50 Fun Facts About Hulk

Which writer and artist created the Hulk in 1962?

Lee said the character grew out of his fondness for the Frankenstein monster and the idea of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

What colour was the Hulk's skin in his very first issue?

Lee thought grey was scary and ethnically neutral, but the colourist could not keep the shade consistent, so the character went green from issue two.

What kind of radiation transforms Bruce Banner into the Hulk?

He was caught in the blast of an experimental bomb while pushing a teenager to safety in a trench.

Whom did Banner save from the bomb test that turned him into the Hulk?

The teenager had wandered onto the testing field on a dare and became Banner's best friend and secret-keeper.

What official full name fixed Stan Lee's mix-up after he called the Hulk's alter ego 'Bob'?

Readers spotted the slip quickly; the full name was confirmed in a 1964 guest appearance.

According to Stan Lee, the Hulk got his name from which earlier comic character?

That character was a large green swamp monster; Lee also compared the Hulk to the golem of Jewish legend.

How many issues did the original The Incredible Hulk comic run before it was cancelled in 1963?

The character was quickly folded into the Avengers as a founding member and later shared Tales to Astonish.

The Hulk's first guest appearance outside his own book came in issue #12 of which title, in March 1963?

Months later he was a founding Avenger, though he quit almost immediately because the others distrusted him.

Which future fan favourite made his debut as an antagonist in The Incredible Hulk #180–181 in 1974?

Len Wein was writing the book with Herb Trimpe on art at the time.

Which green-skinned super-genius, introduced in Tales to Astonish, became the Hulk's nemesis?

He was introduced alongside another gamma-irradiated foe during the Tales to Astonish run.

What is the name of the Hulk's grey-skinned gangster alter ego?

Other personas include Professor Hulk, the Devil Hulk and Doc Green, a scientist in his own right.

Which writer began a 12-year Incredible Hulk run in 1987 and gave Banner dissociative identity disorder?

He killed off Betty Ross in 1998, and his disagreement with Marvel over what came next ended the run.

In the "Planet Hulk" storyline, the Hulk is exiled by the Illuminati and crash-lands on which planet?

He marries the alien queen Caiera there and returns to Earth for revenge in "World War Hulk".

What are the names of the Hulk's two sons by Queen Caiera?

One of them later turned up in the MCU, introduced to the family at a gathering in Los Angeles.

Which tyrannical future version of the Hulk rules a world where most heroes are dead?

Professor Hulk met him while working with the secretive Pantheon organisation.

Which demigod temporarily replaced the Hulk as the title character of his own comic in 2008?

After "World War Hulk" left him incapacitated, the book was retitled The Incredible Hercules.

Al Ewing and Joe Bennett's acclaimed horror-tinged 2018 series ran for 50 issues under what title?

It spun off an Immortal She-Hulk one-shot and a Gamma Flight series in 2021.

How did lawyer Jennifer Walters gain her She-Hulk powers?

Unlike her cousin she keeps her personality and intellect in green form.

In which year did She-Hulk first appear, in The Savage She-Hulk #1?

She was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema and has since served on several of Marvel's biggest teams.

Which writer-artist's Sensational She-Hulk run made her aware she was a comic book character?

His issues satirised comics themselves and tested the limits of the Comics Code.

Who played Jennifer Walters in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law?

The 2022 series was the character's live-action debut.

Which network aired The Incredible Hulk television series from 1978 to 1982?

Two TV movies in 1977 drew strong enough ratings to launch the weekly show.

Who played Dr. David Banner in the 1970s TV series?

He was producer Kenneth Johnson's first choice, and later directed two of the reunion TV movies himself.

Which bodybuilder played the Hulk in the TV series?

He was doubled by Manny Perry for some stunts because so few stuntmen could match his physique.

Which future action superstar auditioned to play the TV Hulk but was rejected for being too short?

Richard Kiel, later Jaws in the Bond films, was actually hired first before the role went elsewhere.

Why did the TV series rename Bruce Banner "David"? Producer Kenneth Johnson said it was to avoid what?

Stan Lee also recalled the network worrying that "Bruce" sounded too effeminate, a rationale the show's Hulk actor called absurd.

What was the profession of Jack McGee, who pursued the Hulk across America in the TV series?

He was modelled on Javert from Les Misérables, the novel Kenneth Johnson was reading when he took the job.

How many stages were edited together to show Bixby transforming into the TV Hulk?

They ran from Bixby unaltered, through green contact lenses and forehead prosthetics, to Ferrigno in full make-up.

How often did the actor playing the TV Hulk have to remove his painful hard contact lenses?

His full make-up took three hours to apply; Bixby's fourth-stage make-up alone took two.

What is the title of the melancholy piano theme that closes each episode of the TV series?

Composer Joe Harnell came over from The Bionic Woman, another Kenneth Johnson production.

How many episodes of the TV series were broadcast over its five seasons?

Three reunion TV movies followed on NBC between 1988 and 1990.

Which warning, spoken by Banner, did the TV series turn into a famous catchphrase?

The show pushed the character out of comic shops and into mainstream consciousness.

Who directed the 2003 film Hulk?

He also performed the motion capture and voice work for the Hulk himself.

Which Australian actor played Bruce Banner in the 2003 film?

Nick Nolte played his father and Jennifer Connelly his love interest.

Who played General Thunderbolt Ross in the 2003 film?

He accepted the role without reading the script because he wanted to work with the director.

How much did the 2003 film gross worldwide?

Reviews were mixed at the time, though it has since gained a cult following for breaking superhero-movie conventions.

Who played Bruce Banner in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk?

He also rewrote the screenplay but was not credited; David Duchovny had been a front-runner before him.

The Incredible Hulk (2008) was which film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

It followed Iron Man by a month and remains the only solo Hulk film in the franchise, partly because Universal kept distribution rights.

At the start of the 2008 film, Banner is hiding in a bottling factory in which city?

A single drop of his blood in a bottle of soda gives his location away.

Which actor plays Emil Blonsky, who becomes the Abomination, in the 2008 film?

He said he took the part to please his sons.

In which city was most of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk shot?

Additional filming took place in New York City and Brazil, and more than 700 visual-effects shots were created afterwards.

What are the Hulk's only two words of dialogue in The Avengers (2012)?

Mark Ruffalo alone recorded that line; the Hulk's roars blended several voices.

In The Avengers, Banner is working as a doctor in which city when Natasha Romanoff recruits him?

S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted him to trace the Tesseract through its gamma emissions.

In Thor: Ragnarok, the Hulk is the undefeated gladiator "Champion" of which ruler?

The film folds a heavily condensed version of the comics' Planet Hulk saga into Thor's story.

In Avengers: Endgame, Banner uses the Infinity Stones in a specially made gauntlet to do what?

By then he had learned to keep the Hulk's body with his own mind intact, the so-called Smart Hulk.

In the MCU, Banner transforms when his heart rate climbs above how many beats per minute?

Anger or mortal danger will also do it.

Which studio held solo Hulk film distribution rights after 2008, so the MCU made no more?

Universal's distribution rights reportedly reverted to Marvel in 2023; the studio still holds theme-park rights to several Marvel characters, which complicates any buy-back.

Stan Lee compared the Hulk to which figure from Jewish folklore?

Lee also cited Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and some scholars read the character as a Cold War nuclear anxiety made flesh.

Jack Kirby said drawing the Hulk was inspired by seeing a mother do what?

That burst of hysterical strength became the template for a hero whose power grows with his rage.

Bill Mantlo's 'Crossroads of Eternity' stories introduced the idea that Banner had suffered what?

Later writers Peter David and Greg Pak built on that backstory, and Mantlo left the title for Alpha Flight.