Hulk

"That's my secret Cap, I'm always angry."

- Bruce Banner

Dr. Robert Bruce Banner is a renowned scientist in the fields of, , and Gamma Radiation. However, after a Gamma Radiation experiment went awry, the mild-mannered scientist found himself plagued with a peculiar condition. When angered or provoked, he would transform into the rage fueled and nearly mindless, green-skinned monster known as the Hulk.

Now, fearful of the damage that the Hulk could inflict, Dr. Banner chooses to live a discreet life in remote parts of the world, working to cure the sick and help the poor while trying to elude those who would take advantage of his ability to change into the enormous, green menace.

When a mounting threat calls for Banner's specialized scientific expertise, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury recruits him, knowing full well that the incredible strength of Banner's alter ego, the Hulk, would be an additional asset to the Avengers. After the Avengers split up, he became good friends with Tony Stark and was also given the freedom to live in the world without being hunted down.

Early Life
Robert Bruce Banner was born on Thursday, December 18, 1969. As he grew up, he started going by his middle name. Bruce met Betty Ross while in college where they both fell in love. They soon graduated and moved on to work together at Culver University as instructors. Bruce later meets Erik Selvig, another one of the university's instructors.

Gamma Accident
Bruce and Betty Ross are recruited by the US Army to work on a top-secret research project under the guise of researching radiation resistance. However, the project's true intention was to duplicate the results of Project Rebirth by making Super Soldiers using a combination of Bio-engineering and Gamma Radiation. The project was run under the watch of General Thaddeus Ross, who is the father of Bruce's then girlfriend, Betty.

Eventually, Banner became so confident in his work that, in order to prove his work's worth, he decided to test it upon himself. However, the combination of what was really a replication of the Super Soldier Serum and high doses of Gamma Radiation (presumably an above lethal amount) caused Bruce to undergo a violent transformation. The affects of the procedure caused Bruce Banner to develop the alter ego, the Hulk, temporarily transforming him into a giant, green-skinned, muscle-bound titan with incredible strength, but who posed very little intelligence and was driven by fits of extreme rage, however, his transformations were temporary.

An enraged, nearly mindless Hulk destroys the lab, hospitalizing his lover Betty, and crushing General Ross' arm. Bruce tried to visit Betty while she was in the hospital, but her father made him leave and told him that when he leaves, the United States Armed Forces will come after him. Now a fugitive from the United States Army, and Betty's father, General Thaddeus Ross, Banner goes on the run.

Meeting Nick Fury
"No, I don't think your gonna want to be doing that. At least I don't think the man I just met-the man inside you-wants to do that. He seemed like a decent enough guy who wouldn't want to hurt these people."

- Nick Fury to the Hulk

While Bruce is on the run, he goes into a bar, not knowing he is being followed by Nick Fury, who was trying to find Bruce and learn what General Thaddeus Ross' "Super-Soldier Program" did to him. He tried to earn Bruce's trust by buying him a beer but he refused, saying he is "sort of a mean drunk."

Fury continues to try to earn his trust, until he eventually tries to test his abilities by making two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, appear to be dating and one is cheating on the other with Bruce which makes Bruce confused about the situation. The other starts to fight Bruce, but Fury tries to act like he's going to help him, but Peterson punches him in the face.

This turns Bruce into the Hulk and he goes on a rampage. Fury and everyone else in the bar is surprised by his transformation. Fury tries to calm him down, but Hulk yells at him causing nearly all the glass in the room to shatter. Fury doesn't move at all. Hulk then runs out through the wall.

Two days later, Fury calls a meeting for S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, including Phil Coulson. He tells them that the Hulk is only a secondary threat.

Failed Suicide Attempt
"The cell was just in case-" "In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I know! I tried! I got low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show. You put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

- Bruce Banner to the other Avengers and Nick Fury

Seeing no end to his run from Ross, Banner heads up to Greenland to shoot himself. He shoots himself in the mouth but transformed into the Hulk, who spat out the bullet.

Brazil
Banner eventually settles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, working in a soft drink bottling factory while attempting to find a cure for his condition with the help of an Internet friend, "Mr. Blue". He also studies martial arts and meditative breathing techniques with a Brazilian expert to help control his emotions and heart rate, and has not suffered a transformation for five months.

After Banner suffers a cut, his blood drips into a soda bottle where it is eventually drank by an ill-fated consumer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. General Ross uses this incident to discovers Banner's location, and sends a team to capture him, led by Russian-born British special operations expert Emil Blonsky. Following a ferocious battle in the soft drink bottling plant where he transforms into the Hulk, Banner escapes Blonsky, and ends up in Guatemala.

Going Back Home
Banner travels to the United States, where he sees that a now-recovered Betty is working at Culver University again and is dating psychiatrist Leonard Samson. He also sees his old friend Stanley, a pizzeria owner, who gives him a job as a delivery boy. Banner uses this job to sneak past a security guard to continue his research. After Betty visits the pizzeria and sees Bruce, she later reunites with him and gives him the missing pieces of their research.

Battle at Culver University
Emil Blonsky reports to General Thaddeus Ross that Banner evaded them in Brazil due to the appearance of a large green monster. Ross explains that the monster is Banner, and that he was created accidentally during an experiment in radiation-resistance that was inspired by World War II era military bio-force enhancement research (or "Super-Soldiers", as Blonsky puts it). Blonsky, seeking both revenge and power, volunteers as a test subject in order to capture Banner. He receives a small dose of the mothballed original Super Soldier Serum, created by Dr. Reinstein for Weapon Plus. He leads an assault on Banner at Culver University, during which Betty Ross is knocked unconscious. Despite Blonsky's increased strength, speed and agility, the Hulk crushes most of the bones in Blonsky's body. The Hulk saves Betty from an explosion and escapes with her to the Smoky Mountain National Forest.

Meeting Mr. Blue
"You should know that there is a flip side to this too. If we miss on the low side, if we induce me and it fails, this will be very dangerous for you." "Ha-ha-ha. Look, I've always been more curious then cautious and that's served me pretty well, so are we gonna do this?"

- Bruce Banner and Samuel Sterns

Banner and Betty Ross then travel to Grayburn College in New York City, where they meet "Mr. Blue", Samuel Sterns. Accompanying Sterns to his lab, Banner and Betty learn that Sterns has developed a possible antidote that may cure Banner's condition, or merely reverse each individual transformation, while an overdose could kill him. Despite the risks, Banner agrees to test Sterns' antidote and is restrained and transfused with the cure mid transformation, after being electrically induced into transforming, successfully returning him to normal. Exhilarated by the success of the antidote, Sterns reveals that he has synthesized Banner's blood sample into a large supply with the intention of using it to enhance the human condition to the next evolutionary level. Appalled by what Sterns had done and fearful of the Hulk's power falling into the wrong hands, Banner attempts to convince Sterns to immediately destroy the blood supply but is shot by a tranquilizer from one of General Thaddeus Ross' snipers.

Duel of Harlem
"What are you saying? You think you can control it?" "No no no, not con-not control it, but, I don't know, maybe aim it."

- Betty Ross and Bruce Banner

As both Banner and Betty Ross are taken into custody, a freshly healed Emil Blonsky, seeking the Hulk's power, demands Samuel Sterns subject him to a transfusion of Banner's synthetic blood. Sterns warns that the combination of the Super Soldier Serum and the Gamma Radiation in the blood would be an unpredictable combination that could turn him into an "Abomination". Blonsky is less than concerned about this, and Sterns promptly administers the transfusion. As Blonsky mutates into the monstrous Abomination, he knocks Sterns aside and an irradiated sample of Banner's blood-derivative drips into an open wound on Sterns's temple, causing his cranium to mutate and expand.

In an attempt to draw the Hulk out, the Abomination goes on a rampage through Harlem. Banner, realizing that he is the only one who can stop the Abomination, convinces General Thaddeus Ross to release him. He jumps from Ross' helicopter as it hovers over the city, hoping the fall will stimulate his adrenal glands into triggering a transformation. Banner's plan succeeds and after a brutal battle the Hulk manages to defeat the Abomination by strangling him with a huge chain, though he releases his grip after a plea from Betty. The Abomination collapses, and the Hulk flees the scene with the Army in hot pursuit.

Gaining Control of the Hulk
Thirty-one days after his fight with Abomination, Banner arrives at Betty Ross's cabin in Bella Coola, British Columbia. He leaves Betty a note along with a necklace that he reclaimed after she had to sell it. Now more focused on gaining control over his transformations into the Hulk, and the Hulk itself, Bruce enters a meditative stance. His eyes turn green as he pushes his heart rate higher and a grin appears on his face, showing that he had embraced his other half and gained at least some partial control over the Hulk.

Moving Countries
At some point, Banner crossed the border from Pakistan into India. An incident involving some local mercenary bandits forced him into transforming into the Hulk and protecting local residents from the attempted terrorist attack.

Initiation
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." "Thanks."

- Iron Man and Bruce Banner

Banner is working as a doctor in Kolkata, India having not transformed for over a year. He is tricked into contact with Natasha Romanoff by a little girl and is brought into the Avengers Initiative and asked to find the Tesseract.

Attack on the Helicarrier
"Target acquired. Target engaged. Target angry, target angry!"

- A pilot trying to stop Hulk's rampage After meeting and befriending members of the team on the Helicarrier, Banner and Tony Stark begin research on the recently captured Loki's Scepter. When the team begins to spark unnecessary arguments, the brainwashed Hawkeye leads a team of mind-controlled soldiers into the ship and explodes one of the engines, causing Banner and Black Widow to fall into the weapons cache room. Banner transforms unwillingly despite Romanoff's efforts to calm him down and ends up falling off the Helicarrier after causing much destruction and even throwing down with Thor. He eventually transforms back to Banner to find himself having been watched falling by a man. The man gives Banner some new clothes and a motorcycle.

Battle of New York
"That's my secret Cap, I'm always angry."

- Bruce Banner

Banner returns to fight in the battle of New York and finally reveals his secret of keeping calm: he is always angry. Banner transforms into Hulk and takes out a Leviathan with one punch then aids the Avengers in the battle. After assisting Thor, Hulk enters the Stark Tower and beats Loki into submission. The World Security Council eventually send a missile to destroy Manhattan. Stark flies the missile to the Chitauri's Wormhole, though his suit shuts down in the progress. Hulk catches Stark and screams in his face, waking him up.

Later, all of the Avengers silently eat at the Shawarma Palace, but are interrupted by War Machine, who arrived too late to aid in the battle. After Loki is sent back to Asgard with Thor and the Tesseract, Banner and Stark drive away in one of Stark's sports cars and then the Avengers go their separate ways.

Freedom
After fighting in the Battle of New York, Banner was able to show that he can keep the Hulk under control. Nick Fury made it so that Banner can move around in the world without being afraid of being arrested or kidnapped.

A Therapy Session
"You with me?" "I was. Yeah. Mmhm. Where were we at, um." "You're actively napping?" "I was-I-I drifted." "Where did I lose you?" "Elevator in Switzerland."

- Tony Stark and Bruce Banner Some time after his battle against Aldrich Killian, Tony Stark came to Dr. Banner to talk about his traumas. But Banner fell asleep near the beginning of the session, so Tony told Bruce more stories about his life, to which Bruce quickly fell asleep to.

Targeted by HYDRA
Bruce Banner was mentioned by Jasper Sitwell as one of the numerous individuals who posed a threat for HYDRA's plan, as concluded by Zola's algorithm for Project Insight.

The Genius of Banner
When Nick Fury was discovered alive after a HYDRA assassination attempt, he explained that he used Tetrodotoxine B, an anti-stress serum developed by Bruce Banner to slow his heart to a beat per minute to fake his death.

In order to defeat Blackout, Leo Fitz modified the stage lights of the Portland Symphony Orchestra to emit concentrated beams of light, based on a design by Bruce Banner.

Personality Traits
After the incident at Culver University, Banner became obsessed with finding a cure for his mutation. He is afraid of hurting someone unintentionally, so he tries not to get close to something or someone that leaves him stressed. He supplemented his scientific pursuit by learning meditation and breathing techniques, gaining a greater control over the transformations. When he transforms, his personality regresses to atvmore child-like state and he has little recollection of events after he returns to his normal human form.

In his earliest transformations, Banner appeared as a savage with no real ability to distinguish friend from foe. Because of this, he was responsible for the deaths of two scientists, an army officer, an police officer from Idaho and two Canadian hunters when he was a fugitive. The Hulk gradually attained a better reasoning capacity over time, becoming able to show affection and demonstrating a capacity to work collaboratively with others. Despite the savage state, The Hulk has some degree of memory. This was proven when after his fight against Thor, he still held a grudge long enough to punch him after they worked together.

However, Banner has been shown that out of all the Avengers, he is the one they respect but fear the most. Even Romanoff, who always is calm in every situation, fears him as shown twice when she pull a gun on him in the hut when he appeared to lose his cool but in truth to see if she was truly alone or not and on the Helicarrier when they were blasted out of the lab and he transformed and attack her, showing terror in her face, very rarely does that happen with her.

Powers and Abilities
Due to a combination of an similar version of the Super Soldier Serum and exposure to high levels of gamma radiation, Bruce Banner is a "mixed result" of what Rogers is. As Bruce Banner, he has no visible powers. But when his heart beat increases to high levels or he loses control of his emotions, he transforms into the monstrous Hulk, a green-skinned giant. The Hulk's physical body attributes him great strength and power, which is fueled by his rage, meaning the madder he gets the stronger he gets. The Hulk is one of the most powerful beings on the planet since his powers increase with his rage. He can easily match beings like Thor and the Abomination.

Metamorphosis: Banner transforms into the Hulk as a result of the chemical catalyst of adrenaline and gamma radiation. When Bruce gets angry or excited enough to increase his heart rate to high levels, he transforms into a powerfully muscled and green version of himself, generally referred to as the Hulk. According to Dr. Sterns, the "gamma pulse" comes from the amygdala, and the enhanced cells absorb the gamma energy temporarily, and then it abates when Banner gets stressed, resulting in a chemical reaction that produces a myostatin primer. When the Hulk transforms back into Banner, the excess muscle mass and energy is dissipated. The total time of transformation falls anywhere between seconds to several minutes, depending on the initial adrenaline surge, which will be determined by the original stimulus. Initially, he was unable to control the transformations, but through training and practice has managed to attain some level of control.


 * Banner was unable to control the transformations, but through training and practice had managed to attain some level of control of his transformed form. Banner's consciousness is buried within the Hulk's, and can influence the Hulk's behavior only to a very limited extent such as when he changed into the Hulk to fight the Abomination where he managed to possess some human traits when asked by Betty Ross not to kill his enemy. Hulk also prevented an explosion from killing Betty and carried her to safety.


 * After a year of training to control the Hulk, Banner learned that if he always remains angry in a controlled state then he can easily change into the Hulk at will. This type of transformation allows the Hulk to be much smarter and less enraged in battle.


 * However, if Bruce is sent into a state of stress then he can still lose control and transform against his will despite trying to control it. This Hulk seems to revert back to a savage enraged state where he would attack anyone being friend or foe.

Bruce Banner

 * Genius level intellect: In his Bruce Banner persona, Banner possesses a genius level intellect, especially when it comes to Gamma energy and radiation. Bruce Banner is a gifted scientist with particular expertise in nuclear physics and biochemistry, famous for being one of the foremost geniuses of his generation. He is a highly rated expert in gamma radiation and according to Tony Stark his work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. Agent Coulson also compares him to Stephen Hawking.


 * Average stamina: Banner also has quite a bit of stamina, having outrun Emil Blonsky and his team in Brazil.


 * Average martial artist: He learned Aikido and meditative breathing basic techniques, while in Brazil, with a martial arts expert.

Hulk

 * Superhuman Strength: The Hulk´s primary power is his superhuman strength, enabling him to do feats like split a car in two with just two punches, he stopped an Humvee in its track and picked it up and slammed into a tree a couple of times, he also took the entire engine of the same Humvee and threw it into another Humvee, making it explode, throw Emil Blonsky more than 40 feet away with just one kick, even though the latter has been given great resistance, and throwing a forklift truck in the air very easily. He can throw normal humans around like ragdolls. In the form of the Hulk, Banner possesses immense physical strength, almost unparalleled except to a few. As the Hulk he was able to rip steel as it was made of paper and was able to throw heavy objects with tremendous force. His strength is only rivaled by the Abomination. In times of stress the Hulk's adrenaline level escalates, causing a corresponding escalation in strength. This is not accompanied by an additional gain in mass, but does appear to promote increased levels of energy efficiency. To date the Hulk has never apparently been provoked into demonstrating a maximum output of strength, hence his upper limit could very well be limitless. However, if there is a limit, it is well in excess of 100 tons. This is also displayed when seeing Betty in danger in the damaged helicopter, he outmuscled the Abomination to free himself. By raising his fists and arms and striking the ground (accompany by one of his classic and popular lines "Hulk Smash"), he can create tremors of incredible force that stun the Abomination. He was also able to go toe to toe against Thor with and without Mjølnir, demonstrating hitting him hard enough to make the thunder god's nose bleed. Moreover, he could defeat easily and individually the God of Mischief Loki by crushing him to the ground respectively. Another great demonstration was when he took down and killed a leviathan with one single massive punch. Most important of all, he tore through scores of Chitauri soldiers with ease.
 * Superhuman Leaps: The Hulk's great strength also extends into the highly developed muscles of his legs which allows him to leap great distances. When he transformed into the Hulk in the bottle factory in Rio, Banner escaped Blonsky and Ross to Guatemala, making it there by morning, making he traveled at least 1500 to 1600 miles in over 7 to 10 hours after the attack on him. In addition, the Hulk also shows incredible precision with his ability to aim his jumps and landings. He could reach the top of Stark Tower from ground level, in a single leap. Also, he was able to catch Stark in mid-fall after he came back through the portal and leap off a building, skirt the top off a car onto the ground with ease.
 * Weaponization: The Hulk demonstrates the ability of using his strength to turning anything in the environment around him into weapons and/or armor to use. During the Battle at Culver University, he turned pieces of a metal art work into a shield to use when Blonsky attacked him with a grenade launcher, using one piece to protect him against the waves of the sonic cannons and using the same piece to destroy one of the Humvees carrying one of the sonic by throwing it and splitting in half and then talking the other piece to jump into the other Humvee and basically jump diving into it and using it to destroy an attacking Apache helicopter. Finally, during the battle with the Abomination, he split a police car in half and use it as pair of boxing gloves to beat into Blonsky and using a large chain that Blonsky was using to nearly choke him to death before being stopped by Betty Ross.
 * Thunder Clap: By clapping his hands, he was able to make a shockwave that snuffed out a fire.
 * Superhuman Durability: The Hulk is able to withstand substantial punishment; even high caliber bullets bounce off of him and the fire causes much less damage compared to a human. His bone, skin and muscles are overly dense, hard and tough and he possesses a high degree of resistance to injury, pain, and disease. Only beings with tremendous force or extremely powerful weapons can harm him. The Hulk also withstood multiple energy blasts from Chitauri weaponry, maximized cold without freezing in the Arctic Circle, and great impacts from heights of over six miles. After he tried to killed himself in the Arctic, he fell into the ocean but nonetheless, he was able to survive the tremendous pressures of the ocean's deep and then walked along the bottom of the ocean until he reached land, indicating his body has developed and evolved to a point that he can survive in even the most extreme and harshest of environments not most regular humans can survive in without specialized equipment. He was also able to withstand Thor in one-on-one combat, even when Thor used Mjølnir against him, giving him a direct swing from it and crashing into an nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. jet fighter,which all it did was just made him even angrier.
 * Superhuman Endurance: Substantially greater endurance than a normal human. His body counteracts fatigue poisons that build up in his muscles during physical activity, allowing the Hulk to run and fight for a long time. While fighting others in an enraged state, he can maintain peak output for hours on end and still continue to become even stronger as his anger escalates.
 * Superhuman Speed: Regardless of his size, Hulk's superhumanly strong legs allow him to run at speeds that are far beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. Nevertheless, this does not grant him any enhanced reflexes or agility as smaller foes exploit his size and use it to their advantage. Nonetheless, he was able to keep up with Blonsky (who himself was enhanced by Super Soldier Serum).
 * Superhuman Healing Factor: Despite his high resistance to physical harm, it is possible to cause the Hulk injury. However, the Hulk is capable of regenerating damaged or destroyed areas of his body with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. Grievous bodily harm has also proven to be a trigger for Banner's transformations, and he has recovered from otherwise fatal injuries sustained in his normal form. Banner said he tried to put a bullet through his mouth but the "other guy" merely spit it out. Hulk also has a enhanced immune system; Dr. Samuel Sterns described that a synthesized Banner's blood sample would make humans impervious to diseases. After being bombarded with Chitauri weapon fire, all he show was a bloody nose, however, sometime later, he has shown that it had completely healed from such injury.

Friends and Allies

 * Betty Ross - Lover
 * Leonard Samson - Psychotherapist and Friend
 * Stanley - Friend
 * Avengers
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Team leader
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man - Teammate, collaborator, colleague, and friend
 * Thor - Teammate
 * Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - Teammate
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye - Teammate
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. - Allies
 * Nick Fury
 * Maria Hill
 * Phil Coulson
 * Jasper Sitwell (former)
 * Erik Selvig - Ally

Video game only

 * Rick Jones - Friend

Enemies

 * Loki
 * Thaddeus Ross
 * Emil Blonsky/Abomination
 * Samuel Sterns/The Leader - Ally turned enemy
 * Chitauri
 * Ultron

Video game only

 * U-Foes
 * Vector
 * X-Ray
 * Ironclad
 * Vapor
 * Glenn Talbot

Trivia

 * An alternate opening sequence scene was shot for The Incredible Hulk, though it was eventually cut from the final draft of the movie. In the scene Bruce Banner travels to Greenland to commit suicide due to his incurable Hulk transformations. Banner shoots himself in the mouth, which only serves to trigger his transformation into the Hulk, who's appearance destroys the glacier they are on. This scene is still considered canon because it is referenced in the Avengers by Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner.
 * Additionally, within the deleted scene is a Captain America "easter egg" in the form of the silhouette of his body and shield encased in ice, though it is widely cast aside as a subtle nod anyway as it contradicts the continuity of the cinematic Universe based on his placement. This is disregarded due to the scene remaining canon through spoken account and not by what is visually present in the deleted scene.
 * There are several noticeable visual differences between the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers, despite the fact they are both in the same continuity. The Hulk in The Incredible Hulk is slightly taller than he is in The Avengers, although this cannot be collaborated because the Hulk in The Avengers was hunched over. He is more slender in The Incredible Hulk than he is in The Avengers, and has darker green skin, and in The Avengers he has a shorter hair cut. Their faces are also slightly different. Much of these differences are because Mark Ruffalo is using motion-capture to actually play the Hulk, whereas Hulk was entirely CGI in The Incredible Hulk. As well, its very likely that due to Banner's apparent weight gain (as Mark Ruffalo looks bigger than Edward Norton), the Hulk takes on a size and appearence based on Banner's physicality, so therefore, in The Incredible Hulk, he would be "skinner" and taller, as opposed to The Avengers, being shorter and stockier.
 * Hulk/Bruce Banner is one of a few characters who are played by different actors between films. The others are James Rhodes, Howard Stark, Thanos and Fandral.
 * In The Incredible Hulk, Bruce is given a mailed package with the name "David B." on it. This is a reference to the 1977 Incredible Hulk television series and films.
 * So far, every Marvel Cinematic Universe film that Bruce Banner was in, so was Tony Stark.