Both characters were created less than ten years ago. But I”m glad some progress is being made.
Alternate worlds dont really count. I mean there have been a few evil Superman characters.
The Ultimate Marvel line encompasses over 700 comic books. Regardless, there are plenty of negative portrayals of Banner in the main Marvel Universe. He is rarely the personality of the actual hero of Hulk comic books and he’s not exactly what you would call a fan favorite.
I thought, at least at one point, Hulk and Banner merged, much like in the MCU movies. He got to be strong and intelligent…and Bruce still.
No?
That happens every hundred issues or so over the last 60 years. But Hulk usually has a completely different personality, even when he is “smart” like Mr. Fixit. The MCU pivoted to Banner Brain/ Hulk Body and stayed there, but not the comic books, where Banner is more of a victim than a hero.
In the comics, there’s close to a dozen different “Hulk” personalities living in Bruce Banner’s head. Savage Hulk is the one who doesn’t understand personal pronouns. Joe Fixit is smaller, gray, and has average human intelligence. Green Scar is “What if Hulk, but also Conan?” Devil Hulk is clever and sadistic, but also protective of Banner. Professor Hulk has Banner’s intelligence, but (arguably) isn’t actually Banner in Hulk’s body, he’s just a Hulk that’s as smart as Banner.
There’s a few more I can’t think of off the top of my head.
When I first started reading comic books, in the mid-late 1980s, while I was in college, it always felt to me that Marvel really didn’t know what to do with the Hulk. Every twelve months or so, they put a new creative team on the book, and that team made a radical change to the character:
- “Now he’s gray, like he originally was!”
- “Now he’s green again, but now he’s still smart while he’s the Hulk!”
- “He’s still green and smart, but now he’s a crime lord!”
- Etc. etc.
@Miller’s description would explain that, but I wonder if it was a retcon to explain all of those different directions they took the character.
Oh, it absolutely was. Peter David introduced the idea during his run in the '80s.
The problem with Hulk is that Hulk is more plot device than character.
And… THAT can be a character’s super-power!
(Can I be a Marvel think tank now?)
Back after the first Avengers movie I had really wanted a Shield vs. Hulk movie with Nick Fury, Black Widow and Hawkeye at odds with a Hulk on a rampage but the MCU went in a different direction with all of them.
Hulk only pawn in game of life.
The Maestro is the first I think of.
I thought they gave a nod to that incarnation in Thor: Ragnarok, when Hulk had the huge bead necklace.
I might have been reading too much into that though.
Maestro was an alternate future version of Hulk, with all of Hulk’s strength, all of Banner’s genius, but totally evil. Basically the worst case scenario.
Yeah, I left him off deliberately. He’s not (AFAIK) a personality in present-day Banner’s head, the way Green Scar or Joe Fixit are, and I don’t think Maestro has any alters himself. I think he’s more a result of Banner resolving his personality complex and getting the worst possible result, as opposed to an extant personality within Banner’s complex.
Could be wrong about that, though, I haven’t read a ton of Maestro stuff.
No, I don’t think you’re wrong. I think of him as an alternate personality, but you’re right that he’s more of a potential future alternative to the other personalities that “prime” Hulk varies between.