Biography of the Hulk, 1965

The following is a biography of the Hulk for the year 1965, in which Hulk became the target of the brilliant and nefarious Leader, a man similarly affected by gamma radiation.

Biography

The unstoppable robot

Banner continued working for the military in New Mexico in relative peace as he learned to adjust to his double life as the Hulk. He worked on a large, robotic, humanoid vehicle that would allow its operator to withstand an atomic blast without consequences. Most importantly, Banner finally figured out definitively what caused him to transform into the Hulk: stress. When driven to the point of intense anxiety or exertion, Banner would transform—and vice versa, although the standard for such intensity was considerably higher in his Hulk form. Worryingly, Banner's personality also dramatically changed when he became the Hulk, to the point of creating a practically antagonistic relationship between the two sides. The two personae each also struggled to remember the actions of the other. One night, while Banner was trying to finish up his robot by the morning's deadline (and not overexert himself in doing so), he spotted a strange man in the shadows. Banner gave chase, but the man escaped, and in the process Bruce turned into the Hulk. Uninterested in Banner's work, Hulk departed his missile-base workplace to stretch his legs in the open desert. The next morning, the mystery man returned to the base and entered the robot for the demonstration, unbeknownst to Thunderbolt Ross and other onlookers. Hulk returned to the base and deduced that Banner had built the robot to defeat him. He attacked the machine, but Banner's engineering prowess won the day, as Hulk simply worked himself into a frenzy trying to batter the apparently indestructible construct. Hulk began to transform, and retreated before the man in the suit could see it happen. After he transformed, Banner was recovered by soldiers from the base, and General Ross demanded to know what had transpired, having believed that Banner was in the suit all along. Banner denied it, and his claim was soon corroborated when the robot was seen fleeing in the desert. Banner suggested he be allowed to make another, stronger robot to defeat the first, but Ross refused, and decided to deal with the problem his own way.

Rather than creating a new robot, Banner began developing an electronic scanner that he could use to track down the existing one. Within a few weeks, Ross brought in Major Glenn Talbot from the Pentagon as the base's new security chief. Talbot was assigned with observing Banner as Ross's suspicion of his strange behavior had grown. Unaware of this new attention, Banner took the scanner out into the desert, serendipitously leaving shortly before Talbot first arrived in his lab. Banner soon zeroed in on the machine's location, tracking him to a mountain cave that Banner had used to secretly store supplies—and secretly transform. As he arrived, he noticed Talbot and Betty Ross arriving in a helicopter, apparently searching for him. They landed, and the robot emerged and hurled a large boulder at them. Watching in helplessness, an anxious Banner transformed into the Hulk and intercepted the rock in time to save them. Talbot threw his body over Betty's in a kneejerk attempt to protect her, surprising and impressing her in the process. Hulk entered the cave and began fruitlessly fighting the robot once more, though he knew he couldn't destroy it by normal means. The man inside the machine, apparently possessing a skilled scientific mind of his own, had spent the time since their last meeting building a missile using Banner's supplies, and now he activated the missile to destroy the nearby base. Hulk shoved the robot into a seemingly bottomless pit and climbed the mountain high enough to intercept the missile with a great punch. The missile exploded, sending Hulk crashing to the ground near Talbot and Ross, unconscious. Talbot notified General Ross, who had a recovery team on site minutes later to tow away Hulk's immobile frame. They restrained him with special reinforced chains designed by Tony Stark and Banner himself. Hulk soon came to, surrounded by several large tanks ready to fire upon him at Ross's order.

The confusing Chameleon

Ross kept Hulk chained up in the base until he could figure out what to do with him. Rick Jones, now a full-time ally of the Avengers in New York, took it upon himself to travel to New Mexico upon hearing the news of Hulk's capture in hopes of getting his friend out of a jam. As Hulk tried incessantly to break free of his bonds, he was approached by General Ross, who strangely offered to help him escape. In fact, this man was the Chameleon in a flawless disguise. As he briefly left to allow Hulk to think it over, leaving him completely unoccupied, Hulk's straining reached its breaking point, and he transformed into Banner, allowing him to slip free of the chains. Banner ran to escape and found Rick Jones, and the two hid from a nearby patrol. Jones supplied Banner with a change of clothes, and Banner checked in with Ross and Talbot. Ross by now had learned of his impostor on the base, and Talbot grew ever more suspicious of Banner's disappearances. Bruce returned to his lab, but was attacked and restrained in the closet by the Chameleon, and Chameleon quickly devised a disguise to imitate Banner himself. As the villain searched Banner's lab for anything useful, he was approached by Betty Ross. Chameleon's prickly demeanor quickly tipped Betty off that he was an impostor, and as he grew hostile, Bruce knew he had to do something.

His pulse quickened, and he transformed into the Hulk. The Chameleon held Betty captive and threatened to detonate a small gamma bomb and obliterate the base in the process. In a rare occurrence, the minds of Banner and the Hulk cooperated in a sense, jumping out the window and catching the attention of the base guards. Banner knew that guards shooting at Chameleon ran the risk of detonating the bomb. Chameleon, still disguised as Banner, fled and tried to use the bomb to destroy the Hulk as a last-ditch effort and escape its blast zone in time. Hulk desperately dove straight onto the bomb, absorbing the bulk of the blast. Chameleon was tossed back by the shockwave, knocking him far enough away to escape. The intensity of the explosion caused Hulk to transform back into Banner, but the dense resultant smoke allowed him to retreat before they could see it was him. Later, Banner was vindicated by Betty's testimony that an impostor had grabbed her rather than Bruce himself, but Ross and Talbot nonetheless remained convinced that there was something suspicious about him. As for the Chameleon, he had in fact been sent by a mysterious man known as the Leader to investigate the disappearance of his previous spy, the man whom Hulk had shoved down the pit. Chameleon's mission had thus been a complete failure.

Targeted by the Leader

The next day, Banner scanned the area around the explosion and found that it was safe and free of radiation. He was tasked with accompanying one of his nuclear inventions to another base by train and explaining its operation to the officials in charge there. This directive came straight from the Pentagon, overruling Ross's and Talbot's personal concerns about Banner. Talbot himself was assigned to watch over Banner and make sure the trip went smoothly in general. Meanwhile, the Chameleon had in fact not left the base, and continued to spy on Banner in disguise as a laborer. Chameleon learned of the delivery and notified the Leader over the radio. During the train ride, a strange robot known as a humanoid landed on the top of the train from an overhead helicopter and attacked. It uncoupled the car containing the device from the rest of the train, blocking entry to Talbot and the rest of the military guard. The stress of the situation caused Banner to transform into the Hulk (away from Talbot), and he confronted the humanoid on the lone car. The humanoid had in fact been sent by the Leader, who was controlling it from afar. It had bouncy, sponge-like skin, making it difficult to fight, but Hulk managed to fall on top of it, severing its remote connection to the Leader. With the humanoid disabled, Hulk retrieved the large device from the careening train car and placed it safely off of the tracks. His adrenaline running high, Hulk transformed back to Banner and waited by the device for Talbot's inevitable inquiry. Talbot arrived and arrested Banner, and transferred him to a military jail.

Pardoned by the president

Banner was accused of treason for allegedly plotting to steal his own device for some sort of foreign entity. He maintained his innocence, but had no alibi save admitting that he was the Hulk. He was transported to Washington, D.C. for his trial, where his lawyer was grim about his chances. Rick Jones arrived to provide moral support, and he suggested that maybe revealing his secret identity was the best option. Banner was worried that doing so would endanger him to governments around the world, potentially leading to more Hulks being created: his secret would only be safe with someone who could be trusted not to reveal it further. Jones boldly went straight to the president, Lyndon B. Johnson, using a special Avengers and explained the entire situation, including Banner's secret identity. Johnson agreed that the situation was a sensitive one, and that Banner's mind was invaluable to national interests. He ordered the charges to be dropped, angering Glenn Talbot and convincing him that Banner had "hoodwinked" the Pentagon. Banner knew that Jones had had something to do with it, but didn't hear the full story before he was whisked away to Astra Island for the testing of his device: a nuclear absorbatron, built to fully absorb an atomic explosion. Banner was watched closely by Talbot, who was utterly convinced that he was using the Hulk somehow to aid in his supposed covert dealings. Talbot insisted on observing and understanding every small thing Banner did to prepare the test, and this constant attention sent Banner's anxiety skyrocketing. He ran away, hiding outside on the island to prepare for the inevitable transformation. After seeing the Hulk, a frustrated Talbot took refuge in the nearby bomb shelter. Suddenly, a group of several humanoids from the Leader airdropped in from a helicopter and attacked the Hulk. From within the bunker, Talbot mechanically lowered the absorbatron into a protective titanium containment area and radioed for assistance. Soldiers soon arrived and attacked, throwing grenades into the fray. The explosives did nothing to harm the Hulk or the humanoids, but they did explode a cliff on the edge of the island, causing all of them to fall into the sea. Recognizing that he was about to transform back, Hulk took the opportunity to escape.

Captured by the communists

Swimming more than a mile away in mere seconds, Hulk transformed and emerged above the surface in open water. There, he was spotted and picked up by a passing Soviet Union submarine. The commander of the ship recognized Dr. Banner as his value as a prisoner. By a stroke of additional bad luck, an American plane flew overhead and spotted Banner on the sub, fueling Talbot's suspicion that he was a traitor. Over the course of two days, the Soviet sub took Banner to a weapons research center somewhere in Europe, starving him for two days. The commander at the research center showed him around, and Banner saw a number of engineers who had had their spirits broken into working for the communists. He refused to cooperate, and they threw him in a cell barely large enough to sit in. With no other recourse available to him, Banner let his rage at the situation fuel him into another transformation, and the Hulk easily broke free of his confines. He rampaged through the facility, crushing any Soviet defenders who got in his path. During the fracas, a powerful vaporizer ray grazed Hulk in the shoulder: he would have ignored it, but a grateful captive scientist offered to help, lest the vaporizer's material penetrate his bloodstream. The man further showed Hulk the food stores, and the starved monster ate voraciously. At that moment, a communist officer radioed for backup, and a caravan of Soviet forces made haste for the base. As the friendly scientist began to say goodbye to Hulk, he spotted the Soviet commandant with a fatal proton gun sneaking up behind him. The man jumped in the way of the communist's blast, sacrificing himself to save the Hulk so that he could continue to fight for democracy. As the commandant fled, Hulk's basic consciousness realized that the man had been his friend, and his rage swelled with desire for revenge. Of course, the irony of his physical chemistry reared its ugly head, as this anger simply caused him to turn into Banner again, and the commandant escaped as a result. Soon, communist planes arrived overhead to search for the Hulk, and Banner tried to flee unseen. He saw the dead body of the scientist who had saved him, which jogged his Hulk memory and filled him with rage, just as an artillery blast landed nearby. These combined forces transformed Banner back into the Hulk, who easily jumped up and smashed the jets overhead, his hunger for vengeance for his scientist friend bubbling up once more. A platoon of Soviet tanks soon arrived on the scene, but Hulk easily rampaged through all of them, sending the soldiers fleeing. Having thoroughly smashed his opposition, Hulk was left aimless and confused. He wanted to go home, but after several mighty leaps across the European and Asian landscape, he realized that he had no home. With no better options, he settled against a rock formation in Mongolia for the night.

To Mongolia and back

As he slept, Hulk transformed back into Banner. In the morning, he was awoken by two men, one of them armed with a rifle. The other called himself Kanga Khan, the bandit chieftain of the surrounding area. Since Banner, bare except for his tattered pants, clearly had nothing to offer, Khan was going to kill him, but Banner told him that he would be rewarded handsomely if he returned him to the nearest American outpost. Khan was suspicious, and told his underling to stay and guard Banner while he went to verify his claim. The assistant took Banner to Khan's camp as they awaited news. Khan soon returned with Glenn Talbot, who was still convinced Banner was a communist spy, but wished to see him returned safely to stand trial. Suddenly, the camp was attacked by rival bandits led by Hakun Gantu. Talbot quickly grabbed Banner, and the two made their escape. While traversing a mountain ledge, the ground gave way, and the two fell into a deep valley.

As they fell, Talbot blacked out and Banner turned into the Hulk. Hulk instinctively grabbed Talbot and protected him as they landed, oblivious as to who Talbot was. He tried to awake him, but received no response, and decided to at last return home. Hulk jumped far to the west, across continents and the Pacific Ocean in powerful bounds, and finally to Banner's home in New Mexico. Hulk rested on the couch, and soon fell asleep and turned back into Bruce Banner. Banner was soon awoken by a large group of soldiers led by Thunderbolt Ross, along with Betty. General Ross arrested Banner, giving him his second treason charge in several days. He was held in jail for a few days—in the meantime, Talbot was rescued from Mongolia by the Air Force, and learned from President Johnson that they needed Banner to oversee another attempt at testing the absorbatron on Astra Island. The two traveled to Astra, where there was a strange pink powder surrounding much of the test site. They disregarded it and set about starting the test, but the powder proved to be more dangerous than they could have imagined. It was in fact a massive army of the Leader's humanoids, shrunk to minuscule size. Before the test could begin, Leader remotely grew the humanoids to normal size, and they quickly overtook the entire island. They knocked out a valiant Talbot, and aimed to capture or kill Banner. He transformed into the Hulk, but they quickly gassed him, knocking him out, leaving him vulnerable to easy capture.

The Leader's captive

Leader's humanoids gathered Hulk and the absorbatron together, and Leader used his ship to carry them away with a tractor beam. Leader brought Hulk back to his base, concealed within a large mesa back in the American southwest. He left Hulk inside a large gas chamber to keep him unconscious, but this in fact resulted in him transforming back into Bruce Banner while Leader was in another room: the gas, specially designed to fell the Hulk, had no effect on Banner himself. Banner used limited technological equipment within the chamber to transmit a Morse code rescue signal. When Leader returned, Banner hid outside of his view, and a panicked Leader pumped in double the gas. The unpredictable substance caused Banner to transform again, and the Hulk broke out of the chamber. Hulk stormed through Leader's hideout, destroying the absorbatron and forcing Leader to make a quick exit in his rocket sled. Just then, tracking Banner's signal, General Ross and his forces arrived, followed by Rick Jones hastily telling them not to kill Banner. Ross ignored him, and his soldiers fired upon the Hulk on sight. Wreckage and smoke from the absorbatron's destruction obscured their view, but when the dust had cleared, Banner was laying motionless on the ground: a soldier examined him and found that he had no pulse.

Body and mind united

As Ross and his men, joined by Major Talbot, explored the rest of Leader's base, Jones managed to sneak away with Banner's body: he was well and truly dead, but Jones was hopeful that he could be saved if not too much time had passed. He stole a medical truck and took Banner to one of Bruce's hideouts nearby, placed him on the operating table, and activated the gamma-ray machine. In moments, Bruce transformed into the Hulk and miraculously awoke. Even more incredibly, the bullet, which had gone into Banner's brain, affected his cognition as the Hulk such that he was perfectly lucid and intelligent: essentially, he had the Hulk's body and Banner's mind. He realized that turning back into his "human" form would mean death, as Banner had no hope of surviving a bullet in his brain. He quickly concocted a potion that would allow him to remain as the Hulk, which he would have to imbibe every forty-eight hours. He went to Betty Ross's house and peered in through the window longingly, believing that he would never be able to fulfill his love for Betty (and hers for him) now that he would be the Hulk forever. For her part, Betty remained convinced that Bruce was not a traitor, despite Talbot's insistence to the contrary and his repeated advances toward her. Soon, Hulk spotted a gigantic humanoid attacking the missile base, and pursued it. The soldiers of the base were attacking it with all they had, to no avail. Hulk attacked it, but found that the soldiers under General Ross's command were shooting at him as well. Nonetheless, the combined forces staggered the humanoid, but could not stop it completely.

As a last-ditch effort, Ross fired the gigantic "Sunday Punch" nuclear missile, looking to take down the humanoid and the Hulk in one shot. Rick Jones desperately ran out into the open to warn the Hulk, and Hulk grabbed him and jumped away before the missile could land. The humanoid was caught in the enormous mushroom cloud, while Hulk and Jones sailed high into the sky, and were knocked even higher by the edges of the bomb's shockwave. Jones passed out from the thin air high in the atmosphere, and Hulk carried him safely as they landed back on the ground far away from the blast site. The blast was successful in defeating the humanoid, and Ross's forces were now in hot pursuit of the Hulk. Hulk revived Jones and took him along in large leaps away from the military, taking refuge in one of Banner's hideouts. But Ross's pursuit was too intense, and the hideout was soon surrounded. Hulk was willing to fight, but not to put Rick at risk. Suddenly, a projection of the Leader appeared in the lab, and offered to help Hulk escape using his projecto-ray if he agreed to be allies.

Working with the Leader

The proud Hulk resisted for as long as he could stand, but as his lab was destroyed around him by artillery and missiles, he accepted Leader's offer. In moments, Leader teleported Hulk to his hideout in Rome. The Leader, a man with green skin and an oversized cranium, explained that he had been exposed to and transformed by gamma radiation much like the Hulk had—except that it had enhanced his intelligence instead of his physical prowess. Hulk realized that Leader did not yet know his secret identity, and that he must be careful not to let it slip. Leader was interested in ruling the world with his superior intellect, and offered Hulk to become "the leader of his warrior guard." When Hulk refused, Leader again knocked him out with powerful sleep gas. When he awoke, Hulk was alone, and he realized that he was dangerously close to transforming back into Banner. In a panic, he stormed through the area searching for a way to reverse the process: some sort of gamma radiation to keep him in his Hulk form, but to no avail. He found a group of hostile humanoids that attacked him, and in his weakened state he could not fight them and hold off his transformation simultaneously. He passed out, moments before Leader found him.

As Leader approached Hulk's fallen form, his own gamma radiation "rubbed off" on Hulk, providing him with a modicum of strength to prevent his transformation. Leader's humanoids led an unconscious Hulk to an operating table, where Leader examined him and found the bullet in his head. He used an extremely sophisticated gamma-ray laser machine to dissolve the bullet to harmless dust without harming Hulk's brain tissue. He went on to bathe Hulk in an intense amount of gamma rays. Hulk incredibly awoke less than an hour later, and Leader explained what he had done—making it very clear that he had saved his life. Hulk was quietly worried about the amount of gamma radiation Leader had exposed him to: he had previously been cautious not to absorb so much at once, for fear that he would be stuck as the Hulk forever. Later, the Leader put Hulk through a series of scientific tests, finding that he was every bit as physically impressive as expected—and possibly more, thanks to his latest gamma exposure. With that done, Leader explained what he wished for Hulk to do. He explained that he had noticed a mysterious "blue area" on the Moon, and through examination conducted via a satellite he'd sent into space, he'd found that a humanoid being had built a home and was living there. Leader built more and more sophisticated observational tools and tracked the being to its home planet, T-37X, where lived an incredibly advanced civilization at the edge of the known universe. This being was in fact Uatu, a Watcher who had had a number of encounters with the Fantastic Four in recent years. The covetous Leader wished to seize the unthinkably advanced treasures from the Watchers' home planet with the Hulk's help. Leader transported Hulk to the planet in question using a special teleportation device that operated using the "speed of thought" to send Hulk there near-instantaneously. Uatu was there when Hulk arrived, apparently expecting him. Leader was able to communicate with Hulk using unspecified technology, and told him that he was seeking a small golden orb: the "ultimate machine." One obstacle lay in his way: a Hulk-sized, human-shaped red beast, and the reason why Leader couldn't come get the machine himself.

Hulk and the creature fought intensely while Uatu observed, as was his wont. However, as the two began to fight near Uatu's various scientific equipment, he teleported them elsewhere with a wave of his hand. The two continued to fight tooth and nail until Hulk hurled the creature far into the sky. Uatu appeared at that moment and teleported the creature away. He explained that he had seen enough, and was convinced that Hulk was the victor. He encouraged Hulk to get along with the reason he was here: he would offer no resistance. Hulk was hesitant to obey the Leader, but still felt he owed him a debt —however, once this task had been completed, he would consider that debt repaid. Hulk grabbed the machine, and Leader returned him to Earth and exalted in his success. Leader claimed that it contained all the knowledge in the universe, and that with it he would become the supreme being in existence. He pulled the orb over his head and began to absorb the infinite knowledge. But this sudden and vast input proved too much for the Leader, who suddenly collapsed dead on the floor.

Into the future

With the Leader killed, Hulk finally had a moment to think. He realized that, although he technically was thinking with Bruce Banner's mind, the overwhelming power and intensity inherent to the Hulk's body were gradually overshadowing Banner's thoughts, making him more and more Hulk-like all the time. The increasingly arrogant Hulk decided to take his chances with the ultimate machine, placing it on his head. He instantly regretted it and pulled it off, but not before he heard through the web of infinite knowledge that Rick Jones was in military captivity and fruitlessly sought an audience with President Johnson. Hulk left the machine behind and made his way to Washington in an attempt to fulfill Jones's request on his behalf. As he traveled across the U.S., Hulk naturally alerted the military. A huge "T-gun," built from Banner's own experimental design by Ross's orders, was transported to Washington to intercept him. As Hulk attempted to reach the White House, the T-gun was fired, stopping him in his tracks. In that instant, Hulk realized what he had been hit with, and remembered that Banner had theorized that bending light waves around someone might send them through time. This is precisely what had happened, as Hulk emerged in a desolate future version of Washington (the universe Earth-6676) and was immediately confronted by a group of hostiles.

See also

• Biography of the Hulk, 1962-1964