Dr. Banner and Mr. Hulk

The first time I saw the Hulk was in his second issue (July 1962). Now I'm struck by the paranoia of the Ditko/Kirby art.

The earliest iteration of the Incredible Hulk is fascinating, perhaps even unsettling.

I was introduced to the Hulk in the second issue, and was intrigued at this double-identity character who was secretly a monster, not a hero. Even at age 8, I thought it highly unlikely that someone who had no control over his transformations could maintain a secret identity, but Marvel ran with that implausible premise for several years anyway.

Bruce Banner: Cold and arrogant, with a dangerous mind

Rereading the early issues as an adult, I kept being nagged by the idea that physicist Bruce Banner is the real monster.

Banner is introduced as the creator of the “G-bomb,” a WMD that makes the H-bomb seem trivial. A moment’s thought will tell you that this “most awesome weapon ever created by man” had the power to kill far more people than the Hulk ever could, and even end human civilization. This is clearly not an issue for Banner, whose coldness and arrogance is underlined on the first pages of the story.

I’m fairly certain that the idea of presenting Banner as the real monster here was not the conscious intention of Stan Lee or Jack Kirby. They were, after all, steeped in the cold warrior traditions of the 1950s, and would never question any American weapon. However, on an unconscious level, they were telling a different tale.

Banner’s exposure to the gamma bomb, while he’s in the process of saving the life of a teenage hot-rodder, turns him into the Hulk every evening as the sun goes down. But what if what the radiation has unleashed is the literal manifestation of Banner’s own self-loathing, of his consciously repressed knowledge that his own work is a menace to human civilization?

The fact that the “weakling” Banner is far more powerful than the Hulk is underlined in the second issue, when Earth is invaded by Toad Men. The Hulk proves fairly ineffectual against them, and even plots to use one of their spaceships to establish his own reign of terror against humanity. It is Banner who saves the day, creating an elaborately Kirbyesque “Gamma Gun” that hurls the whole invasion fleet back into space.

Banner's gamma bomb could end human civilization

Banner doesn't need the Hulk's help to repel an invading horde from outer space.