Biography of the Hulk, 1962-1964

The following is a biography of the Hulk from 1962 to 1964, in which Dr. Bruce Banner first assumed his monstrous alterego. Due to Banner's difficulty in controlling his transformations, Hulk often found himself in compromising situations, facing hero and villain alike. He helped found the Avengers along with four other heroes, but left very soon after, perceiving unfair treatment by the others. The Avengers tried to bring Hulk back into the fold due to his invaluable worth as an ally, but he remained mercurial. Over these first few years, Banner failed to gain full control over the Hulk, but gained an ally in Rick Jones—the only person who knows his secret identity—and a romantic partner in Betty Ross.

Biography

Origin

During the scheduled first test of Dr. Bruce Banner's gamma bomb, a teenager named Rick Jones unexpectedly drove into the testing zone. Asking fellow scientist Igor to delay the detonation, Banner ran out to save the boy; unbeknownst to him, Igor was a Soviet spy intent on stealing Banner's plans for the G-bomb, and was content with letting Banner die in the field. Banner was able to deposit Rick Jones into a trench moments before the blast, but himself absorbed a great deal of gamma radiation. Jones brought Banner to safety, and that night, Banner transformed into a large, gray monster. He panicked and went into a frenzy, attacking a group of military personnel and running into the distance. Jones trailed him, eager to repay him for saving his life. The military quickly began searching for Banner, with soldiers coining the moniker of "The Hulk."

Public enemy

Hulk's vague memories as Bruce Banner brought him back to his home, where he found Igor rustling through his laboratory in search of the G-bomb plans. He effortlessly incapacitated Igor, and upon dawn breaking outside, transformed back into his human form, moments before the military arrived at his home. The military took Igor into custody, recognizing him as a Soviet spy. Banner again transformed into the Hulk that evening, and was soon confronted by the Gargoyle, a powerful and brilliant but hideously deformed Soviet officer. The Gargoyle fired a gun of his own invention at Hulk and Rick Jones that effectively made them his slaves. Gargoyle's intent was to bring the two back to the U.S.S.R. by jet plane, but Hulk transformed back to Bruce Banner upon rhe break of dawn while in the jet. Upon deplaning in Russia, Gargoyle noticed the change and concluded that Banner and Hulk must be the same person. He imprisoned Banner and Jones, all the while bemoaning his own deformities. Banner convinced Gargoyle to let him cure him with radiation, warning that his brilliant mind would be degraded in the process. Gargoyle heartily accepted and the operation worked exactly as promised, transforming Gargoyle into a normal-looking man. Realizing that it took an American to cure him, Gargoyle switched allegiances, helping Banner and Jones to escape and sacrificing his life in an explosion at the Soviet base.

Invasion of the Toad Men

Recognizing the threat he posed to the public, Banner repurposed a deserted, underground cave into a containment unit with the help of Rick Jones, aiming to spend his nights in it to keep the Hulk from roaming loose. Suddenly, the two were abducted and brought to space by the invading Toad Men, who sought to gain information about the human race's defensive capabilities from their brightest mind. The Toad Men sent Jones back to Earth, realizing he was of no use to them, and placed Banner in captivity. While Banner was imprisoned, the Toad Men's ship passed through the dark side of the Earth. This caused Banner to transform into the Hulk and take over the ship by force. However, the United States military soon shot down the spaceship, and upon landing in the sunlit U.S., Hulk turned back to Bruce Banner. He was found amidst the wreckage of the ship by Thunderbolt Ross, accused of treason, and imprisoned while the Toad Men escaped and called in their main invasion force. That night, while in military captivity, Banner again transformed into the Hulk, this time with green skin. Frantically seeking revenge on Ross, Hulk stormed to the general's home and was soon accosted by a large military division. He escaped, taking Betty Ross back to his laboratory as a hostage. Rick Jones caught up with Hulk and attempted to calm him down until a huge earthquake, brought on by the Toad Men's magnetic pull of the Moon, knocked Hulk and Betty unconscious. Hulk transformed as the sun rose, and with his faculties with him again, Banner devised a longshot plan to defeat the Toad Men. He fired a huge gamma-ray cannon into their fleet, reversing their magnetic equipment and sending them hurtling into space, and returning the Moon to its natural position. Recognizing his efforts in defending Earth and the United States, the military pardoned Banner of his alleged treason.

The Ringmaster's criminal circus

One night, while Hulk was contained in his cavernous prison, Rick Jones freed him and baited the frenzied monster into a rocket bound for space. Jones had been convinced by Thunderbolt Ross to give Hulk up in the interest of national security. The ship left Earth's atmosphere and was bathed in sunlight, returning Hulk to Bruce Banner; moments later, it passed through a radiation belt, exposing Banner to severe radiation for the second time in his life. Consequently, an electric shock traveled from Banner all the way to Rick Jones, who at that moment was in the military command center triggering the rocket's return sequence to Earth, having realized his mistake. The ship crashed to Earth and Banner emerged as the Hulk, despite it being daytime, presumably an effect of his most-recent irradiation. Jones was at the crash site to meet him, and the crazed Hulk gave chase until Jones yelled at him to stop, and Hulk robotically obeyed. Jones credited his ability to do this to the shock he felt in the command center. Jones led Hulk back into his cave, and learned that his control over the Hulk ceases when Jones sleeps. While out on the town, Jones stumbled upon a traveling circus, where he and a group of citizens were hypnotized by the Ringmaster, who had been hypnotizing and robbing a series of towns. Recognizing that he was beginning to lose control of his faculties, Jones mentally called out to the Hulk, who instantly escaped his cave and came to Jones' aid. Ringmaster's minions were able to bind Hulk with relative ease, as the monster blankly awaited further instruction from Jones. The circus took Hulk along with them as an attraction, leaving the citizens, including Jones, to recover from their hypnosis. Jones and a pair of FBI agents arrived at Ringmaster's next performance to apprehend him, and the sound of Jones' voice triggered Hulk into a rampage. Hulk trounced the Ringmaster's entire circus and prevented him from escaping, but the military soon arrived and forced Hulk himself to escape with Jones in tow.

The Soviet alien

Rick Jones was soon brought into custody by the military, believing him to be connected to Bruce Banner's sudden disappearance, on the urging of Betty Ross. However, Hulk extricated him from a military escort, and the two returned to Hulk's cave, where Banner had constructed a machine designed to shoot gamma rays. Jones used the machine to irradiate the Hulk, transforming him back to Bruce Banner. Banner thought to modify the machine and give himself another dose of the radiation, hoping to give himself the Hulk's body but maintain his own mind—the experiment worked, and Hulk awoke able to communicate normally. However, Jones observed that Hulk seemed "fiercer" and "crueller" than Banner, as well as more brash and arrogant. Very soon after, a large humanoid being calling himself Mongu landed on Earth and challenged the planet to send him their strongest warrior or face the wrath of his people. Watching the display on television, Bruce Banner opted to accept the challenge, transforming into the Hulk and traveling to the Grand Canyon to meet Mongu along with Rick Jones. When they arrived, Mongu turned out to be a Soviet named Boris Monguski in a large mechanical costume, and he and a small set of soldiers surrounded the Hulk and Jones. Hulk easily defeated them and sent them back to the U.S.S.R., but when the Mongu costume and evidence of the Hulk's presence were found at the canyon, the public was led to believe that Hulk had staged the whole thing to demonstrate his might.

Tyrannus the subterranean fiend

In early 1963, Betty Ross introduced Bruce Banner to a supposed archaeologist friend of hers, Tyrannus, who was going to show her around some nearby caves. Banner was suspicious of Tyrannus and investigated the place the two went to along with Rick Jones, finding a large boulder at the entrance to the cave. Banner became the Hulk at the lab and returned to move the boulder, finding Tyrannus taking Ross into a large subterranean transportation device. Tyrannus released a spray of volcanic gas from a valve, knocking out Hulk and Jones. The two woke up in a dungeon, and Tyrannus took Hulk as a slave with the threat of harming Betty if he refused. Tyrannus pitted Hulk in gladiatorial combat with a flamethrowing robot—in the process, the shred of reasoning present in Hulk's brain was replaced with rage. He obliterated the robot, and quickly set his sights on Tyrannus, observing from the stands, but Tyrannus shot him with a paralyzing ray. Tyrannus again imprisoned Hulk, but Rick Jones managed to disguise himself as a guard and free him and Betty. Hulk led them out of Tyrannus' palace, collapsing a pair of large pillars behind them to aid in their escape. They used the aforementioned transportation device to returned to the surface; Jones observed that Ross was in a state of amnesiac shock, and would likely still fear Hulk when they returned.

The communist General Fang

As Hulk traversed the desert landscape in great leaps, military forces led by Thunderbolt Ross fired an iceberg rocket at him, successfully encasing the Hulk in ice. Hulk quickly retreated to his cave and used his gamma-ray machine to transform back into Bruce Banner. A short time later, Banner overheard a radio bulletin on the hordes of Chinese military leader General Fang invading the small Asian country of Llhasa. Hulk and Jones traveled to China, by plane for part of the way and by Hulk's leaps for the rest, stopping briefly at Formosa. In the snowy mountains between China and Llhasa, Hulk confronted Fang's army, destroying several of his tanks before being trapped in an electric enclosure. Jones was able to free him however, and Hulk soon defeated Fang's army, grabbing Fang himself and dropping him on Formosa where enemy soldiers patrolled. Hulk and Jones returned to the U.S. safely.

Framed against the Fantastic Four

Hulk was soon accused of a series of sabotages of military installations in the southwest, owing to the severe damage caused. Thunderbolt Ross enlisted the Fantastic Four to investigate. As it turned out, Banner's assistant Karl Kort was the man responsible; Rick Jones discovered a membership card to a subversive communist organization in Kort's wallet and was kidnapped. Banner sought out Kort as the Hulk, but was intercepted by the Fantastic Four, who still believed Hulk to be responsible for the attacks. They fought for some time before Kort's giant robot—which he had used to commit the sabotages—interrupted. He posed little challenge to the combined might of the Four, as they apprehended him and freed Jones. His goal indirectly achieved, Hulk slipped away and returned to his human form in time to see the Four off.

The magnetic Metal Master

Back in the southwest, a military installation where Banner was to oversee the demonstration of a new missile was attacked by an Astran calling himself the Metal Master. Able to manipulate metal objects atomically, Metal Master quickly overpowered the base. Banner transformed into the Hulk and took the fight to the alien, but was soundly defeated with a large metal object to the head. As Metal Master escaped, Ross and the military took the unconscious Hulk captive, storing him in a thick concrete prison. But even this was not enough to hold him, as Hulk pounded through the walls and returned to his lair to become Bruce Banner once more. An exhausted Banner met with Rick Jones; Banner had an idea on how to defeat the Metal Master, but needed Jones' newly formed Teen Brigade to realize it. With their help, Banner (now the Hulk) created a large, fake gun that for all appearances was made of metal, but was actually made of plastic and cardboard. By this point Metal Master had caused havoc across the globe, disrupting all manner of critical processes, and was now focusing on Washington, D.C.. Hulk confronted him with the fake gun, and Metal Master tried and failed to manipulate it, distressing and distracting him long enough for Hulk to grab him and demand that he revert things back to the way they were. The terrified Astran did so and fled the planet for fear of Hulk beating him down. Finally realizing his value to the human race, the military gave the Hulk a full pardon for defeating the Metal Master. During this time, Betty Ross was searching frantically for the missing Bruce Banner—when he finally showed up, the two became closer than ever, each admitting that the other meant a great deal to them.

Founding the Avengers

Hulk spent the next several months wandering the country, evading the public eye without incident. This changed when he became the unwitting target of Loki, Asgardian god of mischief, who sought revenge on his brother Thor from his confines in Asgard. Loki looked to use the monstrous Hulk as a threat to tempt Thor away from his mild-mannered alterego, Dr. Don Blake, and lure him to Asgard to fight and defeat him once and for all. Loki tracked Hulk to the southwestern U.S., roaming the desert. He tricked Hulk into crashing into a bridged train track, severely damaging it. As the train approached, Hulk did his best to hold the track in place, allowing the train to pass overhead unscathed. Nonetheless, the passengers saw Hulk as the culprit of the damage, and word got out of his supposed crime. Desperate to evade attention, Hulk took on a job at a circus, pretending to be a supremely strong robot.

He was soon discovered by Ant-Man and the Wasp, who attempted to reason and ally with him, but the paranoid Hulk went into a rage. The heroes were joined by Iron Man, who pursued the Hulk and fought him. Soon however, Thor arrived from Asgard with his brother Loki in tow, explaining what Loki had done and redirecting the Hulk’s ire. A desperate Loki turned himself radioactive, threatening the rest of the heroes to leave him and Thor alone. But it was Ant-Man and the Wasp who saved the day, as a group of ants on Ant-Man’s signal triggered a trapdoor under Loki’s feet, dropping him into a lead-lined nuclear-disposal tank below. Loki could not maintain his radioactivity indefinitely, and Thor would wait it out before returning him to Asgard. During the wait, Ant-Man and Wasp made a proposal: given the combined power that they all shared, the five of them would make an incredible team. Iron Man and Thor readily agreed in the interest of better serving the public, while Hulk figured that it was better than staying on the run. All that was left for the new team was a name, which the Wasp provided: The Avengers. This association didn't last long for Hulk, however: after the Avengers fought and defeated the Space Phantom, Hulk left the team, unsatisfied with his treatment by the other heroes.

Allied with Namor

Hulk roamed the southwest desert for some time until he was approached by Rick Jones. Jones led Hulk to his hidden base, where he turned Bruce Banner's gamma beam on him and transformed him back to Banner. The exhausted Banner was left in a bed inside the cave as Jones kept watch outside. But soon Banner again transformed, and broke out of the previously impenetrable hideout, proving that he had gotten stronger. Again on the loose, Hulk was soon confronted by the remaining Avengers, whom Jones had notified of his escape. The heroes tried to incapacitate the Hulk, but he was able to fend off their attack and escape. As Thor pointed out, the heroes were pulling their punches, not wishing to truly harm him, which made it essentially impossible to defeat him. Hulk made his way eastward, swimming out to the Gulf Stream and the Atlantic Ocean. He found himself on a small island far off the coast, where he was greeted by Namor the Sub-Mariner, former ruler of Atlantis. The rageful Hulk at first attacked him for his humanoid appearance, but Namor subdued him by bringing him to the water and demonstrating his superiority in that environment. Namor proposed an alliance, to turn their collective hatred for humanity against them. Hulk agreed, though the two each privately planned to betray the other when their plan was through. The two took one of Namor's watercraft to the Rock of Gibraltar in the west Atlantic, and sent out a message to the Avengers challenging them to face them. The heroes soon arrived as expected, and the two sides did battle in tunnels that had been used by British forces during World War II, employing various military equipment against each other in the process. During the battle, Thor and Hulk separated from the others and fought one-on-one, but the fight was indecisive as they became separated by a cave-in. Eventually, the stress of the battle caused Hulk to transform back to Bruce Banner, and he fled before anyone else could see him.

Caught between superteams

Hulk made his way back to his underground hideout in the southwest, frequently changing forms seemingly at random. As the Hulk, he became utterly disdainful of Bruce Banner, believing himself to be the dominant and superior side of his personality. Happening upon a newspaper clipping, Hulk learned that the Avengers had replaced him with the legendary hero Captain America. Furious, Hulk traveled to New York, determined to face the Avengers head-on. As he ran roughshod through the city, he ran into the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, easily swatting down the quick but fragile hero. Help soon came in the form of his teammates the Thing and Invisible Girl. The latter was soon taken down trying to protect her brother the Torch, leaving the Four's brawny hero to match strength with the Hulk. Hulk was eventually able to overpower the Thing, casting him aside and demanding to fight the Avengers. Thing continued to fight despite being outmatched, and was soon rejoined by the Torch, fresh out of the hospital. Hulk continued to fight them back however, sending them flying with a concussive blast and heading out toward Tony Stark's mansion to finally find the Avengers. Entering the building, he found the heroes and, more importantly, Rick Jones, having just returned to the city. The small confined space prevented the Avengers from mounting any significant offense, as Hulk grabbed Jones and fled as the boy tried in vain to reason with him. But the Hulk didn't account for every Avenger: he was pursued by the small Wasp, who got inside of his ear and buzzed around to annoy and incapacitate him. This allowed the Avengers to catch up, and they were soon joined by the Fantastic Four. All of the heroes were eager to take the Hulk down, but with nine different superpowered beings going in one direction, they ended up stumbling over each other. This allowed the Hulk to escape, leaping away in great bounds with Jones in tow and coming to a stop near the top of a building under construction. He chastised Jones for supposedly turning on him, until the Avengers and Fantastic Four tracked him down and used their combined forces to take him on. The Hulk was able to repel each of them individually, but the distraction allowed Rick Jones to force an anti-gamma pill into his mouth. Giant-Man's ants swarmed over Hulk and forced him into the bay; to nearly everyone it seemed that he had simply fled, swimming underwater with his powerful lungs. But Jones realized that he was transforming back to Bruce Banner, and was safe for the time being.

Trailed by the Avengers

Banner made his way back to the southwest, where he returned to Betty and Thunderbolt Ross under the pretense of having been ill. He met General Ross at a military installation, where a bizarre green hill had suddenly begun growing out of the ground, and continued to grow. The Avengers soon arrived on the scene, having noticed a "strange, piercing sound" being heard throughout the country and tracing its source there. The "hill" was in fact the Living Stone, a growing rock that had come from the Earth's core and that the subterranean Lava Men had forced upon the surface in hopes of sparing themselves from its eventual catastrophic explosion. As Banner observed the Avengers attempting to solve the problem, he suddenly and unwillingly transformed into the Hulk, luckily away from anyone's sight. Hulk instantly became vengeful once more, and attempted to fight the Avengers underground. They led him up to the top of the Living Stone, using various evasive maneuvers to force him to smash what they had determined to be the Stone's one weak point. The strike caused the Stone to implode (rather than explode), creating an incredible but largely harmless display. Banner escaped in the confusion, and was recovered some distance away by Betty, playing it off as though the Hulk had gotten to him as well. Banner continued struggling to control the Hulk, eventually hiding out in a cave in the area. One day he was surprised by the arrival of Spider-Man, who was on the run from the Green Goblin and the Enforcers. The aggressive Hulk fought the hero, but Spider-Man's agility and wit allowed him to escape.

The plot of the Human Top

Banner continued working under General Ross at the missile base in New Mexico. One day he was approached by Giant-Man and Wasp, who were seeking the Hulk. Banner offered them no useful information, and was visibly annoyed that they had asked. Giant-Man was in fact interested in trying to convince the Hulk to rejoin the Avengers. Driving off, Banner became frustrated that others couldn't leave the Hulk be, and his growing anger quickly manifested into a transformation. The Hulk set out to find Giant-Man himself and make him regret looking for him. As Hulk sought his bounty, he ran into the Human Top, a foe of Giant-Man's who had been observing the happenings so far. The Top pointed Hulk in the right direction, and soon he and Giant-Man met face-to-face. The two fought until military forces led by General Ross fired a small atomic shell at the evacuated city. The airborne Wasp saw this occur, and warned Giant-Man in time for him to react. Hulk was confident he might survive the blast, but wanted to defeat Giant-Man himself, and so jumped high into the air and caught the shell, tossing it as far away as he could. It exploded in a large but harmless blast, though the powerful shockwave caught Hulk and knocked him to the ground, returning him to Bruce Banner. Bruce was spotted by Betty Ross, who had feared the worst after he had suddenly disappeared, and the two embraced.

See also

• Biography of the Hulk, 1965
• History of the Avengers, 1963-1964