One more thing about the Hulk

One of the criticisms of "The Hulk (2003)" was that the film completely revised the Hulk's "origin" story. Instead of being bombarded with gamma rays, Banner is the unknowing victim -- as a child -- of biological experiments conducted by his own father, David Banner. Years later, while working as a researcher (completely by coincidence) in the same field his father worked in, Bruce is exposed to radiation that triggers changes in his already-altered physiology, and thus the Hulk is born.

In the new (2008) film, this origin story is dropped, and instead during the credits we see a new origin story essentially recycling the 1970s TV show premise: That Banner bombards himself with gamma radiation as part of an experiment and that the Hulk is the unexpected outcome.

Neither of these origin stories match the original, May 1962 Marvel Comics origin story of The Incredible Hulk #1, wherein Dr. Bruce Banner is bombarded with gamma rays from a new, experimental bomb (of his own creation) while saving a teenager who has driven on to the test site as part of an initiation stunt. What's often forgotten is that this wasn't an accident; Bruce is intentionally irradiated by a fellow scientist, identified as Igor, who turns out to be a "red spy" from "beyond the Iron Curtain".


As the first issue of The Incredible Hulk winds-up, the newly-minted Hulk is sent to an unnamed country behind the Iron Curtain where he fights and cures(!) his adversary. In gratitude, his former adversary sends Banner safely back home...


Future incarnations of Dr. Banner no longer seem so concerned with "the Red tyranny".

Many Hulk fans will tell you that the Hulk was originally intended to be grey, not green, but the inker at Marvel couldn't get a consistent grey color, so from issue #2 onwards he was an easier-to-ink green. A far more interesting Hulk fact is that the Hulk used to be able to talk! And not just stuff like "Hulk smash!" and other third-person statements, but complete sentences. For example, in The Incredible Hulk #6, the Hulk fights and defeats the "Metal Master" by utilizing his rarely seen arts-n-crafts skills. Of course, the Hulk wouldn't have succeeded without help from his teenage pals, as he acknowledges at the end of the story...


Perhaps not so surprisingly, the original Incredible Hulk comic series was canceled after... issue #6.