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Incredible Hulk History


The Hulk is a character that resonates easily with many comic book fans. The unlimited strength and power, and his being misunderstood and misinterpreted by society at large make him easy to relate to, enviable and pitiable all at the same time. While the Hulk debuted at a time of re-emerging superhero prevalence, he did not reach great, immediate success. Further, the Hulk as we would recognize today was actually very different in appearance.

As is true or most of the superhero genre, the Hulk has a tragic past. His tragic past is a bit different than many other superheroes though. This is because as Dr. Bruce Banner, he invented the gamma bomb that would go on to mutate him. So his fate was changed but it was changed by himself; leaving the Hulk as a somewhat misfortunate byproduct of his own genius.

Another way that the Hulk is different from other superheroes is that he has little control over his powers, abilities and personalities. While other superheroes maintain a secret identity but decide at will when and how to use their powers, the Hulk has no such control. The Hulk is unleashed when Bruce Banner experiences different emotions, most notably rage.

The first appearance of the Hulk was in May of 1962 in the comic entitled The Incredible Hulk #1. An invention of Stan Lee, the Hulk appeared in the period known as the Silver Age of comics. While superheroes were on the rise once again in the industry, Lee and Marvel Comics created the Fantastic Four. After the success of those characters Lee began churning out new superheroes, the Hulk included.

While today the Hulk is almost synonymous with a bright green coloring, in his first appearance he was actually grey. This was hard to keep consistent and was changed to green by the second issue. The original run of The Incredible Hulk comic only lasted six issues. After which the Hulk was making appearances in a variety of Marvel comic books. He then settled in to the comic known as Tales to Astonish. Spending several years under that name, the series was then changed back to The Incredible Hulk in 1968, a series that would run until 1999.

The story of the Hulk has remained fairly consistent since its inception over 40 years ago. What has changed throughout the time has been the portrayal of Bruce Banner, the different forms of the Hulk and the relationship between his two sides. As time has gone on Banner has generally been made more capable of emotion, while becoming more and more tormented by his accident and his tragic past.

As with most successful comics, there were branch outs and new characters. These included She-Hulk, a cousin of Bruce Banner’s who received his blood in a transplant. Several years ago the Hulk made a big screen appearance, only to be loudly derided by comic book fans around the globe as being both a poor movie and a poor depiction of the Hulk. The new version in 2008 debuted to much higher acclaim both within and outside of the comic book industry.