The Man Inside The Monster

The Hulk is usually as a simple character for people to understand. Bruce Banner gets mad, the shirt rips, the pants expand, green muscles protrude and The Hulk has arrived. The actual motive behind The Hulk's transformation is quite different than most think. Let's have a look at the history between Bruce Banner and The Hulk.

Before Bruce was a gamma-radiated scientist, he was the son of atomic physicist Dr. Brian Banner and Rebecca Banner. Bruce's father was an abusive alcoholic who hated Bruce for all the attention he got from Rebecca. The day came when the abusive went too far and Brian killed his wife, Rebecca. Brian was placed in a mental hospital while Bruce was sent to live with his aunt Susan Banner, who tried to raise Bruce with as much love and protection as she could. However, Bruce would still grow up a withdrawn, but intelligent man. Fast forward to Bruce rescuing a teenager from a nuclear test site and being infected with gamma radiation, resulting in Bruce's constant transformations into The Hulk. Or "Hulks", as it were.

What you may not know is that there have been various Hulks that Bruce has become. The usual Hulk is named "The Savage Hulk" and is commonly animalistic, naive, and easily angered. This Hulk's only wish is to be left alone, but being confronted by the U.S. government and various villains have made this Hulk hold grudges fairly easy. "Joe Fixit" is a Gray Hulk who spends his time working as a mob enforcer in Las Vegas. Unlike most Hulks, Joe has an above average intelligence, with a personality showing both cleverness and arrogance. In the recent "AXIS" event, a new Hulk form was born when The Hulk was betrayed by The Avengers. The rejection of his allies created a bloodthirsty transformation called Kluh, described as "The Hulk's Hulk". This Hulk's defeat created the most recent version of the Hulk named "Doc Green". This Hulk is as intelligent as Bruce Banner and sees his human form as an embarrassing setback. Doc Green's goal is to eliminate all other gamma radiated heroes and villains on Earth, included members of the Hulk Family.
The creation of The Hulk wasn't simply a reaction from adrenaline, anger, or radioactivity, as The Hulk's behavior and actions are a reflection of Bruce's abusive father. This psychological torment Bruce suffers from manifests into these various monsters by using his gamma radiated condition. The Hulk's behavior also changes as Bruce's personality adapts throughout his adventures. Whether Bruce is trying to remove The Hulk or control The Hulk, the fact remains that as long as Bruce suffers from his broken childhood, The Hulk will exist. I always considered The Hulk to be a representation of people's restricted anger, but upon learning the complexity of The Hulk's story, I believe The Hulk more represents people's restrain to display emotions. The idea that keeping your emotions inside only results in making a monster out of yourself. Thanks for reading!