The Incredible Hulk

History: Dr. Bruce Banner created a gamma-ray bomb for the U.S. military. During countdown to the test detonation, Banner spotted teenager Rick Jones driving into the test range. Rushing out to save the boy, Banner pushed Jones into a protective trench just as the bomb detonated. Banner was exposed to heavy gamma-ray radiation, absorbing the full impact of the bomb. Hours later, at nightfall, Banner transformed into a monstrous Hulk, unleashing a darker split-personality in the process.

Some of the Incredible Hulk's earliest enemies included The Gargoyle, The Toad Men, The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, Mongu, Tyrannus, General Fang, and The Metal Master

At first turning into the Hulk always at sunset and back into human form at sunrise, Bruce Banner eventually created a gamma-ray machine which allowed him to control his transformations (see Incredible Hulk # 4). Later, Banner would transform into the Hulk during periods of stress or anger.

The Incredible Hulk would later battle such monsters as Warlord Kaa of The Living Shadows, and duplicates of Diablo, Groot, Goom, Taboo, and The Blip (all created by The Hulk aka Xemnu the Living Titan). The Incredible Hulk also had several battles with The Thing of the Fantastic Four.

Height: 7 ft.
Demonstrated Powers: The Incredible Hulk has tremendous strength and invulnerablity, but has a simple, child-like mind.

Comment: It was the original intention of the creators that the Incredible Hulk was to be colored gray, however, in the printing process, they could not keep the gray color a consistant shade, and in a some panels, the Hulk appeared GREEN. When they saw the green Hulk, they thought he looked better, and the rest is history…

Comment: The Incredible Hulk is not to be confused with The Hulk (also known as “Xemnu, the Living Titan)”, nor with Albert Poole's robot from “I Made The Hulk Live” by Don Heck in Strange Tales # 75, nor with the criminal Hulk Hogan who fought Clay Harder, The Two-Gun Kid in Gunsmoke Western # 63.

Comment: The Incredible Hulk was preceded by Kraa, a man who was also mutated by radiation from an atomic blast into a large monster in Tales of Suspense # 18 (although in Kraa's case, the change was permanent).
Another similar character to the Incredible Hulk can be found with Victor Avery, a scientist who chemically transformed himself into The Midnight Monster in Journey Into Mystery # 79.

I really liked Peter David's ten year run with the grey Hulk. You'll never see a writer on a title that long ever again. If only that could be compiled in a Marvel Masterworks or Essentials volume.
The green Hulk is the one we are used to and a lot more colorful to look at. One question I always had was why did he always wear purple pants? Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four could have given him some space age stretchable fabric to wear.

For a short time in his early career, he wore purple SHORTS (see the covers of Incredible Hulk issues # 5 and # 6) which seemed to be stretchable; in modern times, too, when he had the mind of Banner.

Where do you buy purple pants, anyway? I've never seen them for sale, but Dr. Banner seems to have a whole closet full of 'em.

While I'm aware of the coloring difficulties with the first issue's gray Hulk necessitated a change to green skin, the ubiquitous comment that some panel(s) had the character green in the first issue confounds me. I've seen all the reprints in the 40+ years since, but they've always been color-corrected to green. My question is, in the original ($), what panels or pages had the Hulk his recognizable shade of jade?

When I recently watched “Frankenstein” (1931) again for the first time in years I was really struck by exactly how much Kirby's Hulk visually resembles Boris Karloff's version of The Monster.
The forehead and the hair are almost identical!

Kirby's Hulk did closely resemble Karloff's version. Don't forget that the Universal Monsters were quite popular at the time, in both Television and as popular items for kids, ie toys, bubbble gum cards, etc.

I wonder it it was Lee, Kirby or Martin Goodman who decided to have the Hilk resemble the popular Frankenstein Monster? It really could have been any one of them.

Gary Gaunt(Mystic Comics vol.1#9(5/42)”throwback” title) is a criminologist who transformed into nocturnal monster by accident(Golden Age 2004-appendix).This makes him a prototype to the grey-Hulk.

A defecting Russian scientist is transformed by an atomic test into a hulking monster, Tor Johnson, of course.

A soldier is inadvertently exposed to the blast of a plutonium bomb at a desert base and grows to giant size

Okay, maybe it's more like Giant-Man, but some of the early parts definitely reminded me of Incredible Hulk #1.

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