In their latest look at notable comic firsts, CSBG reveals when Bruce Banner first became the Hulk by becoming angry
In “When We First Met”, we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore. Today, we look at the first time that Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk by becoming angry.
It is a pretty standard situation that when you look to the earliest comic book appearances of notable comic book characters, they are often very different from the standard version of the characters. However, for the most part, the major Marvel Comics superheroes are a bit of an aberration in that department, as so many of the major heroes from the Marvel Age of superheroes are VERY similar to what they are today. You can read an early Spider-Man comic, an early Fantastic Four comic book and an early Thor comic book and still readily see the characters as they are today. Heck, while Iron Man looks very different because of the technology of the era, the Tony Stark in the comic is still very familiar, and even the armor is fairly typical, just, you know, not as modern.
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A notable exception to this is the Incredible Hulk. I mean, yes, there’s Bruce Banner, Betty Ross, Thunderbolt Ross, Rick Jones and a scientist turning into a monstrous creature known as the Hulk, but otherwise, almost none of the classic Hulk tropes are present in the first volume of Incredible Hulk (which only lasted six issues). It really wasn’t until the Hulk had a mini-comeback as a member of the Avengers did the character begin to slowly but surely become closer to the archetypal idea of what the Hulk. One of those major changes was when Bruce Banner first transformed into the Hulk because of anger.
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HOW DID BRUCE BANNER ORIGINALLY CHANGE INTO THE HULK?
When the Hulk debuted in Incredible Hulk #1 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Paul Reinman), his emotions really didn’t factor into the equation at all, it was just a simple situation where he would turn into the Hulk at night and that was that. There was no specific connection between his emotions and his transformation.
However, in the fourth issue of his short-lived original series (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Dick Ayers), the Hulk was officially taken out of “night/day” being the reason for him changing back and forth as the Hulk and moving to a special gamma device that triggers the change. And while it would take a while for him to go specifically into mood based transformations, this was at least a key change that allowed those other ideas to eventually take place, as we’re now past night and day being the catalyst.
Like I said earlier, those early issues of the Incredible Hulk were just ALL OVER THE PLACE with their plots. It’s truly one of the great examples of creators simply throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. There are so many ideas introduced in one issue and dropped in the following issue that you almost feel like it was a challenge by Kirby and Lee to never have the book have the same status quo for two issues in a row.
WHEN DID BRUCE BANNER’S HULK TRANSFORMATION MAKE A MAJOR CHANGE?
Okay, now that his series ended after six issues, the Hulk became a sort of mythical boogeyman in the Marvel Universe, as the other heroes all run into him and have sort of mini-fights, but then break off. One of those mini-fights was in Avengers #1 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Dick Ayers), which instead ended with the other superheroes that Loki tried to trick into fighting the Hulk instead deciding to form a superhero team with the Hulk.
However, that same “Every issue the status quo changes” deal showed up in the Avengers, as well, as a shapeshifting villain tricks the Avengers into turning on the Hulk in Avengers #2, and he quits the team, realizing what his teammates really think about him. This leads to a team-up with Namor in Avengers #3 (by Kirby, Lee and Paul Reinman).
During the battle between Namor and the Hulk and the Avengers, Hulk suddenly turns back into Bruce Banner, and Banner notes that it must have been the stress of the fight that did it.
This is the first time that we had any indication that stress or anything like that factored into the Hulk’s transformations. Do note, though, that the gamma ray device was specifically used earlier in the issue, with the idea being that it just wore off too quickly, and so Banner became the Hulk. So stress wasn’t noted as a reason why Banner BECAME the Hulk, just why the Hulk returned to his Banner form.
This leads to the classic Avengers/Fantastic Four team-up in Fantastic Four #25-26 (by Kirby, Lee and George Roussos), where we see that Banner doesn’t even know WHY he is changing back and forth anymore. It just sort of HAPPENS…
Rick Jones ultimately kicks in the transformation with a gamma capsule…
The Hulk was now so popular from these appearances that he received his own series again, and that’s when some major changes took place!
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WHEN DID BRUCE BANNER FIRST TRANSFORM INTO THE HULK DUE TO ANGER?
In his debut in Tales to Astonish #59 (by Lee, Ayers and Reinman), where he is still technically a villain of Giant-Man and the Wasp, who were the stars of that series at the time, we see Banner transform into the Hulk for the first time when his blood pressure spikes…
This is BASICALLY the answer, as obviously, when you get really angry, your blood pressure spikes, so this is pretty much where it all went down, but let’s try to narrow things down even further.
In the following issue, the Hulk gets his own official feature in the series, and Steve Ditko, Lee and Roussos try to pin down how the transformations work. We see that it is all about blood pressure, including the fact that when the HULK’S blood pressure gets too high, he switches back to Banner…
That obviously didn’t make any sense, and was soon dropped, first suggested in #67, but officially in #68 (inks by Frank Giacoia)…
The next year or so is filled with a lot of changes for the Hulk, where the Leader messes with his body chemistry, and we get smart Hulk for a while, and then just plain ol’ Hulk for a number of issues until Banner returns in Tales to Astonish #80 (by Kirby, Lee and Bill Everett). In the following issue, we see Banner transform out of rage for the first time and that became the standard for years to follow…
I’m pretty sure SOMEone sent this in as a question, but I have no record of it. Remember, folks, you need to e-mail me to make sure I have a record of your question if you want credit! If anyone wants to know about an interesting comic book first, just drop me a line at [email protected]!
