Hulk (Earth-199999)

The Hulk, legal name Doctor Robert Bruce Banner, is an American scientist and hero.

Biography

After the incident

On April 16, 2005, the brilliant scientist Bruce Banner was involved in a mysterious scientific experiment at Culver University in Virginia that resulted in him sustaining a massive amount of gamma-radiation poisoning, causing him to transform into a huge, mindless, green monster that came to be known as the Hulk. The Hulk was responsible for numerous deaths and injuries, including injuring Dr. Elizabeth Ross, the scientist responsible for executing the project as well as Banner's love interest. Banner was profoundly distraught when he became himself again, and wanted to call off the project. But General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Betty's father who was also heavily involved in the project, recognized the enormous power inherent in the Hulk and wanted to see the project through. Banner flatly refused and fled military supervision, prompting a nationwide manhunt. Banner fled to the Canadian border, where he was found and forced to transform, evading capture and continuing to flee for years.

During his time in the U.S., Banner was tracked down by Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who was interested in reports of a "super soldier" developed by General Ross. Fury struck up a conversation with a nervous Banner in a bar somewhere in the U.S., and used a pair of undercover operatives to anger Banner and trigger him into transforming. Banner became the Hulk as planned, throwing an operative across the room and storming out of the bar. Fury called off any further interest in the Hulk, believing him unsuitable for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "super soldier" criterion.

Banner eventually fled to Brazil in November 2009, where he spent five months working in a bottling plant and training himself to control his anger, as it was a high heart rate that caused him to transform into the Hulk. All the while he sought a cure for his condition, maintaining contact with a mysterious "Mr. Blue" over the internet, even sending him blood samples. One day at the factory, Banner cut his finger and inadvertently bled into one of the bottles; this bottle was shipped to Michigan, where a man drank its contents and was afflicted with gamma poisoning. This news reached the military, allowing them to track Banner to Brazil.

Banner managed to narrowly escape capture by a group of commandos led by Emil Blonsky, grabbing all of his possessions and fleeing down the streets of Brazil. He was mugged in the bottling plant by a group of street thugs, who ripped away his backpack, including the computer that he was using to contact Mr. Blue. The thugs repeatedly taunted him as the soldiers closed in, causing Banner's heart rate to escalate, transforming him into the Hulk. He easily took out the thugs and all of the soldiers save Blonsky, fleeing afterward. He awoke thousands of miles away in the jungles of Guatemala, flagging down a passing motorist to return to civilization. From there he made his way to Chiapas, Mexico, with nothing but the stretched pants on his legs. In about two weeks, through unclear means, Banner was able to make his way to Culver University to see Dr. Ross; afraid to approach her, he instead observed her holding hands with a new man.

Banner met with a friend in town, the proprietor of a pizza parlor, who was able to give him lodging above his restaurant for the time being. Banner infiltrated the university lab, discovering that all record of him and his incident had been removed from the database. He also contacted Mr. Blue, who informed him that nothing could be done about his condition without the data on the computer that he had lost in Brazil. One night, Banner was spotted in the restaurant by Betty and her date; he attempted to hide to avoid any awkward questions, and packed up and left. But Ross tracked him down nonetheless, following him alone in her car as he walked through the rain. The two embraced, and she invited him back to her home.

Betty gave Bruce a USB stick containing the data on the gamma-ray incident—the data that had otherwise been lost in Bruce's computer. She wanted the two of them to confront her father face-to-face, but Bruce realized that he was nothing more than a living weapon to the general. After spending the night at her home, Banner knew that he should leave once more. Ross drove him out near the university, by the bus station, where they were accosted by a surprise group of soldiers, led by Thaddeus Ross and Emil Blonsky. Blonsky had been injected with a small amount of similar material to that which created the Hulk, giving him advanced physical characteristics. On the run once more, Banner swallowed the USB stick to guarantee he wouldn't lose it. Betty tried to plead with her father to stop, but he paid her no heed. When Banner witnessed a soldier tackle Betty to the ground, he transformed into the Hulk and demolished the military's seemingly overwhelming forces. Blonsky confronted the Hulk face-to-face, to which he responded with a swift kick to the chest, sending the soldier flying into a tree. General Ross and his forces were forced to retreat. Betty nervously approached the Hulk; as a helicopter flew overhead and fired upon them, the uncharacteristically aware monster covered and protected her. Hulk threw a sheet of metal at the vehicle, destroying it, and it exploded in a cloud of flame from which Hulk again shielded Betty. He emerged from the flames unscathed, carrying her unconscious body, sneering at General Ross and leaving the scene.

Hulk brought Betty to the Rocky Mountains region, where they spent the night together in a cave in the forest. When they awoke, Ross brought the disheveled Banner to a motel nearby, where they regrouped and bonded further; they attempted to make love, but Banner's heart rate was too big of a concern. Packed up and ready to go, Banner contacted Mr. Blue, though he was forced to do so on an unencrypted network for the first time. The government, in particular S.H.I.E.L.D., were able to track this email; combined with the data from Banner's computer that they recovered from Brazil, it was concluded that Mr. Blue was in fact Dr. Samuel Sterns, a professor in cellular biology at Grayburn College in New York City. Bruce and Betty set out with a cross-country trek ahead of them, being careful not to do anything else to alert the government to their whereabouts.

The two successfully arrived in New York where they met Dr. Sterns, who agreed to attempt an operation on Banner using the data he had been sent. They conducted the experiment, inducing Banner's transformation before injecting him with a "primer" developed from Dr. Ross' data that caused the gamma radiation to dissipate shortly after being "pulsed" into Banner's body from his amygdala. Sterns showed Banner a room full of his blood samples that he had been researching, lauding the potential of Ross' primer being a cure-all for human disease. Banner insisted that Sterns destroy all of it, realizing the destructive potential if the government should get their hands on it. At that moment, Banner was shot through the window by a tranquilizer dart and confronted once more by Emil Blonsky, who had not only recovered from his injuries but had taken another serum injection, becoming more powerful and aggressive. Blonsky neutralized Banner, allowing him to be captured and escorted away by General Ross' forces. Betty chided her father, and accompanied them on Banner's helicopter flight to custody.

Shortly afterward, Blonsky confronted Dr. Sterns and forced him to inject him with a sample of Banner's blood. Combined with what was already in Blonsky's system, the mixture turned him into a creature even bigger and more horrifying than the Hulk, what Sterns dubbed an "Abomination." The creature ran rampant through the streets of New York, every bit as destructive as the Hulk, and more malicious. Banner convinced Ross to let him fight the Abomination, jumping from the helicopter and transforming to do battle. After a long fight, Hulk was able to bring the Abomination to the ground, choking him with a chain and allowing him to be restrained by authorities as Hulk fled across the rooftops. In the following weeks, Banner moved to British Columbia, where he further learned to harness his anger and practiced deliberately transforming into the Hulk.

The Avengers

Banner struggled with his life as the Hulk in spite of his training, to the point of attempting suicide: he shot himself in the mouth, but this only triggered another Hulk transformation. He decided to devote his life to helping people, and went to India to live modestly and put his medical skills to use with the underprivileged. In May of 2012, he was approached by S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff, who told him that S.H.I.E.L.D. was "requesting" his help with a new threat. Loki had invaded Earth and stolen the Tesseract, an ancient artifact of untold power. The Tesseract emitted primarily gamma radiation, and S.H.I.E.L.D. desired Banner's expertise to track it down given his expertise on the subject. Banner was suspicious of Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D., but was pleased by their need for himself rather than the Hulk. He agreed to help, and came peacefully.

Banner was transported to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, an aerial base of operations, where he met Captain America, a hero from the 1940s who had been frozen in ice and recently thawed. Banner then began the search for the Tesseract, analyzing traces of gamma radiation around the world. Loki himself was brought into custody, and Iron Man and Thor soon joined the team as well. The team discussed that Loki's goal was to use the Tesseract to open a portal to Earth, facilitating a Chitauri invasion. He had taken Erik Selvig, leading scientist, and Hawkeye, fierce S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and master archer, under his mind control. To make his portal large and stable enough, he still required a large power source.

Banner and Iron Man—the heroic alterego of billionaire scientist Tony Stark—bonded over their collective scientific knowledge. The two collaborated on finding the Tesseract, while Banner studied Loki's mind-controlling scepter: he found that it emitted the same gamma radiation as the Tesseract, but couldn't make any more definitive conclusion. Stark hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s organizational files and found evidence of weapons development using the Tesseract. The two and Rogers confronted Fury, who admitted that S.H.I.E.L.D. had begun researching offensive uses for the Tesseract after the arrival of Thor and other extraterrestrial elements that had exposed the human race's relative lack of firepower. Thor and Widow were also present for this. Tension in the room grew, and as Stark and Rogers began to openly attack each other's character, Banner expressed his resentment that S.H.I.E.L.D. had set up a cage for him on the Helicarrier in case he transformed. As tensions rose to a fever pitch, the program looking for the Tesseract sounded an alert; moments later, an explosion shook the Helicarrier courtesy of Hawkeye and Loki's men.

Banner and Romanoff were knocked through the window to a lower floor. The stress of the situation caused Banner to transform into the Hulk and chase after the horribly overmatched Romanoff. He was intercepted by Thor, and the two did battle, with Hulk easily tossing him around. Elsewhere, S.H.I.E.L.D. deputy director Maria Hill ordered a jet to attack Hulk, recognizing the danger if he was allowed to ran rampant across the Helicarrier. A jet fired upon Hulk from outside the Helicarrier, but only served to anger him. Hulk attacked the jet, jumping on it and smashing it and forcing the pilot to eject safely. Hulk fell all the way to the ground below, crashing into an abandoned building. He awoke soon after as Banner, meeting a security guard who offered him some clothes.

Banner made his way to Manhattan, where the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team—now officially called the Avengers—were doing what they could to fight back the Chitauri invasion. This included Hawkeye, who had been jostled to his senses by Black Widow during the Helicarrier attack. Transforming into the Hulk, Banner used his brute strength to fight off the larger Chitauri foes, easily smashing his way through any forces that came his way. Hulk went to Stark Tower, where Loki and Selvig had used the arc reactor and the Tesseract to create the Chitauri portal, and the device was surrounded by a seemingly impenetrable energy field. Hulk smashed Loki into the ground repeatedly, taking him out of the equation. Widow also arrived, and learned from a clear-minded Selvig that Loki's scepter could shut down the portal device. Elsewhere, the World Security Council determined that the situation was hopeless, and opted to nuke Manhattan to end the Chitauri onslaught. Iron Man caught up with the missile as it was launched, carrying it through the portal and hurling it at the Chitauri mothership. His suit powered down, and he fell back through the portal as Widow shut it down with Loki's scepter. Thor caught Iron Man in midair and delivered him safely to the ground. The Avengers regrouped at Stark Tower, and took Loki into custody once more. Thor took the Tesseract and used it to return himself and Loki to Asgard, finally delivering his brother to Asgardian justice.

See also

• Hulk from Earth-616
• Hulk from Earth-1610