulk and an evolved breed of cockroaches, who regularly swarmed on
the Hulk and would eat his organs. Like a modern Prometheus, the Hulk would continually rejuvenate
and then again be attacked by the creatures. Bruce Banner died of a heart attack after living a
long life, but the Hulk continued to survive, finally fulfilling his oft-stated wish to that
"Hulk just wants to be alone," but at a price: Once The Hulk's rage subsides, he will revert
back to Banner, which will lead him to his final death.
However, it should be noted that the death of the Banner persona by heart attack may have erased
completely the Banner persona, leaving only the Hulk as the sole personality. In effect, granting
both Banner and the Hulk the separation that they craved over the decades.
Bruce Banner
The core personality. Although on occasion he has been able to usurp the Savage Hulk's body,
he has generally been limited to human form and strength. Banner is a genius and a talented
scientist, possessing a mind so brilliant that it cannot be measured on any known intelligence
test. However, he has often been emotionally repressed throughout his history, interspersed with
periods of depression and acceptance of the Hulks.
When Banner was able to usurp control of the Savage Hulk's body, his inability to get as angry as
the Hulk limited the strength level he could achieve.
Savage Hulk
The most well-known of the comic book Hulks and generally considered the strongest of all incarnations.
This Hulk also was the one with the longest consistent tenure, despite not appearing for more than a year
in a row since the early 1980s. The Savage Hulk diverged from Banner during early childhood, due to Brian
Banner's abuse. He possesses the IQ and temperament of a young child. He typically refers to himself in
the third person, and often claims that he wants to be left alone in an attention-seeking way, and has
frequent "Hulk [will] smash" temper tantrums. Banner's transformation into the Savage Hulk is generally
triggered by Banner's anger.
The Savage Hulk is normally depicted as green-skinned and heavily-muscled with a loping, ape-like gait.
The mouth area of his face is greatly enlarged, and his nose is extremely short as a result. He rarely
wears upper body clothes (which are almost always ripped off in transformation), but usually wears the
remnants of Banner's trousers (which are often colored purple). The Savage Hulk's strength-level in a
calm state ("calm" for him) is approximately 85 - 90 tons. His strength greatly increases with rage and
surpasses "Class 100" strength fairly quickly. This is due to a greater efficiency in energy usage than
an increase in actual power. During his enraged state, he is able to lift weights far past 100 tons. He
was once seen supporting the weight of a 150 trillion ton mountain on his shoulders, but the extent of
his strength, if there is one, is yet unknown.
The Savage Hulk personality has manifested in Banner's body three times - once while he was the "main" Hulk,
a technique was tried to prevent Banner from becoming the Hulk, but it backfired, causing the Savage Hulk
to manifest in Banner's body. Later, when he twice broke free from the Merged Hulk, a psychic failsafe that
the Merged Hulk subconsciously created caused similar results.
When Banner was separated from the Hulk and drawn into the Heroes Reborn universe, he became a Hulk which
resembled the Savage Hulk there due to Franklin Richards reverting the heroes he placed there to the forms
he was most familiar with. However, this was apparently not the true Savage Hulk persona.
Grey Hulk ("Joe Fixit")
The Grey Hulk personality briefly appeared (with green skin) towards the end of the Hulk's original series
in the 1960s, and again re-emerged in the mid-80s with the grey skin which would become associated with this
incarnation just prior to the start of the lengthy Peter David run. The character's most notable spell was
as a Las Vegas enforcer called "Mr. Fixit". Berengetti, the man he was working for, referred to the Hulk as
"Joe", so this was later combined to form "Joe Fixit".
Significant differences between the personalities of the original Grey Hulk and the version that
emerged in the 1980s lead to some debate as to whether these are the same version of the Hulk. In
early issues after the re-emergence of the Grey Hulk, the character is referred to as the original
Hulk, so it is possible that these differences are simply a result of these being variations of the
same personality, just as the Savage Hulk has gone through many variations. However, not all agree
that these truly are the same character.
The Grey Hulk diverged from Banner during late adolescence or his college years, as the repressed Banner
attempted to deny his sex drive. He has average intelligence, although he would occasionally display
knowledge and intellectual ability that were normally associated with Banner. He is cunning, crafty,
hedonistic, arrogant, and hard-to-reach, although he has a conscience he often tries to hide. He is
the only Hulk who has both manipulated and actually attempted to be rid of Banner, as Banner has often
attempted to "cure" himself of being a Hulk. For most of the Grey Hulk's existence, he would generally
appear only at night. According to the Leader, the Grey Hulk persona of this period was strongest during
the night of the new moon and weakest during the full moon, with the reverse holding true for Banner. T
here are indications that this is because of Banner's shame of this side of his personality: He only
lets it come out when it is dark, and no one can see him. This is supported by the fact that the Grey
Hulk has occasionally been "let loose" during the daytime; during those daytime appearances, the grey
Hulk was somewhat weaker and experienced a painful burning sensation due to his body's desire to transform
back into human form.
This Hulk was grey-skinned for all but his earliest appearances, and is the smallest of the Hulks
(although these are very much relative terms; he still towers over the average human and is much larger
than the largest man) and has the lowest base level of strength, which at the upper limits allow him
to lift 70 tons in a calm state (The Grey Hulk still has the capacity to increase his strength
according to his rage, but it starts out at a much lower level than other incarnations.).
Otherwise, he looks like a less extreme version of the Savage Hulk, with normal length arms and
less of a hunched back. He dresses in made to measure suits when he can. When left in Banner's
clothes after a transformation, Banner's clothes are often left on in whatever condition they
were in after transformation.
The Grey Hulk was romantically involved with Marlo Chandler for some time while Banner was "submerged"
by sorcerers from Jarella's world. The two eventually broke up, and Marlo became involved with
(and later married) Rick Jones.
Merged Hulk ("The Professor")
This Hulk was created by the merger of Banner and the two above Hulks. A later story would retcon this,
with Doc Samson claiming that he just released another incarnation from Banner's mind. This Hulk's
most notable spell was as an associate, and later the leader, of the Pantheon.
This form is devoid of most of Banner's emotional hang-ups, but can still be prompted into insane
rage, as when he killed the Leader and later destablised enough for the Savage Hulk to re-emerge
(albeit in Banner's form, due to a "psychic failsafe").
The Merged Hulk, or Professor Hulk, possesses Banner's intelligence, the Grey Hulk's cunning,
and the Savage Hulk's strength. However, he also possessed Banner's detachment, the Grey Hulk's
arrogance, and a much lesser degree of the Savage Hulk's propensity for anger and mood swings.
After the "Savage Banner" began to emerge, he was forced to restrain his rage to avoid becoming
"helpless in mind and body".
The Merged/Professor Hulk is green-skinned and is the tallest and largest incarnation. Despite his
exaggerated musculature, he looks basically like a scaled-up human and walks normally. He has a
proportionally larger version of Banner's face, and always dresses in clothes appropriately sized
for him (although he occasionally foregoes shirts and shoes).
This aspect of the Hulk is one of the most controversial. Peter David, who created this
personality, considered him to be a true unification of the existing personalities.
Able to co-exist and even communicate with the other existing personalities.
The Maestro
Main article: Maestro (comics)
The Maestro is a version of the Hulk from a future timeline. He possesses all of the Hulk's mental
faculties and was actually more physically powerful than the "Past Hulk" due to the absorption of
excess radiation (a past nuclear war ravaged this "future" world), but completely lacks any compassion
or morality. The Maestro ruled his world, "Dystopia", until the time-travelling Merged Hulk sent him
back in time to the detonation of the Gamma Bomb that first created the Hulk. The Maestro, at Ground
Zero, apparently died, but would years later regenerate in a weakened state, and temporarily take
control of the Destroyer, after which he was apparently buried in a rockslide.
Other incarnations
There were a number of periods where the Hulk presented was neither the Savage nor Grey Hulks,
but showed clear traits of both, usually with green skin. Notable instances of these include:
Post-Onslaught/Unleashed Hulk: During a fight with the villain Onslaught, Banner was separated
from the Hulk. As Banner went missing this Hulk became a nexus gateway to the "Heroes Reborn Universe"
created by Franklin Richard's. This Hulk may have been a combination of the Grey and Savage personalities,
judging from his behavior. Due to separation from Banner and an influx of energy from the Heroes Reborn
Universe, the Hulk had a deteriorating physical condition which caused his strength to increase steadily
while his durability was very erratic. At one point, the "Unleashed Hulk" was impaled by landing on a
jagged street sign.
Post-Heroes Reborn Hulk: When Banner and the Unleashed Hulk were remerged, Banner's influence moderated
the Hulk somewhat, making him a more level-headed version of the above Hulk. With Banner's return, this Hulk
no longer suffered from a deteriorating physical condition.
Mindless Hulk: Created when Banner committed a "psychic suicide", whereby Banner retreated deep
into his mind, leaving behind a Hulk that was violent, animalistic, and incapable of speech. Still,
the Mindless Hulk exhibited a range of emotions, befriending a number of alien beings and mourning
their losses. It has been strongly implied in the comic book (specifically, in issue #310) that the
Mindless Hulk could be another personality of Banner's.
Bannerless Hulk: Created when Banner was physically separated from the Hulk's physical form by use of a
"nutrient bath", removing (according to Samson) all memory and personality from the Hulk's body. Unlike
the "Mindless Hulk", the only emotion this creature demonstrated was rage.
Suppressed Rage Hulk: An incarnation that represents the guilt and rage that resulted from Banner's
traumatic experiences, which never gained physical form. He appeared within Banner's mind in the form
of a giant, Godzilla-like monster, and was soundly defeated by the Savage, Gray and "Professor" Hulks.
Devil Hulk: A malevolent personality who attempted to usurp control during a period where Banner and all
three primary Hulk personalities were active. This Hulk is the representation of his abusive father. This
personality has not physically manifested and may not exist at all. Instead, it may be a false memory
implanted by Nightmare's manipulation.
Monster Hulk: For a time, through the practices of yoga and mediation, Banner gained a measure of
control over the Hulk. During this "bleeding of the minds", Banner could impose his will and mind over
the Hulk to a certain extent, and used use some of the Hulk's physical strength in human form.
There have also been several occasions in which Banner possessed the Savage Hulk's mind ("Savage Banner"),
or vice versa ("Banner-Hulk").
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