312 INCREDIBLE HULK, THE
hero, who usually prevailed due to his greater guile and humanity. By 1963, the Hulk
was back on the scene as a founding member of Th e Avengers, then almost immediately
as an antagonist of the team. He guest-starred in Spider-Man #14 and with Giantman
in Tales to Astonish #59, where in issue #60, he became a regular feature.
Charting the complex trajectory of the Hulk through countless writers, artists,
and incarnations is nearly impossible. Initially the character was grey, then green, and
more recently a red variant. At fi rst, he was an inexplicable Jekyll and Hyde arising
from gamma exposure, then as a manifestation of Banner’s rage (the most common
explanation of the Hulk’s appearance), but in various eras he could also be summoned,
sometimes at will, through hypnosis, through sleep, through Banner’s childhood trau-
mas about his psychotic father, Brian Banner, or through alien interventions. At times,
the Hulk was subdued by Banner’s will, submerged in Banner, split apart as a separate
entity from Banner, controlled by yoga, and even extinguished from being for a time.
Gamma radiation was a potent aspect of the mythology; villains such as Th e Leader
and Th e Abomination were also gamma-induced. Gamma rays transformed proletariat
laborer, Samuel Sterns (Th e Leader) into a maniacal genius bent on world domination.
Emil Blonsky (Th e Abomination) was a Russian spy who used gamma radiation to
evade capture and remains the only regular villain to rival the Hulk’s massive strength.
During the Tales to Astonish run (1964 – 68), the Leader was a primary nemesis. With
issue number #102, Tales to Astonish was re-titled Th e Incredible Hulk , and it ran through
the 1990s. In 1999, the title was restarted once again, as issue #1.
Under author Peter David’s 12-year stint as Hulk writer (1987– 99), the Hulk was
revamped as the result of Banner’s dissociative identity disorder caused by childhood
abuse (at the hands of his crazy father), thus accounting for the Hulk’s long-term
mental problems and rage issues. For a while the grey-skinned Hulk, a more muted,
less powerful, but more intellectual version of the Hulk, returned. Th is Hulk moved
from cosmic battles to terrestrial plots in Las Vegas as an ambiguous mob enforcer
known as Mr. Fix-it. Another clever transformation was Doc Sampson’s merger of
three hulk personalities blending Banner’s intellect, Mr. Fix-It’s grey, savvy Hulk, and
the green-skinned savage Hulk, as a new confi guration called the professor. Th rough-
out his various permutations, the emphasis was always on the Hulk’s instability,
untrustworthiness, and perpetual transformation.
In 2007, Marvel embarked on the ambitious World War Hulk cycle. Th e Illumi-
nati (Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and others) decided that the Hulk must be
involuntarily exiled to an uninhabited world where he could pose no threat. Shang-
haied, the Hulk found his ship redirected to the planet Sakaar. In a pastiche of
works such as Spartacus and Dune , he achieved bizarre Conan -esque manifestations
as a rebel warrior, king, mythological fi gure, and potential messiah. After a warp core
explosion on his ship killed nearly everyone, the Hulk and survivors headed to Earth
for revenge against the Illuminati. Th ere, he learned he had been betrayed on Sakaar
and instead aided the S.H.I.E.L.D. spy group to explore the mysteries of a new Red
Hulk.
